Through a Glass Darkly is one of Ingmar Bergman’s best films. Part of a trilogy of films which also includes The Silence and Winter Light, this set of sombre films explores dark psychological themes of conflict and repression with beautiful plays of shadow and light in the black and white cinematography of Sven Nykvist. Bergman wrenches a gripping performance from his frequent collaborator, Harriet Andersson, as a schizophrenic woman exploring the dynamics of close personal relationships on an island. Bergman is masterful with this type of tight dramatic material. He uncovers a tapestry of relationships and brings a reality to the psychological states of his actress through his camera, lighting, and blocking choices. It is one of several films that solidifies Bergman as one of the best directors ever, and its dark psychological themes make it a fine companion to his masterpiece of Persona.
Through a Glass Darkly is a less subjective film than Persona. Where Persona shows us the world from the mind of its protagonist, Through a Glass Darkly shows us the world as it is shared by a group, but it centers on the troubled world of an unstable woman. Her relationships are fragmented by her psyche, and her perceptions warp how she relates to others. The island setting amplifies this tension, and the expressive use of cinematography to make Bergman’s point is simply beautiful. The collaboration of many of the players in this movie is among the best in the history of cinema. Bergman and Nykvist stands as one of the most important collaborations between a director and cinematographer in filmmaking, spanning dozens of influential films, and both Harriet Andersson and Max Von Sydow are regular collaborators who have given many great performances under Bergman’s direction.
The uniqueness of this partifular film out of his large and astounding oeuvre exists in the combination of some favorite elements. The isolated island location of an enclosed dramatic world, mirroring the psyche of the woman at the film’s center, along with the dark thematic, psychological focus, and study of a group of relationships as a dramatic interplay that resembles chamber musicians playing together are all key elements for Bergman. This film pulls off the combination to perfection.
While it doesn’t have the radical inventiveness that characterizes Persona, what it does do quite well is to perfect the dramatic potential of a woman’s own psyche fracturing both her relationships and her world. It’s as though we are seeeing the flip side of the same material that Persona offers. Through a Glass Darkly is not shown from the perspective of the woman’s own inner world of a fractured mind, but we instead see the consequence of how this mental life she experiences shapes all of the relationships around her. It is a breakdown of the ability to relate to others and of the mechanisms that unite the people in her life: her husband, father, and younger brother. They are all there with her on the island, but her mind has itself become such an island of its own that the connections rupture. This is one of Bergman’s best films.
