IMDb RATING
6.4/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
A sailor returns to his hometown after 7 years and remembers the dark and the light moments of his past.A sailor returns to his hometown after 7 years and remembers the dark and the light moments of his past.A sailor returns to his hometown after 7 years and remembers the dark and the light moments of his past.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Hjördis Petterson
- Sofi
- (as Hjördis Pettersson)
Douglas Håge
- Customs officer
- (scenes deleted)
Ami Aaröe
- Young girl at the beach
- (uncredited)
Torgny Anderberg
- Man
- (uncredited)
Ingmar Bergman
- Man Wearing a Beret at the Funfair
- (uncredited)
Rolf Bergström
- Blom's companion
- (uncredited)
John W. Björling
- Older man
- (uncredited)
Ingrid Borthen
- Girl on the street
- (uncredited)
Gustaf Hiort af Ornäs
- Blom's companion
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIngmar Bergman: 17'50" into the film, can be seen in the amusement park, watching the performance of "Kasper Teater", a marionette show.
- Alternate versionsAmerican version, under the title "Frustration", runs 78 minutes. While most of the Swedish version is told as an extended flashback, the US cut omits the "present day" prologue and instead offers the story chronologically.
- ConnectionsEdited into Catalogue of Ships (2008)
Featured review
Some nice moments, but needed focus
The main characters in this story, told in flashback, are all struggling with life, and in this film Bergman give us a painful father/son relationship that probably reflects the difficulties he had with his own dad. Here the son has grown up a disappointment to his father because of a small hump on his back and a milder personality, while the middle-aged father, a bully, feels as though he's missed out on things in life and wants to run off to the south Pacific with a showgirl. His mother has suffered from abuse over the years, and her husband now wanting to leave seems especially unjust since she worked hard with him in the early days of their business salvaging old boats, which she recounts in one of the film's best scenes. The showgirl herself knows a thing about pathos too; she's been poor and turned to prostitution in the past, giving her a jaded outlook and the belief that love never lasts, so she just wants to be kept comfortable by a man.
With all of the difficult emotions in play the setup was interesting to me, and there are a few beautiful shots along the rocky Swedish coastline as well. Where the film falters is in being overly melodramatic, e.g. the father being made to be going blind on top of everything else, and the son falling for the showgirl. There is a fantastic moment of tension when the son goes diving in a suit that requires his father to manually pump air down to him, but its emotional power and some of the other angst in the film is eroded because it tries to fit so many other things in. Restraint and focus were needed so that the characters and their relationships could have more depth. Bergman was still finding his way here, but nonetheless it's interesting to watch him at this stage of his career.
With all of the difficult emotions in play the setup was interesting to me, and there are a few beautiful shots along the rocky Swedish coastline as well. Where the film falters is in being overly melodramatic, e.g. the father being made to be going blind on top of everything else, and the son falling for the showgirl. There is a fantastic moment of tension when the son goes diving in a suit that requires his father to manually pump air down to him, but its emotional power and some of the other angst in the film is eroded because it tries to fit so many other things in. Restraint and focus were needed so that the characters and their relationships could have more depth. Bergman was still finding his way here, but nonetheless it's interesting to watch him at this stage of his career.
helpful•43
- gbill-74877
- Jul 16, 2020
- How long is A Ship to India?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 38 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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