The Serpent's Egg
Ingmar Bergman's 'The Serpent's Egg' takes place in Berlin in November of 1923, when economic depression, unemployment and hyper-inflation have created a new kind of mass poverty in Germany and the se…
The Serpent's Egg
Ingmar Bergman's 'The Serpent's Egg' takes place in Berlin in November of 1923, when economic depression, unemployment and hyper-inflation have created a new kind of mass poverty in Germany and the seeds for the slow decay of the Weimar democracy. Abel Rosenberg (David Carradine), an American-born Jew, is an unemployed alcoholic and former trapeze artist who uses alcohol to help him deal with the horrific uncertainties of life in post-war Germany. He returns home one night to discover that his brother Max has committed suicide. Abel meets up with his old boss who gives him some money in an attempt to persuade him back to his now successful circus. Abel realizes he will not be as good as he was with his brother and so declines but his boss allows him to keep the money anyway. The Jewish community is being portrayed in the media as a drain on society. He goes to see his brother's wife Manuela (Liv Ullmann) to break the news of Max's death to her. She asks what triggered Max's suicide, but Abel is unable to provide a solid answer. The only sentence in Max's suicide note Abel can make out reads: "There is a poisoning going on". Manuela confesses to Abel that she actually works as a prostitute and merely made up her office job out of shame. November arrives and Germany has become ever more fearful that a bloody confrontation between extremist parties could soon plummet the country into another war. One night while Abel and Manuela are enjoying a drink in the brothel and enjoying the cabaret, the brothel is over-run by soldiers who beat the owner to death before burning the building to the ground. Abel manages to secure himself a new job working as a clerk in a hospital, assisting with the archiving of patient cards while Manuela gains employment at the hospital clinic. They are also given an apartment surrounded by many derelict or empty buildings. One night Abel is alerted to files containing detailed reports of graphic and inhumane experiments conducted on patients at the hospital throughout the years.
The Serpent's Egg
Drama,Mystery,Thriller
Film Details
Ingmar Bergman's 'The Serpent's Egg' takes place in Berlin in November of 1923, when economic depression, unemployment and hyper-inflation have created a new kind of mass poverty in Germany and the seeds for the slow decay of the Weimar democracy. Abel Rosenberg (David Carradine), an American-born Jew, is an unemployed alcoholic and former trapeze artist who uses alcohol to help him deal with the horrific uncertainties of life in post-war Germany. He returns home one night to discover that his brother Max has committed suicide.
Abel meets up with his old boss who gives him some money in an attempt to persuade him back to his now successful circus. Abel realizes he will not be as good as he was with his brother and so declines but his boss allows him to keep the money anyway. The Jewish community is being portrayed in the media as a drain on society.
He goes to see his brother's wife Manuela (Liv Ullmann) to break the news of Max's death to her. She asks what triggered Max's suicide, but Abel is unable to provide a solid answer. The only sentence in Max's suicide note Abel can make out reads: "There is a poisoning going on".
Manuela confesses to Abel that she actually works as a prostitute and merely made up her office job out of shame. November arrives and Germany has become ever more fearful that a bloody confrontation between extremist parties could soon plummet the country into another war. One night while Abel and Manuela are enjoying a drink in the brothel and enjoying the cabaret, the brothel is over-run by soldiers who beat the owner to death before burning the building to the ground.
Abel manages to secure himself a new job working as a clerk in a hospital, assisting with the archiving of patient cards while Manuela gains employment at the hospital clinic. They are also given an apartment surrounded by many derelict or empty buildings. One night Abel is alerted to files containing detailed reports of graphic and inhumane experiments conducted on patients at the hospital throughout the years..