Brink of Life

Bergman shot this in a hospital and stripped away almost everything he normally used. There is no musical score, and the sound effects are kept to a minimum. What remains is three women in a maternity ward and the corridor outside it. Each of them is facing the same event from a different position: one has miscarried, one does not want the child she is carrying, one is waiting with uncomplicated hope. The film gives no comfort about which of them will be spared. Eva Dahlbeck, Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson and Barbro Hiort af Ornäs play the women. At Cannes in 1958 it took Best Director for Bergman, his third award there in as many years, and the Best Actress prize was given collectively to all four actresses rather than to one of them. Who it is for: viewers who want Bergman at his plainest, working almost like a documentarian, with the metaphysics left outside the door. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the imagery of The Seventh Seal or Persona. This is a small, bare, clinical film, and it is deliberately uncomfortable about childbirth and loss.