A Woman's Face / En kvinnas ansikte (1938) [Criterion Collection]

Director: Gustaf Molander
Writers: Francis de Croisset (play) (as François de Croisset), Gösta Stevens (screenplay)
Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Tore Svennberg, Anders Henrikson

In this dramatic thriller, Ingrid Bergman takes on an uncharacteristically vicious role as Anna, a bitter, nefarious blackmailer with a disfigured face. Gustaf Molander directs, meticulously hiding and revealing Bergman’s features as necessary. After Anna is given an operation to restore her looks, she embarks on a scheme that requires her to go undercover as a nanny to a rich family, but as her personality softens and she discovers maternal instincts she never knew she had, her latest plot is put in jeopardy. Joan Crawford would star in the Hollywood remake.

Extras:
- None


Eclipse Series 46: Ingrid Bergman’s Swedish Years:
- The Count of the Old Town / Munkbrogreven (1935)
- Walpurgis Night / Valborgsmässoafton (1935)
- Intermezzo (1936)
- Dollar (1938)
- A Woman's Face / En kvinnas ansikte (1938)
- June Nights / Juninatten (1940)

Ingrid Bergman appeared in eleven films in her native Sweden before the age of twenty-five, and while that work tends to be overshadowed by her time in Hollywood, it showcases the actor summoning an impressive depth of emotion to deliver astute, passionate performances. Under the direction of filmmakers such as the prolific studio hand Gustaf Molander, Bergman embraced a range of roles and worked with some of the most celebrated actors in the Swedish film industry, including Gösta Ekman, Karin Swanström, Victor Sjöström, and Lars Hanson. Comedies, romances, and thrillers, the six fascinating films collected here—including Intermezzo, the movie that took Bergman to America—exhibit the precociously assured talent of a young artist with an illustrious international career ahead of her.





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