1960's, 1968, Grade, Review, review-movie, S+, Year

Film Review: Hour of the Wolf – 1968

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SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.I love the way the movie utilizes trees to demonstrate the ever fracturing nature of Alma and Johan’s tumultuous relationship.

Johan (Max von Sydow) embraces Alma (Liv Ullmann) next to the tree.
Johan (Max von Sydow) embraces Alma (Liv Ullmann) across from the tree.
Johan (Max von Sydow) sketches Alma (Liv Ullmann) next to the tree.
Early on the tree is associated with Alma and represents love and life. The tree, along with Alma, becomes an inspiration for Johan’s art and represents the couples attempt at setting up their roots in this new land.

When Alma and Johan first get to the island, they come up to their house by this quaint looking tree. They embrace by it and associate it with their love. In the next scene they sit across from it before Johan attempts to draw her. Thus, the symbol of their love (the tree) and the object of his love (Alma) serve as motivation for art. It’s doubly important that trees are generally associated with life and vitality – a love in bloom.

Old lady with hat (Naima Wifstrand ) tells Alma to stop Johan from destroying his drawings.
Old lady with hat (Naima Wifstrand ) tells Alma to read Johan’s ddiary
Alma (Liv Ullmann) is revealed to be all alone.
At the same tree which has now come to symbolize the couples investment in a “romantic” love, an old lady appears and sows the seeds for the chaos to come. She tells Alma to stop Johan from destroying his drawings – which we later learn are representations of the maneaters who literally consume him at the end. She also tells him to read his diary which sets Alma in motion to start fixing things. Thus, the tree becomes “infected” and the battle for Johan begins.

Later on when Johan is gone from the area, Alma experiences her first “illusion” upon seeing the old woman by the tree. The women mentions to the her, Alma, that Johan is planning on destroying his drawings. She encourages Alma to not only stop this destruction but also to read his private diary. It’s important to note that the old woman gives each command from a different side of the tree – a split. Given the end which reveals that the others are manifestations of Johan’s drawings, this decisions can be viewed as the start of the push-pull conflict that marks the start of the narrative.

Alma (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Max von Sydow) argue in front of the trees.
Alma (Liv Ullmann) begs Johan (Max von Sydow) to trust her.
Alma (Liv Ullmann) is left in the back as Johan (Max von Sydow) gives up in his attempts at assuring her. The trees demarcate the couple and show their separation.
The title of the movie, Hour of the Wolf, shows up on the screen ,hearkening back to the unorthodox intro sequence.
Upon leaving Baron von Merken’s castle, the couple hashes out their concerns about the events of the day. Alma desperately tries to get Johan to open up and trust her, but her words fall on deaf ears. Johan is unable to see eye to eye and walks away, the trees now symbolizing the separation between the couple. It’s telling that Johan seems to be consumed on all ends by the trees – a foreshadowing of his eventual fate.

After the first party at Baron von Merken’s castle, the couple experiences disarray and come into conflict. Johan has been reminded of his former lover, Veronica, and has felt pressured by the apparitions of his art and guilt come to life. Alma attempts to build unity but he’s non-receptive. He leaves her and the trees around them demonstrate the newfound division between the couple. It’s also at this point that the title of the film interrupts the movie once again – hearkening back to the title sequence.

Johan is now effectively caught in between Alma and the others. One side represents vitality, the other side represents death – his choice will determine what is to come.

Johan goes towards Veronica’s body. It’s hosted under a white towel calling back to the dead bodies at the start of Persona’s epilogue.
Johan (Max von Sydow) uncovers Veronica’s (Ingrid Thulin) “dead” body.
Johan (Max von Sydow) is all alone under the menacing trees which seem to reach out at him, making good on their earlier promise to consume him.
Alma (Liv Ullmann) can bring light to the spot where Johan used to be, but her presence can’t bring him back from the void.
Johan’s decision to pursue Veronica seals his fate. The path to a normal life is no longer possible as he selects the “dead” lover over the live one. No longer a member of the realm of the “living” he’s unable to exist near the trees. Alma is unable to get him back after his choice because he’s no longer in a realm she can comprehend.

As we know Johan picks Veronica at the end. He tries to snuff out Alma, the representation of a grounded “normal” life, in favor of Veronica , the representation of a aberrant necrophilia. It’s no coincidence that he has to try and kill the only “living” woman in the movie to get back to his former love, the one that has died in the past. Veronica’s presentation even suggests that she’s deceased initially, driving the point home.

His choice seals the end for him. In the last scene, he appears alone next to a horrific looking tree that seems to be reaching out towards him. It’s at this point that the others cannibalize him – the artist is consumed by his art. Alma goes across to the same spot. The tree becomes lighter and less threatening because of her presence, but Johan is still no longer to be found. He has abdicated the realm of the living.

2. Obviously the nature of the other parties on the island is up for interpretation. At one level they seem to correspond at an almost 1-1 match with Johan’s earlier drawings. For example, Lindhorst is most certainly the birdman figure he associates with dread. At another level they seem to correspond to demented “mother” and “father” figures. Given Johan’s earlier recounting of his traumatic closet tale, a tale involving punishment and seemingly a betrayal by his father and mother respectively, viewing each of his episodes with the horrifying figures as another imagining of this primordial trauma would also make sense. I think the answer is somewhere in between but will save that answer for a long form analysis of the movie.

The light inside the house is the only thing stopping the darkness from overtaking the frame.
Johan (Max von Sydow) holds the flickering match in his hand as Alma (Liv Ullmann) sits in the background.
Johan (Max von Sydow) goes to Alma (Liv Ullmann) and lets her into his more intimate memories. He envelops her in his shared defensive light as he lets his defenses toward her down.
The flame inside the house is the only source of light within the entire frame which is consumed by shadows and darkness from all angles. A fantastic dissolve reveals that the source of this light is none other than a small match in Johan’s hand – his only defense against the dark which threatens to consume him. It’s with this small flicker that he finally goes to Alma, covering the two of them in his shared defenses, as he lets her know of the trauma that’s haunted him so.


3. As soon as the title card shows up at the 47 minute mark, there’s a great wide of the house the couple is living in where the flicker of a flame can be seen from the outside. Then the movie pulls a great dissolve off from that image to Johan holding the source of the light in the form of a small matchstick. The only source of light in a vast sea of darkness that Johan holds close to his heart. It’s only fitting that it’s at this point in the movie, during the “hour of the wolf”, that Johan finally reveals the truth of his trauma to Alma, bringing the light over to her letting it envelop the both of them – now both privy to the knowledge of what’s at hand. It’s a fantastic moment.

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