Word: film
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Dates: during 1960-1960
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Thimble Corner (Jim Copp and Ed Brown; Playhouse). Copp and Brown are to Kidiscs what the early U.P.A. was to film cartooning. While they have confected nothing on the order of Gerald McBoing-Boing or Mr. Magoo, The Dog That Went to Yale is certainly close, and this entire record is fresh, clever and inventive. Strictly for the U-child...
...Cubans who crowded into Havana's Plaza Civica last summer to cheer Fidel Castro and shout hatred of the U.S. Hers was one of many memorable faces-faces of hate, sorrow, bewilderment-that dominated a new, hour-long documentary seen on ABC-TV last week. Billed as a "film editorial," it was designed to give viewers a look at the dangerous anti-American passions mounting throughout Latin America in the vacuum of U.S. policy...
...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...
Then, there is the film's theme--I found, among many contenders, the conflict between Illusion and Reality most consistently referred to. Bergman seems especially fond of dropping hints that the real danger lies deeper than surface appearance. He emphasizes the unreal disguises of the magician and his wife as one of the reflections of this metaphysical concept--a crude and uninventive metaphor, I find. These admirable, is unoriginal, sentiments appear in a morass of conflicting counter-theories. Accident and the completely gratuitous introduction of the bizarre for mere effect add to the confusion--though they contribute immeasurably...
Though it does insist on this shadow-boxing with Symbol and Idea, Bergman's film remains a thrilling experience for its technically perfect rendition of the mysterious. As a work of surface brilliance, The Magician represents Bergman at the zenith of his considerable powers...