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We've been dancing around this subject long enough.\\xa0 And how could we not when the Criterion Collection is our subject of inquiry? But we've finally hit the nail on the head.\\xa0 We've got ourselves a 100% genuine mid-century Scandinavian crisis-of-faith movie.\\xa0 And by director Ingmar Bergman no less.\\xa0 A pastor named Tomas (played by perfect-pastor-haircut Gunnar Bj\\xf6rnstrand) quietly and with tremendous reserve, runs amok through a small Swedish town, strewing existential crises in his wake.\\xa0 The local schoolmistress M\\xe4rta (played by bespectacled and cardiganed Ingrid Thulin) dotes with pointless abandon on Tomas' black hole of despair and nihilism.\\xa0 Hurray!

But the film is gorgeous and bleak. The acting is moving and muted.\\xa0 And the subject matter is all-important and boring.\\xa0 A fascinatingly true study in ambiguity.\\xa0

If you'd like to join us for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Alfred Hitchcock's\\xa0Young And Innocent (1937).\\xa0