Hour of the Wolf

Director: Ingmar Bergman

1968 / 88min / DCP

In self-imposed exile on a secluded island off the Swedish coast—in fact Fårö, where Bergman himself made his home and shot several films, of which this is certainly the most nightmarish—a self-loathing, insomnia-plagued painter (Max von Sydow) who passes his affliction onto his pregnant wife (Liv Ullmann) is thrown into an ever-hastening tailspin of psychological disintegration after a dinner appointment at a local aristocrat’s castle, persecuted by visions that draw inspiration from painter Henry Fuseli and the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Ullmann, who was Bergman’s partner at the time of the shoot, was more than a little disturbed by this glimpse into her lover’s tormented inner life.