All These Women/Now About These Women/För att Inte Tala om Alla Dessa Kvinnor (1964) - Bergman's pitifully awful farce

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This American poster does its best to sell Ingmar Bergman's hopeless All These Women, - but might have added tantalizing colors to certify that this actually is a color film

A pretentious critic is writing a biography about a cellist master and goes to his large home to conduct an interview with him. This proves difficult, and so instead the critic interviews the many women in the master's life for insights.

What is the meaning of this piece of crap?!? - None? - And is that the meaning?
That was my main thought upon watching All These Women, the 26th theatrical feature by Swedish master filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (Brink of Life/Nära Livet (1958)).
The film is meant as a satire based on Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963), the great semi-autobiographical B/W drama about Fellini's life, filmmaking and relationships with women. Because of Bergman's usually heavily serious films one naturally goes looking for meaning, even when he makes a super-light, possibly pointless escapade as this seems to be.
The film is a strange mix of the plot's central cellist master being missing, (and whose absence seems to have some symbolic import, but the film is too poor to invite real interpretation in this or any other direction), and awful, unfunny shenanigans that are accompanied by happy jazz.
Jarl Kulle (Miss and Mrs. Sweden (1969)) as the protagonist critic snob earns the film's sole heart for his hardly understandable but physically impressive performance here. All These Women is perhaps the biggest turkey in Bergman's body of work. He co-wrote it with Erland Josephson (Faithless/Trolösa(2000)).

Related posts:

Ingmar Bergman: Fanny and Alexander/Fanny och Alexander (1982) - Bergman's treasured mammoth drama farewell
The Magician/Ansiktet (1958) or, Fool the Townfolk 

Watch a video that shows pictures of Bergman and posters from his filmography here

Cost: 1.7 mil. SEK
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown (but likely a huge flop)
[All These Women was released 15 June (Sweden) and runs 80 minutes. Bergman admired Fellini, and the film was his first in color as well as the most expensive for the director so far. It was Bergman's second straight comedy after Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). Shooting took place in Sweden, including in Stockholm. The film reportedly flopped both in Sweden and internationally, although the French reportedly took a liking to it. It seems that it was only released in just over a handful of countries. Bergman responded that he had made it in "hatred and disdain" as a way of attacking critics and puffed-up artists. He returned with the TV miniseries Don Juan (1965) and theatrically with Persona (1966). 1,386 IMDb-users have given All These Women a 5.7/10 average rating.]

What do you think of All These Women?

Dogville (2003) - Von Trier's implacable, truly unique drama

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+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Ensemble of the Year: Nicole Kidman, Ben Gazzara, James Caan, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson, Chloë Sevigny, Patricia Clarkson, Paul Bettany, Stellen Skarsgård, Zeljko Ivanek + Best Epic of the Year + Best Experimental Movie of the Year

Nicole Kidman as Grace and the residents of Lars Von Trier's Dogville on its poster

QUICK REVIEW:

A lady in distress, on the run from mobsters, appears in the small Colorado mountain town of Dogville in America in the 1930s, where the town's aspiring writer Tom gets the townspeople to show mercy and take in the stranger.

Dogville is the 8th feature from Danish master filmmaker Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves (1996)), who both wrote and directed it. Half of the awe-inspiring work that is Dogville is Trier's disturbing script, (which Quentin Tarantino has said would have won the Pulitzer Prize, if it had been written for the stage instead of the screen), and the film's unique stage concept; the film takes place in a small town which is not physically created but merely marked by chalk lines on a dark stage. The other half is the combined force of an ensemble that could be among the decade's best:
Ben Gazzara (Anatomy of a Murder (1959)), Nicole Kidman (The Hours (2002)), James Caan (Misery (1990)), Lauren Bacall (The Big Sleep (1946)), Harriet Andersson (Cries & Whispers/Viskningar och Rop (1972)), Chloë Sevigny (Boys Don't Cry (1999)), Patricia Clarkson (Six Feet Under (2002-05)), Paul Bettany (The Tourist (2010)), Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking the Waves) and Zeljko Ivanek (Oz (1997-03)) are all simply grand.
The ending is strong and hard to come to terms with, which is not meant as a criticism.
The only reservation I do have regarding Dogville is that it has too much narration. For a film as long as this, it simply becomes too dense.

 Related reviews:

Lars Von Trier:  Nymphomaniac (2013) short version, vol. 1 & vol. 2, or, Lars Von Trier's Suck It Melancholia (2011) - Von Trier's heightened reality doomsday reflections 
Antichrist (2009) - Von Trier's cabin-in-the-woods psycho-horror 
The Boss of It All/Direktøren for det Hele (2006) - Von Trier's hilarious absurd comedy 
Dear Wendy (2005) - Vinterberg and Von Trier's unpopular, gun-themed megaflop (writer)  

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Dancer in the Dark (2000) or, Selma the Immigrant  

Lars Von Trier's Dogville as seen from above

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 16.6 mil. $
= Big flop
[Dogville premiered May 19 (Cannes) and runs 178 minutes. It is the first of a proposed America: Land of Opportunities trilogy, which also includes Manderlay (2005) and Washington, which hasn't been made. The film was shot digitally on a stage in Trollhättan, Sweden and was a co-production between no less than 9 European countries. Trier has since revealed that he wrote the script for Dogville in a 12 day drug binge, although the truthfulness of that statement shouldn't be taken for granted. More or less outrageous stories about the film's production abounds, and some can be read here. Dogville competed in Cannes but lost to Gus Van Sant's masterpiece Elephant. Dogville had a limited run in North America, where it opened #41 with 88k $ and grossed 1.5 mil. $ (9 % of the total gross). Its biggest markets were Italy with 3.2 mil. $ (19.3 %), France with 2.1 mil. $ (12.7 %) and Germany with 2 mil. $ (12 %). In Trier's native Denmark, the film made a fine 1.2 mil. $ (7.2 %). Mostly American critics were offended by the fact that the film is obviously made by a filmmaker who is critical of the US, but others have hailed it as a great film. It is included on several top 10 lists of the year, and several critics and filmmakers also believe it to be among the best films ever made. It was nominated for 4 European Film Awards, winning Best Cinematography for Anthony Dod Mantle. It won Best Danish Film at the Bodil Awards (Danish critics awards), and Best Costume Design and Screenplay at the Robert Awards (Danish Oscar). Dogville is fresh at 70 % with a 6.9 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Dogville?