Sawdust and Tinsel AKA The Naked Night
(Gycklarnas afton)

Screening on Film

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
With Harriet Andersson, Ake Grönberg.
Sweden, 1953, 35mm, black & white, 92 min.
Swedish with English subtitles.

Set in an unsuccessful traveling circus in turn-of-the-century Sweden, this film tells of the humiliation suffered by the aging proprietor at the hands of his young mistress and her actor lover. With striking black-and-white photography and unparalleled editing of both sound and visuals, Bergman has constructed a powerful visual exercise in physical and spiritual degradation.