Hour of the Wolf

Ingmar Bergman's Hour of the Wolf (1968) is a psychological study of an artist who is slowly losing his mind. However, far from settling upon this easy formula of the tortured artist, Bergman expands the idea by incorporating the artist's wife as a central figure to the trauma.

Johan Borg (Max von Sydow) and Alma Borg (Liv Ullman) have retreated to a windy island so that Johan might recover from the tortured and pathological haunting that continually plagues him. Though he seems at first able to stave off the visions and fantasies, Alma actually begins to find herself participating in these nightmarish trauma, which further leads to their traumatic event. As such, both spouses struggle to maintain a semblance of reality, even as they both find themselves being consumed by the terrifying presence of insanity.

The title, of course, refers to that time between night and dawn, and in this manner the film comes closest to acting as a traditional horror film, but here, as with all of Bergman's films, the horror is entirely internal. There may be external forces at work, but the embodiment of horror always comes from the character's subconscious, so that the lingering effects of terror come from inside Johan and Alma. Ultimately, the film is interested in examining when spouses must shed their partner for their own survival, and Bergman gives Ullman many a fantastic monologue.

Hour of the Wolf at times confuses or bewilders the viewer, but a persistent examination of the film reveals a cohesive whole that allows the effects of love and trauma to battle it out. The film works beautifully as a meditation on love, art, the pathology of the artist, and the devoted but not self-destructive spouse. Very haunting stuff.

Hour of the Wolf: 8.5/10