It Rains on Our Love (Det regnar på vår kärlek) (Directors Suite) (1946)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1946
Running Time	91:27
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (41:13)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ingmar Bergman
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Barbro Kollberg Birger Malmsten Gösta Cederlund Ludde Gentzel Douglas Håge Benkt-Åke Benktsson Sture Ericson Ulf Johansson Julia Cæsar Gunnar Björnstrand Erik Rosén Magnus Kesster Åke Fridell
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Erland von Koch

    Ingmar Bergman's second feature is a melodramatic look at the life of two people who don't fit into the norm of society. Maggi (Barbro Kollberg) is pregnant and homeless. She meets David (Birger Malmsten), who has just been released from prison, on a train journey and the two seek to help each other as they are both destitute and hopeless. They find an apparently deserted country cottage where they set up their home; unfortunately the landlord, and other authorities, put obstacles in the way of their new found freedom and happiness.

     Gösta Cederlund plays the man with the umbrella. He serves as the film's narrator and the couple's legal counsel at the end of the film when their fate is decided in court. Gunnar Björnstrand's, a future Ingmar Bergman regular actor, makes his first appearance in a Bergman film by playing the comic role of Mr Purman. These comic and unusual elements to the film (i.e. the man with the umbrella seemingly breaks the film's fourth wall to join the world of action in court as a lawyer) perhaps mask this film's over-sentimentality. As this was Ingmar Bergman's second feature perhaps he was still heavily influenced by his work in the theatre. His subtle touches in cinematic style, soundtrack and more personal, universal themes would arise in his cinematic work in the mid-to-late 1950s.

     It Rains on Our Love tries to make its point about accepting people with 'checkered pasts' too bluntly, even the incessant rain falling throughout the film is too obvious a metaphor pointing to the struggles of Maggi and David to get by. This film therefore is for 'die-hard' Bergman fans. The film is not necessarily a poor effort by Bergman; rather, in comparison to his later 1950s and 1960s work, it pales in comparison.

Video

     The film has not been restored and has been transferred onto DVD from an analogue source, so the video quality is very average to poor.

    The aspect ratio is 1:33:1 fullscreen.

    Although the film has an average bitrate of 8.1 m/b per sec, it looks soft and dull. Shadow Detail is not defined well and there are instances of low level noise at times during dark scenes.

     The black-and-white transfer varies from good to basic. There are instances of cross colouration present.

     There are many occurrences of film artefacts, both negative (white) and positive (black). Reel change markings and telecine wobble is frequent, as are lines across the image

     Subtitles are available in white or yellow and are easy to follow.

    The RSDL change occurs at 41:13, during a scene change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is typical of a 1940s period drama, with heavy emphasis on strings that sound overly melodramatic which was quite standard for Hollywood films of the time. Bergman would make better use of sound in his later films, with less use but much more impact to support his screenplays.

     The main audio track is in Swedish. It is encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 kbps.

    Dialogue is clear and the audio is synchronised.

     The audio transfer is similarly unrestored as the video transfer, so there is background hiss, pops and crackles heard throughout the film.

     There is no surround channel usage as the main soundtrack is in mono.

     The subwoofer is not utilised either.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     It Rains on Our Love was released in Region 2 in the United Kingdom as part of a series of early Bergman films in a box set entitled, Early Masterpieces by Ingmar Bergman. The films included are Dreams, Sawdust and Tinsel, It Rains on Our Love, Brink of Life and A Ship Bound for India. Also included are a pair of documentaries about the actors and actresses who worked with Bergman during his career entitled, The Women and Bergman and The Men and Bergman. Unfortunately, this box set is extremely hard to find, both for sale and for reference purposes. Even Artificial Eye's website does not currently list it.

     A Region 0 Scandinavian release has no extras and is apparently of similar quality to the Region 4 version.

     As Madman Directors Suite label has now released all five of the films included in the Artificial Eye box set, it would be reasonable to assert that the Madman releases have been licensed from Artificial Eye's transfers. Therefore, if you wish to purchase this film on DVD there's no reason to look beyond the Madman Director’s Suite release.

    An early Bergman feature, It Rains on Our Love reflects Bergman's work in the theatre rather than his craftsmanship as an important world cinematic director which was evident in Bergman's work beginning with Sawdust and Tinsel and Smiles of a Summer Night, featuring more personal, universal themes.

    The poor video and audio quality of this transfer to DVD and the melodramatic elements to the plot of It Rains on Our Love makes this DVD a recommendation for true Bergman fans only who want to own this film with English menus and subtitling.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall