Denver Cinema Club

DEEP DIVE: Ingmar Bergman: Part 1

Thu, Jul 16 · 6:00 PM MDT

Edgewater Public Market, 5505 W. 20th Ave,, Edgewater, CO, US

This is a watch at home, discuss in person event.

For our next two-part Deep Dive, we’re focusing on Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, one of the filmmakers most responsible for establishing cinema as a serious art form capable of exploring the deepest questions of human experience.

Through stories of love, faith, loneliness, desire, and meaning, Bergman created films that were as psychologically and philosophically rich as great literature. Part 1 explores the period when many of those concerns began to crystallize. Smiles of a Summer Night is witty, romantic, and surprisingly funny. The Virgin Spring is dark, brutal, and deeply moral. Through a Glass Darkly is intimate and searching, concerned with family, faith, and isolation. Together, these films explore what people want from one another, what they believe, and how they make sense of a world that often refuses to provide easy answers.

We will meet to discuss our thoughts on Thursday, July 16, at Edgewater Public Market. We will likely be at a picnic table outside, but please watch the comments for our exact location. Please try to watch all three before attending.

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Here is the list of films with instructions on how to find them.

SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT (1955, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Smiles of a Summer Night follows a group of lovers, spouses, former partners, and would-be romantics whose lives become entangled over the course of a summer weekend in the Swedish countryside. Misunderstandings, jealousies, and shifting attractions set the plot in motion, but Bergman is less interested in who ends up with whom than in the desires and illusions that drive his characters. Beneath the wit and elegance, the film explores the ways people pursue love, avoid loneliness, and convince themselves they know what will make them happy. Often regarded as Bergman’s breakthrough, it reveals a side of the director that can be playful, compassionate, and surprisingly funny.

• Watch on Criterion Channel
• Rent from YouTube

THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
The Virgin Spring begins as a simple journey through the Swedish countryside. A wealthy farmer’s daughter is sent to deliver candles to a distant church, but what follows is an act of violence that upends the lives of everyone involved. Drawing on a medieval ballad, Bergman tells the story with unusual restraint, allowing questions of faith, justice, and revenge to emerge from the choices his characters make. The film asks what remains of religious conviction when confronted with cruelty and suffering, and whether forgiveness is possible in the face of profound loss. Both stark and deeply moving, it marks a significant step toward the spiritual and moral concerns that would define much of Bergman’s later work.

• Watch on Criterion Channel
• Watch for Free on YouTube
• Rent from Prime Video

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY (1961, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Through a Glass Darkly takes place over the course of a single day on a remote island, where a young woman recovering from a psychiatric illness spends time with her father, husband, and younger brother. As tensions within the family surface, each character struggles with loneliness, unmet needs, and the difficulty of truly connecting with one another. Bergman keeps the setting intimate, but the questions at the film’s center are expansive: What does it mean to love another person? Can we ever fully understand one another? And what, if anything, lies beyond the silence we encounter in the world? Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, it marks the beginning of one of the most acclaimed periods of Bergman’s career.

• Watch on Criterion Channel
• Rent from Prime Video

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BONUS VIEWING: THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
For those interested in exploring further, we recommend The Seventh Seal. Set during the Black Death, it follows a knight returning from the Crusades who encounters Death and challenges him to a game of chess. Considered Bergman’s most famous and enduring film, it serves as an excellent companion piece to our core discussion, exploring questions of faith, mortality, doubt, and the search for meaning. Martha and I will stay late to discuss this "bonus" film with anyone who elects to watch it.

• Watch on Criterion Channel
• Watch for free with ads on Tubi
• Watch on Kanopy with a Denver Public Library card
• Watch for free with ads on YouTube
• Rent from Prime Video
• The Landmark Greenwood Village is showing The Seventh Seal on Monday, July 22, which is AFTER our discussion.

JEOPARDY! Bar League Trivia - Alamo Sloans Lake

Sun, Jul 19 · 4:30 PM MDT

Alamo Drafthouse Sloans Lake, 4255 West Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO, US

Join DCC for JEOPARDY! Bar League trivia at BarFly, the bar at the Sloans Lake Alamo Drafthouse. Rhonda will be our host this week. The contest starts at 5:00, but the group will meet at 4:30 to stake out seats, place food and drink orders, and get acquainted.

It's free to play, though--understandably--BarFly would like participants to order something. Teams can have up to six players; if more than six DCCers show up, the group will split into two teams.

Here is the web page for the game.

The group will aim for the couches on the south side of the bar, along the windows overlooking Colfax. Look for a small Denver Cinema Club sign. Arrive early if you can, and help save seats!

Holy Motors - Denver Film Members Only

Mon, Jul 20 · 6:00 PM MDT

Sie FilmCenter, 2510 E Colfax Ave, Denver, CO, US

Read carefully, please!

Are you a Denver Film member? Do you like bizarre films? Then join us for a free screening of Leos Carax's Holy Motors! (If you are not a Denver Film member, you can buy a membership here. Use discount code DCCFILMBUFF for $10 off.)

• Read about the film, watch the trailer, and reserve your ticket here. (Be sure to log into your Denver Film account first.)
• Read the Rotten Tomatoes reviews here.

Free screenings tend to draw crowds, so we'll meet a little earlier than usual. Look for me in the theater lounge at 6:00; I'll be at one of the tables with a small Denver Cinema Club sign. We'll go into the screening room around 6:15 for the 6:30 show. If you arrive after 6:15, just go in, watch the movie, and find us afterward.

After the film, we will gather again in the lobby, then walk over to Bruz Off Fax to talk about the film. Bruz has tasty Belgian beers, wine, root beer, and bar snacks.

For those driving, there's a free parking garage behind the theater, accessible from the alley.

See you at the Sie!

-- Mike