Word: clowning
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Four long essays fill most of the book, one each on the films Simon considers to be Bergman's best: The Naked Night (1953) which Simon, setting a welcome precedent, calls by its correctly translated title The Clown's Evening: Smiles of a Summer Night (1955); Winter Light (1962)) and Persona (1966). Simon's analytical and descriptive abilities, seen most often in his film reviews in The New Leader, flourish in these expansive essays, unencumbered by the disputatious color of his reviews...
...impressive failure. Its ostentatious images, with a couple of exceptions (the witch-burning, the flagellants), make better stills than film. But the concerns of the film find more coherent treatment elsewhere. The spiritual plagues are more carefully distilled in Winter Light; the worldly ones are more powerful in The Clown's Evening...
...Clown's Evening, Bergman's first masterpiece, sums up attitudes Bergman had suggested in his films of the preceding three years. During the course of a single day's action, we see the owner of an impoverished travelling circus and his mistress, the bare-back rider, each betray the other. Albert tries to return to the wife he had left long ago. Anne, partly in retaliation, has a pitiful affair with a condescending actor. Both are rejected in these attempts to escape the circus life, and, after still further torment, the day ends with the pair together again, walking...
...Yeah, I know it. They felt sorry for Boston after that clown from Waltham got whupped by that crazy colored guy from Brooklyn in the last match. Boston's gotta win somethin' tonight, ya know...
...undernourished clown's face, an indeterminately skinny body, and a sophistication that he wore with uncertainty-even in his white tie, top hat and tails. She was soft-and sunny-looking-not beautiful or exotic, but pretty in a way that suggested both sexual challenge and the sisterly virtue of the girl next door...