Sawdust and Tinsel

9/2/2018

That life is a circus that one cannot escape from is the overriding theme of Ingmar Bergman's 1953 film <i>Gycklarnas afton</i> ("The Evening of the Clowns", but released in the English-speaking world under the titles "Sawdust and Tinsel" and "The Naked Night"). As the film opens, a circus is on its way to a provincial Swedish town in the early 20th century. In an introductory sequence, a coachman tells a story of an embarrassing episode for one of the clowns and his wife, which introduces the motif of humiliation that runs throughout the film. In the ensuing flashback scene, the characters' mouths move but we cannot hear what they are saying, a tribute to silent-era director Sergei Eisenstein. Only then do we get to the main plot: circus director Albert (Åke Grönberg) will use the oppo