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Rating: One must have someone to love.
“We must have someone to love. If we don't, it's like being dead.”
Third film by Bergman. Fourth, according to some. They evidently count the last scenes of the film attributed to Half Sjoberg, “Torment” (“Hets”, 1944) shot by a novice Bergman as a replacement for the unavailable main director, kindly granted by the producer. Yet another title terribly and misleadingly translated by unscrupulous and ignorant Italian distributors, who wink at the box office and want to introduce prurient erotic nuances in the title that do not exist in the film.
“The Land of Desire” has little to do with “Ship to India” of the original title (“Skepp till Indialand”) simply translated into Italian.
The film tells the love story between the sailor Johannes (a very young Birger Malmsten, prototype of Bergman's actor, whom we'll see in many subsequent films) and Sally (a faded Gertrud Fridh, who instead we won't often see). When he declares to her that he hasn't forgotten her in the seven years he's been away, she rejects him.
He wanders on the stony beach remembering the good times gone by. Here starts a long flashback. Johannes has a father, captain of the ship, not as restrained.
In one of the taverns he frequents regularly, the man meets Sally, a dancer-singer, and makes the mistake of bringing her home, imposing the woman's presence on the family. Between Johannes and Sally, peers, love soon blossoms. The father, for this reason, attempts to kill the son during the recovery of a ship, but Johannes escapes his father's attempt, helped by other sailors. The dramatic episode convinces the young man that it is better to leave, heading to distant lands.
When the flashback ends, Johannes returns to Sally, proposes they get back together and start a new life. Sally initially resists his insistence, then accepts the young man's proposal. Finally, together they board the ship that sets sail toward a new life, amidst a flight of seagulls.
A very schematic film. With some initial scenes that constitute a short prologue; a long central flashback that forms the true body of the film; some final scenes that constitute the epilogue. Shot poorly, with few resources. But Bergman doesn't need special effects: he already clearly envisions what his future cinema will be. Few “dolly shots”, many close-ups. He sets out what are indisputably his favorite dishes in the early romantic period:
relationships between people (especially of opposite sex);
problematic relations between father and son (clear autobiographical hints);
love as the only means to guarantee coexistence among people and as a panacea for all psychological and socio-economic ills.
And then Ingmar Bergman already shows he knows how to write: and although he is not yet mature for cinema (but already well-equipped for theater) he offers us his usual ironclad screenplay.
“There was a big storm last night: sometimes it takes one to clear the air!”
“We must try to escape when we feel trapped, otherwise the wall rises and there's nothing left but to jump out the window!”
“I have the feeling that there's nothing in the world that can truly last. I only know that I love you, nothing else matters.”
These are the lines (that aren't easily forgotten) the Master has his protagonists say (and that we all wish we had said!) in the key moments of the film.
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