If you read enough articles or watch enough debates about financial stimuli, the Green New Deal and Modern Monetary Theory, you are certain to encounter the word “Weimar”. That city became synonymous with the first and tragically failed attempt to build a modern progressive democracy in Germany, as well as the economic woes that played a crucial role in its demise. This historical period later became popular among filmmakers, and included the legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, whose 1977 period thriller The Serpent’s Egg represents the most unusual piece of his filmography.
The plot is set in Berlin in early November 1923, a time when many expected the fledgling Weimar Republic to succumb to rampant hyperinflation that made money worthless, left people unemployed and hungry, and made them willing to listen to all kinds of extremists – including a certain little-known Austrian painter who was making ambitious plans in a Munich beer hall. All that is of little concern to Abel Rosenberg (played by David Carradine), an American Jewish acrobat who had arrived in Berlin to perform in a circus with his brother and his ex-wife Manuela (played by Liv Ullman). Abel, whose life revolves around alcohol and women with loose morals, finds that his brother has committed suicide and takes residence with Manuela, now working as a cabaret performer and part-time prostitute. He also becomes a person of interest for Bauer (played by Gert Fröbe), a police inspector investigating bizarre deaths, which are, in one way or another, connected to Abel. Some of Abel and Manuela’s existential problems are temporarily solved by Hans Vergerus (played by Heinz Bennent), an eccentric scientist and childhood acquaintance who gives them jobs in his clinic.
Bergman was enjoying a reputation as the king of arthouse cinema, and as such, the antithesis of everything Hollywood. It took some very special reasons for him to make what turned out to be his first and only Hollywood film. Although considered something of a national treasure, Bergman by 1976 grew bored with financing the welfare state of his native Sweden through taxes and went to seek greener pastures elsewhere, ending up in West Germany where he got in touch with the famous producer Dino de Laurentiis. He was provided with a high budget and elaborate studio sets, something he hadn’t been accustomed to for much of his career. This brave experiment, however, ended very poorly, being rejected not only by the audience but also by the usually Bergman-worshipping critics.
The main reason The Serpent’s Egg failed is a lack of focus and Bergman’s apparent indecision about what his film should actually be. In terms of genre, it meanders between psychological drama, a serious exploration of rising anti-Semitism that would find its final expression in the Holocaust, some sort of allegory of the bleak politics of Europe during the Years of Lead, and, finally, a pure thriller with some bits of science fiction and horror thrown in for good measure. This indecision is reflected in the extremely slow pacing and Bergman filling time with unnecessary, sometimes grotesque and often disturbing scenes (like the one featuring a horse on a Berlin street) that make The Serpent’s Egg a mostly unpleasant viewing experience. Things are even worse with the terrible miscasting of Carradine, who not only lacks any kind of chemistry with Ullman but also looks as confused in front of the camera as the (mostly unsympathetic) character he plays. Ullman, to her credit, tries to do something, but even her rich experience with Bergman can’t help that her character is poorly scripted. Her musical number, for example, does nothing but remind the audience of Visconti’s The Damned and Fosse’s Cabaret, two much better films that dealt with similar themes. The only time The Serpent’s Egg actually works is at the very beginning, when we are introduced to a gruesome but very effective scene in which Abel discovers his brother’s body, and at the end, when, even with a “pulpish” revelation of an evil genius as the main villain, the film features something resembling a coherent plot, a theme and even an inventive death scene. But by the time that happens, it is too late for the audience to have sufficient patience or understanding for this massive failure.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
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