Skammen

Right now I am watching a film directed by Ingmar Bergman, Skammen (Shame), which came out in 1968. Set in Sweden, it has overtones of World War II and is of course also a commentary on the Vietnam War, as well as on war in general. It stars Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow, and while it displays all of Bergman's characteristic genius, I can't help but see also influences from the French New Wave as well as from Italian Neorealism.

But what I want to focus on is a sparkling feature of the work that seems all too absent today: the importance of beauty, especially in the midst of disaster and as a counterforce to cruelty.

Ullmann and Von Sydow are musicians, so the icons of beauty are musical: a violin and a piano that appear at key moments, as well as references to classical works.

What came to mind while I was watching it was a trip to Baghdad. As I rode in from the airport with a German colleague, he pointed out to me how happy he was to see that many palm trees had been planted since the war had abated, at least for a brief period.

How much debt do human beings owe to plants for the beauty that they bring to the world? And how much do we take them for granted?

Shame, indeed.