Kvinnodröm [Dreams] (1955)

(In French, On TV, June 2022) Oh Ingmar Bergman, you big bore you. I’ll admit that this isn’t much of a criticism – I find Bergman to be dull and exasperating most of the time anyway, with only the very best of his films being conventionally interesting. But Dreams is something else – two couples heading over from Stockholm to Gothenburg to have or almost have affairs. That’s pretty much it in terms of plot – and the low narrative density does nothing to make the film any better. The melodrama is not heightened enough to be interesting, although the film does offer a look at mid-1950s urban Sweden through the lenses of two career women. Otherwise, this is really lesser-tier Bergman for fans or those intent on completing his filmography no matter how undistinguished it’s going to get.