In the Presence of a Clown

Original title: Larmar och gör sig till

TV Movie
1997
1h 59m

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Inventor Carl Åkerblom is a rosy-cheeked 54 year-old admirer of Franz Schubert - and a patient in the psychiatric ward of Akademiska Hospital in Uppsala, after having attempted to beat to de... Read allInventor Carl Åkerblom is a rosy-cheeked 54 year-old admirer of Franz Schubert - and a patient in the psychiatric ward of Akademiska Hospital in Uppsala, after having attempted to beat to death his fiancée, Pauline Thibault. Together with another patient, Professor Osvald Vogler,... Read allInventor Carl Åkerblom is a rosy-cheeked 54 year-old admirer of Franz Schubert - and a patient in the psychiatric ward of Akademiska Hospital in Uppsala, after having attempted to beat to death his fiancée, Pauline Thibault. Together with another patient, Professor Osvald Vogler, they set up a film project: the living talkie. Before long, they set off on a frantic tou... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

1.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination

Trivia
The title is taken from Shakespeare's "Macbeth", act five scene five, when Macbeth says that "life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage". "Struts and frets" can be translated with "larmar och gör sig till".

Connections
Featured in I sällskap med en clown (1997)

User reviews7

Review

Featured review

8/10

Darkly comic, and entertaining

Still full of the old Berman themes of death, the lack of God, etc.

Sometimes the symbols are a bit too heavy handed (including the titular presence of death as a clown). And the technical side of the production feels a bit limited, since the film was made for TV, and occasionally feels like a filmed play.

But that aside, as always with Bergman, the acting is terrific, and this tale of a half-mad inventor, inventing 'talking films' (by having actors stand behind the screen and speak the dialogue the characters on the screen are mouthing) is sometimes very funny, sometimes very sad, and sometimes very insightful – especially about the power of art both to redeem and obsess.

Not one of Bergman's great works, but among the best of his more minor films.