Synopsis
Brink of Life (Nära livet, 1958) is an Ingmar Bergman chamber drama you can watch online on iFILM. The whole film happens in one maternity ward, where three women confront motherhood from three opposite directions.
One has just lost her baby and cannot see a way forward. Another is carrying her first child and dreads the delivery. The third is pregnant and wants out. Bergman shuts the story inside hospital walls, drops almost all the music, and lets faces and silences carry the weight. Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson and Eva Dahlbeck lead, with brief turns from Max von Sydow and Erland Josephson.
At Cannes in 1958 the film took the directing prize, and its actresses shared the award for best performance. This is Bergman stripped of his usual symbols and dreams — a dry, near-documentary look at fear and hope in a single room. If you know him only from the late parables, this earthbound side will surprise you. Stream Brink of Life (1958) online on iFILM.
Starring
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