Crisis Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Crisis Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 30, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Criterion's Ingmar Bergman's Cinema set.

It understandably may be well nigh impossible to choose an "all time greatest filmmaker" of the 20th century, if for no other reason than that personal tastes differ, but I can't imagine any "devoted cineaste" not having Ingmar Bergman at least near the top of their own aggregation. Criterion has been feting some iconic creative forces with expansive box set compendia of films, including Essential Fellini and The Complete Films of Agnès Varda, but in terms of overall offerings and packaging extras, Ingmar Bergman's Cinema may itself be sitting atop a list of finest Blu-ray collection offerings. Some of the films in this impressive collection have in fact had prior releases by Criterion, as should probably be expected, but there are a fair number making their Blu-ray debuts. As tends to be the case with Criterion releases, technical merits are also generally excellent, and the supplements can be very appealing.

Though it's afforded a spot on Disc 2 of Criterion's Bergman collection (along with A Ship to India), Crisis was Ingmar Bergman's first feature as a director, and by many accounts, including his, he was perhaps spectacularly ill equipped to jump in the veritable deep end of filmmaking in a time in his life when his hands were pretty busy with theatrical stagings. Crisis is a rather curious melodrama, one that plays kind of like a precursor to some of Douglas Sirk's films from the 1950s in particular, but which also has at least echoes of other films which involve children being raised by quasi-foster parents who then reunite with their biological parent.

In this case in an isolated if awfully scenic looking Swedish village, a young girl named Nelly (Inga Landgré) is coming of age under the mentorship of spinster Ingeborg (Dagny Lind), who took over parenting duties when Nelly's biological mother Jenny (Marianne Löfgren) took off for greener pastures. Suffice it to say Jenny returns "home" just as Ingeborg encounters some serious health issues, with a number of interwoven relationships suffering traumas as a result.

While perhaps never at the completely hyperbolic levels of, say, The Sin of Madelon Claudet or Madame X, Crisis kind of plays like the veritable "flip side" to properties like that in that a long absent biological parent is known to the child, but it's the foster parent who is actually the more noble character. Nelly has to experience some of the tribulations of big city life and the questionable tactics of her biological mother before discovering that "there's no place like home".

While often very well performed, this is a rather heavy handed effort from Bergman that has little of the emotional subtlety that could typically inform his more mature films. There's also a somewhat pedestrian approach toward his direction, which is perhaps understandable within the context of him having to learn the ins and outs of a new medium. Still there are at least some intermittent moments of stylistic flourishes here, and kind of interestingly given Bergman's later dissection of Swedish life in any number of arenas, the small town feel of the film, while insular and gossip prone, also seems to be uncharacteristically happy, or at least what passes for happy in most Bergman films.

Crisis Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Crisis is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Criterion's kind of overwhelming insert book offers nice summations of each film's transfer attributes, and the relevant data points for this film are as follows:

Picture element: 35 mm interpositive
Scanner: Scanity
Transfer resolution: 2K
Sound element: 35 mm optical track
Picture and sound restoration: Swedish Film Institute

Additionally, a brief text card at the beginning of this presentation offers a bit of additional information in that the digital restoration was accomplished in 2016. This is a very pleasing looking presentation of a lesser known Bergman film, but whatever restoration gauntlet was undertaken has not completely eliminated some noticeable age related wear and tear, including quite a few scratches, including some relatively long-lived ones that extend for the entire length of the right side of the frame. The film is littered with optical dissolves, and that contributes to momentary frame instability as well as an understandable spike in grain and loss of clarity. In its best moments, though, this offers some really lustrous contrast and nice detail levels, and you can just begin to see some of Bergman's almost patented use of light and shadow in some of the park scenes in particular.

Crisis Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Crisis features LPCM Mono audio in the original Swedish. This soundtrack is obviously a product of its time and recording technologies, and so it has a somewhat flat dynamic range and at times fairly boxy sound. The high end in particular is rather brash and the most strident music cues can show minor but discernable distortion. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Crisis Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements associated with this film on the disc. Similarly, its disc mate A Ship to India also has no supplemental features.

Crisis Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You can feel a nascent version of Ingmar Bergman just beginning to poke through the dramatics of Crisis, and the film offers one of Bergman's calling cards, namely great performances by women in particular, but the story is kind of tawdry and too obvious. For that reason, Crisis is perhaps best appreciated as a historical curio rather than as some long lost undiscovered masterpiece. Technical merits are generally solid for those who may be considering making a purchase.