When you set up shop and form a marriage, you need to acquire a rather large carriage, to shackle yourselves to, and fill it with you, just make sure you've got plenty of storage. Now your carriage will have many seals, but occasionally these become unpeeled, you'll both try and unpick, then resolutely re-stick, as you turn it into a big wheal. Far too often the damage is done, and the carriage just runs out of fun, so you fill it with distraction, which leads to inaction, the start of the end has begun. This all happened to Stig and to Marta, but they managed to find a big plaster, until one fateful day, something got in the way, with a carriage derailing disaster.

There are some things you can't foresee but they usually result because of a lack of vision.

The "Joy" part, by the way, refers to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth Symphony. It pops up twice, once near the beginning and the other time at the end. It's hard to figure out where this film is aiming. The leading man is unpleasant in every way. He is completely self-centered, self-involved and pessimistic. His wife on the other hand is everything good he is not. And yet the film doesn't necessarily follow through on her character. There are some big payoffs though. It's always a joy (pun intended) to see Victor Sjostrom on screen. He would appear later in Bergman's "Wild Strawberries", again as an old man. This time he's an orchestral conductor who gets to know the two young protagonists over the years. They are both musicians. The husband is chasing after fame on stage and the film makes his lack of real talent painfully obvious. The musical excerpts are quite extraordinary. What you see is actually what you hear! Hollywood could pick up on something here - big time. Again, Sjostrom's job as conductor is impeccable. A lot of work went into this. The symmetry is also wonderful with the last images matching the first. And after all, the "Ode to Joy" doesn't arrive until the end of Beethoven's last symphony

Curtis Stotlar

It took a long time to have even a slight interest in Stig and pouting, depressing being. He is a mediocre violinist playing in a second tier orchestra. He has an incredibly inflated view of his abilities. When he gets his opportunity to solo, he blows it, but, of course, none of it is his fault. He becomes involved with Marta, who is herself a complex being. He is known for his embarrassing behavior, like he exhibits at her birthday party. But still she finds in him something that leads to their getting married. Her pregnancy derails things for a while but they fall back together. Meanwhile, he begins to see a beautiful young woman, the wife of a much older man and friend. He really is a cad and even though things are going so well, he can't handle a settled situation. Eventually, this involvement with a mistress becomes too much for the couple. She gets fed up and he regresses to his tight little self- centered world. At some point he sees that there is more to life than wandering around in the pits and they are reunited. We already know the ending because the whole thing is done in flashback. There is stunning cinematography, lovely closeups, black and white images that translate emotionally. Bergman seemed to be a master from the very beginning of his career.