The Last Gasp

A very interesting play by Bergman, filmed for TV with no effort to hide it's theatrical origins.

The play itself is preceded by a fascinating, concise 10 minute documentary look at "The Golden Age" of Swedish Cinema (1916-1920), which sets up the history of the characters we're about to watch. Georg af Klerker made 26 films between 1916 and 1918, but then was bought out by the uber-powerful producer Charles Magnusson. Magnusson never put Klerker back to work, effectively ending his career, and consigning his place in Swedish cinema history to a footnote.

The once act, 50 minute play (about an incident that apparently never really took place) is a two hander as Klercker comes to plead with Magnusson to let him have his career back. Klercker (a terrific performance by Bjorn Granath) talks nearly non-stop, trying every way he can to wheedle or force himself back into Magnusson's favor, while Magnusson gives away very little of what he thinks about Klerker's sad, often pathetic, occasionally frightening drunken monologue.

A moving mediation on the all too common heartbreak of a creative person being pushed aside by history, bad luck and the powerful. It's sad this strong late entry by Bergman is almost impossible to see.