Word: vogler
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Peppard's fellow pilots, Jeremy Kemp and Karl Michael Vogler convincingly uphold the glory of the German officer class, rattling off performances unalloyed with conventional tin soldiery and Prussian steel. Playing a hero-collecting countess who adds Peppard and Kemp to her trophy shelf, Ursula Andress is considerably handicapped by high-cut period costumes, though she manages to slither out of them from time to time...
...usual, all of Bergman's actors perform excellently. Max von Sydow, memorable as the Knight in The Seventh Seal, is especially outstanding for his intense portrayal of Vogler, the leader of a group of entertainers who practice Mesmer's "animal magnetism" in nineteenth-century Europe...
...gradual revelation of Vogler's disgust with the world (visually depicted by the carefully-directed progression from impenetrability to utter weariness in his facial expression) occurs while a committee of cynical officials reviews the troupe's act to see whether it is suitable for the towns-folk. The enertainers--a youthful coachman, the cunning and comical manager, Tubal, Vogler's wife disguised as a man, and an old hag who claims to be a witch 200 years old--then go off on their own to adventures both comic and serious, romantic and metaphysical...
However, Bergman has chosen to emphasize the philosophical overtones in confrontations between the magician, who performs the inexplicable, and the skeptical doctor Vergerius, whose only desire is to perform an autopsy on Vogler to fathom his mysterious powers. These mystic, irrational powers constitute a threat to the Doctor's peace of mind...
...Doctor, like everyone else in the film, is presented as a three-dimensional character, who should be motivated by complex, but discernible and plausible psychological impulses. His intense resentment of Vogler's art reflefted in his sententious speeches can only be explained in symbolic terms. However, Vergerius's symbolization is not even barely convincing. He remains a curt cynic despite Bergman's attempt to transform him into a symbol of Rationalism. This injection of the Symbol into highly realistic characters has given Bergman trouble in the past--but never to such an extent...