At long last available on DVD in the US, Sawdust and Tinsel is a fond favorite dating back to that Ingmar Bergman class I took at UW many years ago. While it doesn’t quite hold up to the glorified memories I had of it (Bergman’s typical 50’s era clash of comedy and humiliation seems a bit clumsier than I’d remembered) it’s still a wonderful example of the great one moving beyond his moralistic 40’s melodramas into full fledged artiness. The dingy circus milieu and mismatched couples predates La Strada by a year or so and Harriet Anderson is sensational as always. We still patiently await a high-end Criterion release of Bergman’s neglected The Magician.
