Bergman’s dream logic is fraught between the conflicts of base human desire and the artistic impulse. More than most, his films reveal the blurred lines between past and present, superstitions and the supernatural and above all the powers and impotence love and art posses when faced with death.
Bergman, Ozu, Antonioni, Altman - all came of age in the shadow of the bomb and the camps and a world at the abyss of darkness. You can feel their discomfort with modernity and morality in a world characterized by god’s purported silence in the face of evil.
After the Rehearsal succeeds in showing us the pathos of a man who understands the sublime.
Is Bergman actually underrated?