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"Fast" Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary "Minnesota Fats" to a high-stakes match, but he loses in a heartbreaking marathon. Now broke and without his long-time manager, Felson faces an uphill battle to regain his confidence and his game. It isn't until he hits rock bottom that he agrees to join up with ruthless and cutthroat manager Bert Gordon. Gordon agrees to take him on the road to learn the ropes. But Felson soon realizes that making it to the top could cost him his soul, and perhaps his girlfriend. Will he decide that this is too steep a price to pay in time to save himself?

This must be one of the best movies I have ever seen. Just about everything was perfect about it.

The acting was top-notch, especially George C. Scott as the Hustler hustling the hustler. His performance gave the movie a gritty underworld feel to it. Piper Laury delivers a powerhouse performance as the ill-fated drunk girlfriend of the lead player Paul Newman. He probably delivers one of his best roles to date. Just like Robert De Niro in Raging Bull he plays a character who is incapable of handling the pressures of fame and fortune, who is as George C. Scott's says "A born loser". If you look in Newman's eyes during the picture you can see the troubles he is going through. He loves the girl, but is unable to express this because he is afraid she will know the real him. He has to keep playing this Hustler-character all through his life to keep himself going. He knows nothing other than playing pool and hustling people out of their money.

The cinematography was absolutely brilliant alongside the set-dressing. The dirty, low-life feeling that must have hung around these dives called poolhalls was conveyed perfectly to the screen through brilliant lighting and art direction. The scenes in which Newman plays the different people at the pool table were shot and edited to near perfection (which has been redone again to near perfection in The Color of Money by Martin Scorsese).

The music gave a real emotional feel to this moving picture. Kenyon Hopkins deserves all the credit for this.

Absolutely a must-see for everybody who like to watch movies that are worth watching.

Kabir Khan lives a middle-class lifestyle along with his widowed mom in Delhi, India, and is the Captain of the Indian men's hockey team. He fails to score at the last tournament resulting in Pakistan winning the World Cup amidst allegations that he was more inclined toward his opponents due to his religion. Kabir and his mom move away and virtually disappear for seven years. Thereafter Kabir surfaces to be a Coach for the women's hockey team, consisting of 16 players from all over India, some of who do not communicate well. Kabir's disciplinarian style ends up offending the players, lead by the militant Bindia Naik, who decide not to participate unless he resigns amidst allegations that he is having an affair with soon to-be married Vidya Sharma, who he appoints as the new Captain. Things change after a brawl with eve-teasers at the local McDonald's, the girls accept Kabir, however, the Chair of the Indian Women Hockey Association, Tripathi, decides to pull out of the World Cup but ...

I have always loved good melodramatic underdog sports movies such as Remember the Titans,Invincible etc and now we have the bollywood version with Chak De India.

Hats off to the production team and the director for coming out with a fresh and very high quality product with excellently filmed hockey scenes that are quite realistic. I loved the wonderful cast of unknown girls who make up the Indian national women's hockey team. All of them had a part to play and they played them beautifully while executing some rigorous hockey action. They were excellent and gave wonderfully natural performances that should shame some of the already established actresses. Special mention should be given to the actress playing Bindya Naik. My favourite was the actress who played the spirited but pint sized forward from Haryana, she was really cute and funny in a tomboyish sort of way.

Shahrukh Khan was excellent in this movie..... his best performance since Swades in my opinion as he played against type. Had some wonderful moments with the girls and drew lots of cheers and laughs from the audience. If the movie succeeds then a lot of the credit has to go the King khan's crowd pulling power.

If this film succeeds and I sincerely hope it does, I think Amin (director) and Yashraj films are going to start a whole new trend a la DDLJ with a whole slew of sports related movies coming from Bollywood. I am sure cricket will be next on the agenda.

A thoroughly enjoyable ride....go watch it.

P.S. - some interesting trailers shown as well Laga Chunari Main Daag, Aaja Nachle and Goal (the Indian bend it like beckham maybe?)

Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. StarringEthan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay's Yellow to Arcade Fire's Deep Blue. BOYHOOD is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.

"Boyhood" is a critical darling, and that's putting it mildly. It has a nice, non-controversial family, and it presents every "coming of age" childhood milestone at least once. Thus, it has no focus. The technique, filming the movie over 12 years with the same actors, is an interesting experiment in film. However, its technique gets in the way of quality story telling and substance. Trying something innovative does not mean the film should get a pass and automatically get raves. 

In the film there's one bullying event, one break up, one drunken night with the guys, one of everything, like a sample platter at Golden Corral. There was even one non-white character in the film. Moreover, there is no follow up on any of the events. What is so masterful about that? The film has a series of disconnected events in a boys life that had no focus. "Growing up" is not a plot, no matter how many people are fooled into believing it is. The dialogue was contrived. It's as if every line from teenage Mason was taken from a Smith's song. As I was watching, I couldn't help thinking, "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now " At least the film didn't have an out of place tragedy like a "Girlfriend in a Coma." Yes, I wanted to stop him, for I had heard that one before. Morrissey does pathos better and with him we don't have to suffer through two hours of pretentiousness. 

Mason was too confident about his misery. His dialogue we pre-packaged, as if he was reciting a script, not living in the moment. The film features a series of moments, a few interesting ones, but mostly tiresome first world problems from an uninteresting boy and family. As a film buddy of mine stated, "the film could have been called 'The Discreet Charm of the Petite Bourgeoisie.' " However, it wasn't charming, nor funny, nor revelatory or original like the Buñuel classic. 

With the exception of Ethan Hawke, who, to be fair, had the best dialogue in the film, the acting was mediocre. Perhaps filming the movie over 12 years made it hard for the actors to stay sharp and focused on their characters, so the acting was uneven throughout. There was nothing of note in the music, other than the cliché' of highlighting the passage of time with a hit song in various scenes. It was cute at first, then it became tiresome. 

Rating: Rent it

If your sister, mother, brother or friend wants to see it, you can watch it together and not upset anyone with confusing events like actual poverty and unexpected occurrences like black people appearing on the screen. Moreover, you can talk during the film because there is no need to really pay close attention while it is playing. You won't miss anything. Otherwise, see the infinitely better "The Way Way Back" if you want to see a cute coming of age movie. 

This movie has already risen into the pantheon of overrated movies, even before it wins some undeserved Oscars. It was style over substance. If I had to describe this film in one word, other than overrated, it would be "trite."

In the midst of the Korean wilderness, a Buddhist master patiently raises a young boy to grow up in wisdom and compassion, through experience and endless exercises. Once the pupil discovers his sexual lust, he seems lost to contemplative life and follows his first love, but soon fails to adapt to the modern world, gets in jail for a crime of passion and returns to the master in search of spiritual redemption and reconciliation with karma, at a high price of physical catharsis... 

My review of this film should end with those two words. However, the 10 line minimum requirement that IMDb requires of all reviews belies the differences between my world and the world shown to me in Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring. I understand why IMDb does not want 1000's of (apparently) useless two-word reviews in their database. However, I would hope that they could make an exception for this film.

Perfect: The film is as close to perfect as a film could get. No shot is presented to us, nor a line of dialog uttered that does not make us ponder and understand at the same time. The film is also beautiful. (Like the previous reviewer, I am a fan of Asian cinema and never tire of the stunning ability of Asian directors to capture beauty on film.) This film exceeds most other Asian films I have seen in the cinematography regard. However, its beauty is surprisingly deceptive. Like most great films, it surpasses the 'cinematography' level of beauty and delves into the beauty of existence through its story. For example, the Old Monk has a different pet during each 'season' of his life. This is not discussed by the characters nor shoved in our face by the director – as would have been done if Hollywood had done this film. It is merely background we experience and come to understand. Two days after viewing the film, I am still finding new reflections in my mind that encompass the cinematography, the literal story and the underlying context of the film.

Simplicity: This film approaches a level of cinematic Haiku. While I don't recall the entire dialog with any specificity, I am sure you could print the script on one page of paper. The amazing part is that while you are watching the film, you don't notice this. Every shot moves the story along. The simplicity of life as shown by the story is reflected in the simplicity of the film. After the film ended, I had a strong urge to move away from civilization and live – or die – in peace with nature. I enjoy (and have come to be too dependent upon) modern inventions, so I will stay at home. However, this film will remain in my heart. It does exactly what good story-telling is supposed to do: Take us completely out of our world and put us in another. There is no wonder that this film was selected for so many film festivals.

Sad story of a waif, Gelsomina, who is sold by her mother to Zampano for 10,000 lire and a few kilos of food. Zampano is a traveling showman who exhibits feats of strength by breaking a chain wrapped around his chest. He performs in village squares and then passes the hat for whatever the normally small crowd is prepared to give. He teaches Gelsomina a drum roll as part of his introduction. He doesn't treat her well and when she tries to run away, he beats her. They eventually join a small traveling circus where they meet a tight-rope walker who convinces Gelsomina to question her choices.

La Strada brings two souls together to tell a story that ultimately displays humanity's finer aspects. The title gives a clue to the meaning of Fellini's masterpiece: The Way. The brute, Zampano, buys the urchin-like Gelsomina to be his traveling companion in his one-man carnival act. He is physically and emotionally cruel to her. Her longing to love and be loved, and her child-like, yet acute perception of life, and desire to live it, despite hardships, makes her the perfect complement to the selfish and despicable Zampano. Their unification affects each other. However, although Zampano's harshness adversely effects Gelsomina's life, it is her influence that will eventually, and more significantly, change him. This may sound like the familiar Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, but it is more than a love story. It is about love, but it isn't until the very end of the film that we realize it. More than love, it is about a man who gains insight and awareness because of love. It is his finale transformation that demonstrates both the frailty and vitality of the human condition. It overpoweringly suggests that the individual, no matter how depraved, is able to spiritually evolve. 

Every frame and scene in this masterpiece has purpose and meaning.

Set in Mississippi during the 1960s, Skeeter (Stone) is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends' lives -- and a Mississippi town -- upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen (Davis), Skeeter's best friend's housekeeper, is the first to open up -- to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community. Despite Skeeter's life-long friendships hanging in the balance, she and Aibileen continue their collaboration and soon more women come forward to tell their stories -- and as it turns out, they have a lot to say. Along the way, unlikely friendships are forged and a new sisterhood emerges, but not before everyone in town has a thing or two to say themselves when they become unwittingly -- and unwillingly -- caught up in the changing times.

If this film were total fiction bearing no relation to reality, it would still be worth seeing for the fine acting and production values--even if some of the young white women approached "Southern Gothic." 

But it wasn't fiction--at least, the depiction of Southern society wasn't. As I watched I kept drifting back to small-town South Carolina in the 1950s, where I grew up. It was moving and disturbing to be reminded how black people were treated then--loved and yet "kept down in their place." Our neighborhood was all middle-class and every family had a maid. There were plenty of boys my age, we visited in each other's homes, and called every maid by her first name. One even started a baseball team for the little white boys, for which her reward was a visit by the Klan.

Our maid helped my mother cook and clean. One of my parents picked her up and took her home every day--and she rode in the back seat. She ate her lunch in our kitchen--without being allowed to use our utensils. I remember her eating with her fingers. I do not remember ever seeing her use our bathrooms. I thought about that during the movie and truly cannot recall what she did, an embarrassing gap in memory.

I do remember when my father was out of work and our maid had to be cut back to three days a week. I actually cried; she was a member of our family. When talk about civil rights began in the late 1950s, my mother became annoyed at our maid for getting "uppity." And so it went. We moved to central Florida in 1961, where there were no maids.

Travel back in time with this film. It's quite real, and I highly recommend it.

In this movie, Truman is a man whose life is a fake one... The place he lives is in fact a big studio with hidden cameras everywhere, and all his friends and people around him, are actors who play their roles in the most popular TV-series in the world: The Truman Show. Truman thinks that he is an ordinary man with an ordinary life and has no idea about how he is exploited. Until one day... he finds out everything. Will he react?

Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is the most famous man in the world, and he doesn't even know it. Raised entirely 'within' a television show which comprises his entire world, Truman is an Everyman for the post-television age. Truman's world, "Seahaven", is an Eisenhower-era model of American bliss, recalling the prison-like Port Meirion and the moral certainty of Bedford Falls (Its a Wonderful Life). Surreptitiously filmed around the clock by 5000 hidden cameras, the show exists inside an enormous geodesic dome with simulated weather and even its own ocean. Through a series of production blunders Truman slowly realises that he is being controlled and that perhaps all in his world is not as it seems. His surrogate father by proxy, 'Christof' the producer/director, goes from being benevolent social scientist to evil genius as his attempts to frustrate Truman's wanderlust become more and more deadly. Will he escape?

The film raises some interesting points about our fascination with life as seen through the magnifying lens of tv, and the morality of real lives viewed as so much entertainment. But like most soaps the scenes from "The Truman Show" that appear within the movie are variously dull, mawkish and sentimental. At points the film has a problem deciding on whether it is going to be a straight escape-chase movie or a philosophical piece about morality and technology. The t.v. show's inherent blandess also lends little to the pace or our sense that there are characters worth caring about.

Carrey is good. This in itself is gratifying, and a tribute to a script that walks the tightrope of imitating bad t.v. in tandem with the metaphysical angst of Truman's unique situation. If it isn't quite the film it could have been, The Truman Show is still pretty much unique in the recent crop from our cultural overlords in Hollywood. No arthouse here, this is a watchable, big-budget think piece, with well-executed and stylish direction. Its too early to say but this film may have given some execs at NBC, ABC et al. one very bad idea...

When he loses a highly publicized virtual boxing match to ex-champ Rocky Balboa, reigning heavyweight titleholder Mason Dixon retaliates by challenging the Itallian Stallion to a nationally televised, 10-round exhibition bout. To the surprise of his son and friends, Rocky agrees to come out of retirement and face an opponent who's faster, stronger and thirty years his junior. With the odds stacked firmly against him, Rocky takes on Dixon in what will become the greatest fight in boxing history, a hard-hitting, action-packed battle of the ages. 

Sylvester Stallone completes his Rocky Epic with a stirring conclusion. I saw a special sneak preview in Detroit at a Kronk Boxing Gym benefit. Although the first 45 minutes kind of dragged, and at times the dialog made me cringe, its at least as worthy of Rocky II or the original Rocky. A lot of flashbacks, but it definitely wraps up the series a lot better than Rocky V did. It won't win best picture, or any great acting awards, but the cinematography was better than I've seen in a lot of the previous 5. As far as the big question in the blogs, does Rocky die in this one, you'll have to wait till Christmas and see for yourself. The music was great, the final scenes were great, and Paulie was great! It was also interesting to reintroduce the characters of Little Marie and Spider Rico from the first movie.

Rocky Balboa is forced to retire after having permanent damage inflicted on him in the ring by the Russian boxer Ivan Drago. Returning home after the Drago bout, Balboa discovers that the fortune that he had acquired as heavyweight champ has been stolen and lost on the stockmarket by his accountant. His boxing days over, Rocky begins to coach an up-and-coming fighter named Tommy Gunn. Rocky cannot compete, however, with the high salaraies and glittering prizes being offered to Gunn by other managers in town.

Average sequel about Rocky getting back from Russia after fighting Ivan Drago. He now finds out that he has brain damage from the fight. He also finds out that he has lost all the money. So, he moves back into his old house from 'Rocky II' with Adrian, Rocky Jr., and Paulie. Rocky meets Tommy Gunn, a young fighter, on the street and offers to help him out with some boxing. While at school, Rocky Jr. is being bullied and asks his father how to help him. 

About average sequel that I didn't expect too much from since I got a bunch of negative reviews from. Better than what most people say, 'Rocky V' had a good father-son story. John G. Avildsen returns to direct this since he directed the original. Burgess Meredith is also back for a cameo, sadly to say that he passed away a few years ago and is still missed by me after his performance in the first 'Rocky'. Overall, 'Rocky V' is worth viewing if you liked the others. If you didn't, just stick with the original.

Rocky Balboa, heavyweight champion of the world, is the trainer for Apollo Creed in an exhibition match against Ivan Drago, a "superman" boxer from the Soviet Union. When Apollo is killed in the ring by the brutal Drago, Balboa blames himself and promises to avenge his friend's death in the ring.

Rocky 4 is a decent movie with an alright storyline that definitely has some enjoyable parts,but takes a lot of bad turns throughout.The movies cast is still great but I don't feel like their hearts were really in it as much this time around and that they were just doing it for the sake of making more money.I won't spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen this movie,but the decision they make for Appollo Creed,played by Carl Weathers,was a very bad decision,it was dark and really unexpected from this film series,and was definitely the biggest mistake made in this movie.I also really did not like the character Drago,he was suppose to be intimidating competition for Rocky,but I just found him irritating.Rocky 4 certainly has it moments but fans of the previous films will definitely be disappointed.

A now retired Rocky faces a challenge from from the Soviet Union's top boxer,that soon becomes personal.

Boxer Rocky Balboa enjoys the wealth he has as world-champion. He only fights against opponents "hand-picked" by his manager Mickey Goldmill. Then he is challenged by the arrogant Clubber Lang. Rocky accepts the challenge to prove once more that there is only one world-champion. But Lang wins and becomes the new champion. Nobody believes in Rocky anymore, except for one man: former world-champion Apollo Creed. As Creed tries to stimulate his fighting spirit and get Rocky back in top-form, it is now up to Rocky to get his edge back. Will he win ?

This is a great 3rd Installment, Mr. T makes a great bad guy, and Stallone gets to show off his muscles a 3rd time. Some people choose not to appreciate the DVD collection, because the first is the only one remixed into 5.1 sound, but it offers you WideScreen, and 5 of the best movies to hit the screen. Francis Ford Coppola's sister, Talia Shire returns in the role she has in all 5, and Carl Weathers, Apollo, is back. The good thing about the Rocky films is none of them are "copies" of the other, each one has it's own qualities, nothing is "rehashed".

Rocky Balboa is a little-known boxer who was given a shot at the heavyweight champ, Apollo Creed. Having done much better than anyone expected, Creed demands a rematch, embarrassed by his inability to dominate the "amateur" Balboa.

Imperfect, but highly entertaining sequel picks up right where the original left off. Having suffered heavy brain damage as a result of his brutal battle with the hard-hitting champion, Balboa decides to call it quits and dedicate his life to his newfound love Adrian (Shire). However the intense media hype, public mockery from the champion Creed, and a discovery that "normal" life isn't all that it's cracked up to be draw him back into the ring for a highly publicized rematch. You have to be patient this time around as the film is slow going at first, and lacks the emotional punch of the original, but an exciting, edge of your seat climax makes it worth the wait. A good follow-up considering the impact of its predecessor. **½

Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying to make the big time, working as a debt collector for a pittance. When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to set up an exhibition match between Creed and a struggling boxer, touting the fight as a chance for a "nobody" to become a "somebody". The match is supposed to be easily won by Creed, but someone forgot to tell Rocky, who sees this as his only shot at the big time. 

The first common misconception about Rocky, and something that's almost inevitable when you put a half-naked Stallone with boxing gloves on the cover is that it's a fighting movie. In that time it would fall into a category including Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jackie Chan. Now don't get me wrong, I like both of these actors a lot, they're among my favorites, but Rocky is not just another cheap movie about a man who like to win a fight or tournament because he deserves it (Bloodsport, Quest). Instead of a fighting movie we should say that it is a movie about a fighter. That changes the context altogether, it means that sure he has fighting on his mind but has other personal issues that are demonstrated throughout the movie. In fact in the whole movie there are two fight scenes (at the beginning and at the end) which together add up to about 15 minutes.

The rest is the portrayal of a man who has never had it easy in his life but nonetheless keeps his heart. That is to say that he keeps his moral and ethics, just keeps on trying no matter the hardships. A MAN WITH A DREAM... an un-realizable dream to be frank. But in the end, a lot, even most, of our dreams are un-realizable... but we try anyway. The difference here is that this man is given a shot at his dream, a "one-in-a-million shot". It's something that we all would like so we can relate and CAN'T HELP but cheer for him at the end of the movie.

The largest portion, in minutes, of the movie is actually devoted to the love theme between Rocky and Adrien. So that should maybe make this a "love story" movie instead of fighting movie. Adrien is another of his dreams, slightly more attainable which is why he devotes more of his time everyday to trying to attain it (her). She won't open up to anybody but in the end, with a certain amount of tenacity on the part of Stallone, she can't help but fall for the heart deep inside the rough exterior.

Another theme here is that of fraternity between Rocky and Mickey, his trainer/manager. In fact THE MOST TOUCHING SCENE in the whole movie in my opinion is one of about 15 to 20 seconds long and without any words. It's when Mickey goes to see Rocky at his home the first time to see if he can manage him. Rocky gets angry with him but keeps it to himself until Mickey leaves, at which point Rocky takes it out on the door jam and yells at Mickey who can still hear him outside. Rocky's life is being turned upside down by this whole "fighting Creed" business and although it is his dream, he doesn't know how to deal with it and is scared to get mangled in the ring, knowing he's not of the same caliber as the champ. The touching scene is when he realizes that he has yelled at an old man. His heart takes him out into the street after Mickey, he joins him and shakes his hand. The beginning of an enduring friendship which will ultimately lead to tears in a later film (Rocky 3 and 5).

This movie simply seeps with "classic", and by the end you know you have just seen a movie of courage, of the portrayal of "the indominable spirit of man" (Rocky 3). No matter the difficulties, Rocky's heart takes him through it all. It doesn't fit the mold of today's classics (like Private Ryan) with melodrama and grandiose scenery, just a simple movie, with simple qualities but very large meaning intricately woven into the fabric of the film itself by Stallone and the director John G. Avildson, with the musical overtones of Bill Conti. A classic from a different age, and the mold of a lot of movies to follow.

It's the early twentieth century Sweden. Adolescent siblings Alexander and Fanny Ekdahl lead a relatively joyous and exuberant life with their well-off extended paternal family, led by the family matriarch, their grandmother, Helena Ekdahl. The openness of the family culture is exemplified by Helena's now deceased husband ending up becoming best friends with one of her lovers, a Jewish puppet maker named Isak Jacobi, and their Uncle Gustav Adolf's open liaison with one of the family maids, Maj, who everyone in the family adores, even Gustav Adolf's wife, Alma. Between the siblings, Alexander in particular has inherited the family's love of storytelling, his parents and his grandmother who are actors and who manage their own theater. Things change for Alexander and Fanny when their father, Oscar, dies shortly after Christmas 1907. Although she truly does believe she loves him, the children's mother, Emilie, decides to marry Bishop Edvard Vergérus, who she first met as the officiate at ...

Perhaps the most impressive feature of this wonderful film is the humility with which its creator presents it to the world, as if it were no grander than the old-fashioned Nativity-play shown in the early scenes at the Theatre.

At the end of this experience - to term it with any mere technical tag, like 'movie', would be inadequate - Bergman's profoundly grown-up disillusionment has transformed into the pure spirituality of abnegation and acceptance. His intellectual pilgrimage, through possibly the greatest career in films, finds the director arriving back where he began, with the great simplicities of life. But there is a difference with his return, which is that his prodigality over the years has burnt the rage out of him, and finally allowed him to 'enjoy what may be enjoyed' (as one of the Ekdahls says), without further fretting over the puzzle of human existence. From all this human folly (he clearly feels) comes the only wisdom, which is - simply

It is, indeed, a film like no other for allowing the pieces of experience to settle into their appointed places. There is a beautiful quality of selfless resignation, in this last of his works for cinema, which finally and forever excels the sadistic disciplines of The Bishop.

This perverted creature confesses, to the new wife whom he has lost, how it is impossible to 'tear off the mask' as it is 'burned into my face': He is become an authoritarian '... a rite, a law, a custom - not a man'. [Shelley] Having put the notional love of God before that of humankind, there is nowhere for his personality to be re-enacted in the bosom of any kindly recollections that will survive him. Except in that of Alexander/Bergman, where his two, each-in-their-own-way terrifying, fathers, both the White and the Black opposites of an imagination flickering with the director's haunted vision, will project forever onto his Cinematic arena of stark absolutes the inner strife where each of us is locked away, struggling to endure the turmoil of these eternally irreconcilable truths.

The White Knight and The Black Bishop: These are phantom moves in our great game with Death, and pieces that will be returned into play for as long as humanity continues. How like Chess Life is: Just a game we play, with arbitrary rules, and yet whose progress is of supreme and abiding concern to each and every one of us.

This great work is a monument to play, in all its senses, not least the play of light and the play of ideas, both equally insubstantial and yet the essence of reality, eloquent as the silence of a great, roofless Cathedral. Out of the Ruin of Faith, Bergman has wrought a Peace that passeth understanding. And it is in this ultimate by-passing of the relentless structures of intellect that Bergman finally achieves the resolution of his productive neuroses, in a truly magical film whose every phase is as inevitable as breathing, or the changeable and unimpeded weather.

As the grandmother reflects. at last, 'I don't want to put Life together anymore. I just leave it broken. Strangely, it seems better that way.'

Death, in the end, is not a calamity, but the choice of all who have truly known Life. In other words, to choose Life is to accept its Dark partner, Death. And to accept each as part of the family group, even though they seem complete misfits there.

The old lady, with Strindberg's Dream-play in her lap, knows at last that the whole history of her family is only a personal reverie. And yet how much more real it seems than her son Carl's immature and somewhat absurd, angst-ridden railings against 'cruel Fate'!

Had he only accepted his patient wife's gently sympathetic injunction to 'Never mind' the Professor would have been both wiser and happier, enduring with patient fortitude the oceanic inconsequentialities of life's real Mystery, and attending far less to the trivial pseudo-mysteries of his solipsistic men's club. All his morbid rationalising is precisely as much use in real life as the usual state of alcoholic befuddlement which is the only serious pursuit of this club. 

Reason as befuddlement; The sleep of reason as deliverance. With saint-like humility, Bergman gives us back our ordinary human life, as he surrenders his exceptional life in films. But he knows that the ghost of this life will always be with us. His anguished worldliness will haunt us - as the Ghost of Hamlet's father must haunt Alexander - forever.