Hour of the Wolf
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Year Released: 1968
Rating: 2.0
Bergman inherits diary of mad painter's life; proceeds to document his psychotic delusions and his wife's (Liv Ullmann) efforts to help him. The humiliations, fantasies and torments are all presented in stark black and white - thanks, as always, to Sven Nykvist - but substantially, it's one of the most shallow and one-dimensional films he's ever made. British painter Francis Bacon, Vincent van Gogh and Egon Schiele were all said to be paranoid and raving, too: did their conditions aid their art? Probably. Did it cause their physical downfall? Probably. But is there anything more to say to that?
