Storm in the tea cup

Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas Afton,Swedish; 1953)

Life, has its up and down. Every now, a crisis builds up and disappears just as fast as it appears. At the time it materializes, it seem like the end of the world but then, with time, it finds a steady state and then it no longer is the big problem that it was previously.
This 1953 drama narrates the happenings around a travelling circus which stops at a town. The morale amongst the performers and its owner, Albert, is low as viewers' appreciation is low and income is measly.
Albert arrives at the town where his ex-wife and young sons who he left 3 years previously, lives. He now travels with a young pretty mistress performer, Anne.
Albert gets a idea of having a great parade to advertise their presence in town but their tattered costumes were nothing to show off. He decides to borrow costumes from a drama troupe in town. He approaches the director. What ensues is an interesting dialogue between two group of performers, one from the lowly circus performers and the egoistic drama actors.
The debonair main actor, Franz, catches the eye of Anne. In another scene, Anne is concerned about Albert's visit to his ex-wife's place. She is afraid that they may patch up again.

The ex-wife is however quite comfortable in her own life without Albert. The convenience store is that she is running is doing quite well and she is the main dealer of tobacco in her town. She is in fact in a much better shape finacially than Albert who left the family to run the circus. The ex-wife, Agda, categorically states that she enjoys her current freedom and is not ready to give it up for anything! She categorically implied that Albert was not welcomed there.
A distraught Albert discovers Anne sneaking out from the theatre and entering the goldsmith store on his way back. Despite his own plans to be a turncoat to their relationship, he accuses Anne of infidelity. In reality, Anne was turned on by the actor's charmed life and did bed him in exchange for jewelry which turned out to be worthless!
An duel ensued during a circus performance between a drunken Albert and Franz. Albert was humiliated and  bruised badly. Albert was contemplating suicide but instead shot an aging bear. There is another side story associated with the bear.  It is owned by Albert's confidante in the circus, the clown's wife. The wife once humiliated the clown by bathing nude by the beach just because she was wooed by some soldiers. The clown rescued his wife and forgave but Albert could not understand why.
Finally, the circus moves on to another town. Albert and Anne forgave each other and move on with life.
The film albeit being more than 60 years old and being black and white, give you the perspective of the circus from an angle never seen before. The views that we get are very close range.  Even at such an era, the female characters are quite liberated and they savour freedom.