Lights In The Dusk Details

Spare and profound

This film is an extension of the director's attempts in 2 previous movies in the trilogy (ie Drifting Clouds and The Man with No Name)to show us the 'lights in the dusk' of human banality and lonliness. The lead character is not someone that we can find easy to like or really feel much sympathy for. He is a rather pathetic emotional have-not. He gets into situations which to the audience are obvously not going to work out or are obdurate and obtuse. What is touching is the character's naivity about life and his eventual acceptance of life's banality and seeming pointlessness. I found that very pure and affecting. I think that is what is recognised by another couple of characters in the film who accept that banality in a more positive way. The human solidarity and understanding shown to the main character at the end by the 2 others and a dog was heartwarming and extremely profound.

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Interesting Work

Don't be put off by the subtitles, dialogue is very limited and does not get in the way.

Photography is amazing, and it does capture the mood of the film perfectly. The first half of the film is really good, as it sets up the story pretty nicely, however I am not too convinced about the second half.

We never get to find out why those guys set him up, and the character development is pretty limited. I mean, why rob the store just to land him in jail? It does stretch credibility a bit.

I would still recommend this film, purely on the reason that it is nice to see something other than a Hollywood product; however if you do like your blockbuster and action films this is not for you.

Having said that, if you want to experience some Scandinavian film I would still stick to Ingmar Bergman.