Ingmar Bergman wrote the screenplay for this film at the age of 26, and it was his first major film. In it he shows his personal disdain for traditional schooling, which invariably included learning by rote, killing all creativity, and taught at times by sadistic teachers. In the film a Latin teacher gets the nickname 'Caligula' for his cruelty, and if his interrogations of the students remind you of a Nazi SS officer, that's no accident; director Alf Sjöberg apparently modeled him after Himmler. And yet, one of the young students says 'I don't believe a person can be all evil', and in that line we get a hint of Bergman's plumbing the depths of the human soul which would take place over the following decades.
Things get complicated when the student (Alf Kjellin) begins seeing a young tobacco shop clerk (Mai Zetterling), only to find she is being tormented by a creepy older man whose identity she won't divulge. The film has elements of the frustrated teenage rebel, as Kjellin argues with his parents who just don't understand, as well as elements of a film noir drama, as things get scary for Zetterling. Director Sjöberg makes use of a lot of high camera angles, as well as plays with light and shadow in some interesting ways, but as the film plays out, it begins to feel a little heavy-handed. Its message is one of triumphing over cruelty in the early part of one's life, even if events at the time appear as though they might crush one's soul or destroy one's life, but it doesn't quite have enough finesse to be very good or excellent. Still, not bad, and worth watching if you're a Bergman fan.
Things get complicated when the student (Alf Kjellin) begins seeing a young tobacco shop clerk (Mai Zetterling), only to find she is being tormented by a creepy older man whose identity she won't divulge. The film has elements of the frustrated teenage rebel, as Kjellin argues with his parents who just don't understand, as well as elements of a film noir drama, as things get scary for Zetterling. Director Sjöberg makes use of a lot of high camera angles, as well as plays with light and shadow in some interesting ways, but as the film plays out, it begins to feel a little heavy-handed. Its message is one of triumphing over cruelty in the early part of one's life, even if events at the time appear as though they might crush one's soul or destroy one's life, but it doesn't quite have enough finesse to be very good or excellent. Still, not bad, and worth watching if you're a Bergman fan.