Set in Sweden, on a quiet island where Ingmar Bergman lived and filmed some of his work, an Englishman (Tim Roth) and his German partner (Vicky Krieps) rent a home to work on their respective screenplays for the summer. Hers is a love story, his (possibly) a horror but we don’t really know.

The landscape features strongly, and is a typically clean and clear northern European scenery with crisp-looking white box houses and a cold sea. It’s a mood piece, or tries to be, but it feels more like a relaxing holiday somewhere that gets quite chilly in the late afternoon. I’ve not seen enough Bergman to know if this film was trying to reflect his work, but if it was trying to do that, I have doubts it succeeded. Bergman Island feels safe and bland.

A question arises in the film as to whether someone can be a good artist yet a bad person (if fathering many children by different women – as Bergman did – means you’re bad). The idea isn’t explored beyond a comment or two.

While trying to work out her screenplay Krieps’ character chats to her husband, who adds little in the way of inspiration, despite being a writer/director himself. So her film starts to manifest itself into the middle of this feature, and we see a rather dull story starring Mia Wasikowska and Anders Danielsen Lie as lovers.

The more interesting top story with Tim Roth is under-explored. Bergman Island might have been more interesting had Roth’s character’s film been shown inside the film as well.

Bergman Island is soft and long, but it made me question why it was made or what the thinking behind it was. It’s difficult to give this one marks because even if it doesn’t amount to much, it isn’t a bad film.

Ailie Hunter
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