The Serpent's Egg

The Serpent's Egg lacks both the strength and depth of Bergman's major work. By going outwardly international, the master becomes perilously close to becoming shallow as well.

Bergman's paranoia runs dementedly and tediously out of control.

A melodrama that never quite makes any connection to the characters within it.

The movie is a cry of pain and protest, a loud and jarring assault, but it is not a statement and it is certainly not a whole and organic work of art.

Ingmar Bergman comes very close to camp in this 1977 study of life (or lack thereof) in the decaying Berlin of the 20s.

The Serpent's Egg is just about the worst thing for a film like this to be: it is indulgent and mercilessly dull.

One of Bergman's darkest films.

Unlike other Bergman films, the dialogue here is purely informative and the dramatic moments fall into absurd gruesomeness. [Full Review in Spanish]

Bergman's worst film.

The set is lushly and bountifully featured in The Serpent's Egg, but this exterior richness comes at the exchange of the piercing, urgent interior audits Bergman had garnered a reputation for.