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The Worst Film Ever

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Swedish screenwriter and theatre and film director Alf Sjöberg's seventh feature film was written by Ingmar Bergman, his first screenplay for a feature film, who was also assistant director making it his directing debut. It was shot on locations in Stockholm, Sweden where it also had it's premiere and is a Swedish production which was produced by Swedish screenwriter, actor and director Victor Sjöström (1879-1960). It tells the story about Jan-Erik Widgren, a young student who lives with his father, mother and younger brother. Shortly before his graduation he is given a remark by his teacher who is called Caligula and who likes to humiliate his students. One night on his way home after having been to the cinema with his friend and classmate Sandman, he meets a girl whom he recognizes from the local cigarette store named Bertha Olsson and walks her home to her apartment where she tells him about a man who she is afraid of who has been there and who is spying on her. He stays the night with her and leaves her promising that he'll come again.Distinctly and precisely directed by Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjöberg (1903-1980), this finely paced fictional tale draws an incisive portrayal of a struggling student's relationship with a lovely girl and a sadistic teacher during a spring in the mid-20th century in Stockholm, Sweden. While notable for it's naturalistic and mostly interior milieu depictions, fine production design by production designer Arne Äkermark, black-and-white cinematography by Swedish cinematographer Martin Bodin (1903-1976), costume design by costume designer Mimmi Törnqvist, editing by film editor Oscar Rosander and use of sound, this character-driven and dialog-driven drama triangle depicts an in-depth study of character and contains a prominent score by organist, concert pianist and the first Swedish modernist composer Hilding Rosenberg (1892-1985). This somewhat romantic, forebodingly atmospheric, at times humorous and visceral psychological thriller from the early 1940s about a lonely high school student and his classmates' experiences with an inhumane and terrorizing teacher two months before their graduation, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, subtle character development, colorful characters, mindful dialog and the memorable acting performances by Swedish actor and director Alf Kjellin (1920-1988), Swedish actor and director Stig Järrel (1910-1998), Swedish actress, screenwriter and director Mai Zetterling (1925-1994) and Swedish actor Carl Olof Magnus Winnerstrand (1875-1956). A dark, humane and dense character piece.

While I believe the film to be a bit formulaic and is at the beginning of Bergman's career (of course he's the screenwriter here), this did captivate me for the most part. It has a level of intensity, mostly built by the psychotic Latin teacher. Any of us who have been in a class run by a tyrant, can feel our flesh crawl. The classroom scenes are really provocative and unsettling. When he shows that little smile, we know he is in much greater control than we realize. The biggest weakness for me was the whole thing with the shop girl. Why wouldn't she name her tormentor? How far had this relationship gone. We aren't privy to tender moments between the lovers, so we mostly see her as an unstable drunk, living in constant fear. What was the attraction. Was it strictly carnal. Was he sorry for her or taken with her in a kind of "Human Bondage" way. Anyway, I thought their relationship needed a great more. It is uplifting in its own way, however, and deserves a viewing. It really works pretty well.

As many of you may know I like to give some points of history on some of the films I first viewed when I was younger.HETS ( aka TORMENT) was made in 1944; back then non-English speaking films were not released in the USA,until a few years passed: HETS was released in 1947, I saw it then in a small theatre on 42 nd street. I caught the 9 AM showing, the movie house was right across the street from the Employment Agency I went to first, The admission price was only $ .18 cents (price before noon)I was 19 years old & a tale of a cruel High School teacher & the torments he gave to his young students appealed to me.. (another side note) I had thought there might be a caning or spanking scene,I was disappointed then, that there were none.Now its 62 years later & I have just seen this film.As we all know it is Ingmar Bergman's first screenplay. Without a doubtit shows some of the greatness that was to come.Alf Sjoberg directed,(he was one of Swedens best theatre & film directors.I am not one of Mr.Berman's biggest fans, I do appreciate his artistry in fashioning a good screenplay & fine films.My major objection is that he seems to see only the dark side of life, there was always some sadness in his films.In HETS the movie ends sadly. To me life is not always sad & gloomy,I always seem to find some joy in living, & like my films to be the same. There are some tales that do have sadness in them, an occasional sad drama is fine.The acting is exceptionally good. Sig Jarrel is excellent as the sadistic teacher, Alf Kjellin (he was a leading player in many Englis & Hollywood films & TV up to his death about 10 yrs ago.Mai Zetterling an star of many films & Television for many years, is the tragic young heroine.one beef I do have & that is also with many films portraying students many seem to look older than they are supposed to be.One more problem.There are scenes towards the ending where they complain HOW hot it is, If so, how come a few seemed to be dressed in heavy winter clothes, One adult puts on an overcoat & scarf over his suit &^ a sweater.Aside from that this is a very good film & those that are Bergman devotees this is a must see,Ratings ***1/2 (out of 4)92 points (out of 100) IMDb 8 (out of 10)

Torment, one of the first winners of the grand jury prize at Cannes, brings forth Ingmar Bergman's first screenplay to fruition (he was only in his mid twenties when he wrote it). Although it might not be apparent, as it is an early work and it would be another dozen or so years before his true cinematic high-watermark, it is the work of an already gifted writer, in tune with what drives drama. It's sometimes hard to make moving drama out of school-life, but Bergman gets it right in that he focuses it on three characters (with the occasional stern but really good-hearted older professor character). Our protagonist, filled with enough inner conflict and aimlessness, is Vindgren played with great ambivalence, fear, and subdued passion by Alf Kjellen. He gets mixed up in a romantic affair with a woman, Bertha (Mai Zetterling, seductive even as being vulnerable) who feels abused and need some compassion from him. But, as it goes with such a practically bleak and (dare I say) naturalistic story, things are not good for either one.Bergman and the wonderful director Alf Sjoberg, get a terrifying performance (albeit if it is sometimes two-dimensional, or maybe not) by Stig Jarrell, who plays Vindgren's manipulative, "old-school" tormenting teacher, who also happens to be attached, so to speak, with Bertha. The link drives Vindregn into the kind of despair that makes the film, in the end, really work. There's also something very curious about how the script is so precise, so dark and occasionally shocking for a film from 1944 sometimes in the guise of a romantic melodrama. Bergman knows these characters, so much so that what occurs at the least stays true to what is known to be their characters. Change occurs slowly, if at all, and with the professor especially there is a great kind of push and pull that Jarrell does- at times he's like a little puppy trying to get sympathy for 'being sick', but it's all just a guise.Torment, in the end, is an excellent, near-great film about what it's like for the "rotten apple" of the bunch. Vindgren isn't a bad kid, but the pressures from schoolwork (nearing graduation no less) on top of his seeming love-affair with a woman more scrambled up by her relationship with the professor, things boil over. The last twenty minutes are at times totally heart-wrenching, reaching the depths that Bergman would plunge even further to with his masterpieces in the 60's and 70's. But Sjoberg goes just at the limit, which is a plus and minus, as he tries to make it appealing for the period (with Hidling Rosenberg's musical score quite fitting at times), with some interesting, expressionistic lighting techniques that add that fine coat onto the subject matter. That Bergman/Sjoberg also make the regular school-scenes believable, and even put in some interesting bits with supporting characters (the nerdy kid has a couple of good scenes, though the scene stealer is the teacher-to-teacher talk where the good tries his best to face down the bad), is of equal merit.In short, Torment, what first set off the little spark for Bergman's career (and likely provided Sjoberg with one of his best films) is worth looking for, if at the least for Bergman fans wanting to check out all of his films, but one may find it to be one of Bergman's most searing early works.