Hour of the Wolf

The hour of the wolf is the hour between night and dawn. It is the hour when most people die, when sleep is the deepest, when nightmares feel most real.
Vargtimmen (1968)
1:28 (88 min)
7.5/10
35 820
—
no scores
7.4/10
575
7.5/10
25000
Rate the movie:
Release date
Director
Scenario
Composer
Lars Johan Werle
Producer
Lars-Owe Carlberg
Actors
Photo Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow
Johan Borg
Photo Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann
Alma Borg
Photo Gertrud Fridh
Gertrud Fridh
Corinne von Merkens
Photo Georg Rydeberg
Georg Rydeberg
Lindhorst
Photo Erland Josephson
Erland Josephson
Baron von Merkens
Photo Naima Wifstrand
Naima Wifstrand
Old Lady with Hat
Photo Ulf Johansson
Ulf Johansson
Heerbrand
Photo Gudrun Brost
Gudrun Brost
Gamla Fru von Merkens
All actors and roles (10)

Short description

Johan Borg is a painter who has retreated with his wife, Alma, to a remote island, where they live quietly while she tends the house and he works. Their solitude is interrupted by the island's aristocratic residents, who admire his art and invite the couple into their social circle. Johan is troubled by nightmares and visions that he records in a notebook, and the people he encounters among the local gentry begin to resemble the figures from those disturbing images. As his inner turmoil deepens, his relationship with his pregnant wife comes under strain.

Ingmar Bergman directed and wrote the film, the fifteenth of the twenty-four features he made, following Persona and preceding Shame. Max von Sydow plays Johan opposite Liv Ullmann as Alma, with Gertrud Fridh, Georg Rydeberg, Erland Josephson and Naima Wifstrand in supporting roles. Lars-Owe Carlberg produced the Swedish production for SF Studios and Cinematograph AB.

The film runs eighty-eight minutes and blends drama with horror. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.5 from around 25,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.4 from roughly 575 votes. A critics' score of 8.1 from twenty-six reviews places it somewhat above the audience averages.

What's left behind the scenes

  • Psychoanalysts call "the hour of the wolf" the time when a person, left alone, takes stock.
  • Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) wrote the screenplay in 1964 and initially titled the story "Cannibals." He was then hospitalized with pneumonia, where he reassessed the entire project and decided that realizing this concept would be too expensive. Bergman returned to this idea shortly after filming "Persona" (1966), but reworked it into something more affordable.

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