I'll never see another Ingmar Bergman movie at a theatre house: 'Saraband' is supposed to be his final movie, and it's now at the end of his career that I finally begin to discover the beauty of Bergman's movies. I was immediately pleased when I recognised Erland Josephson in this movie playing Johan as Dr. David from 'Cries & Whispers,' the only Bergman movie I've seen besides this. Bergman is reputed for making bleak, depressing movies, but I found in 'Saraband' a cry for the need to live, to grow without restraints, of leaving the past behind and moving onwards, even if it hurts someone we love
as it happens in this movie. I actually left the movie feeling quite serene even if I was aware of Henrik's terrifying climax to his life. I don't think I was supposed to sympathise more with one character than other, but I really felt closer to Henrik than any other. It seems Bergman is no stranger to showing Man's weaknesses and idiosyncrasies, and he shows it clearly through Henrik: his fear of abandonment and solitude in his last years of life, something everyone should relate to, lead him to extreme measures as suicide attempt. Bergman captures these strange moments in one's personality which seem to make no sense to anyone else but us; he goes deep into his characters and brings out all their complex, confused emotions.
The storyline was straightforward: it's about family, about an old couple Marianne and Johan meeting again after several years separated. I never saw the original 'Scenes From A Marriage,' so I feel I missed a lot about their relationship, but Bergman tells it with so much clarity I never felt alienated. If anything, it's whetted my interested in the older movie. Contrasting this old couple reuniting we have the story of a father and a daughter, Henrik and Karin, the dramatic essence of the movie to me. I've just realised this movie focus on 4 characters, three of them over 50-years-old, and yet it's extremely engaging to someone my young age. The core conflict is Karin feeling torn between leaving her father to have the life, knowing he'll die without her, or staying and seeing life pass by her. It's not an easy decision for her, however I'm glad she makes the one I expected her character to make and not the one I wanted her to make: I love a happy ending, but not when they're forced and characterisation suffers in the process. The structure was also interesting: it's several small vignettes, each involving just two characters at a time; so the film is basically just a collection of conversations. It worked very well for me; each unit serves a different purpose while building on the previous one to form the bigger whole; the way Marianne and Karin struck a friendship, for instance, was nicely done; or Henrik explaining to his daughter his fear of being abandoned and how it all relates to his dead wife, Anna.
I loved the strange little touches and moments in the movie: Marianne talking to the viewer right at the start was bizarre; her 'one minute longer' scene was funny; Karin's screaming in the middle of the woods was unbearable; seeing her sleep in the same bed with her father took me by surprise; and when she kisses him in the mouth by impulse at the height of an argument, I felt disturbed; Johan's peeing himself at the end left me feeling sad for him, it's these moments of ordinary embarrassment and fear that Bergman seems so good at capturing on the screen. The cinematography was beautiful, for a television movie it could put to shame many studio productions. I particularly loved the scene where Karin is playing her cello against a white background and the camera zooms out until she fades as a speck against the horizon.
Liv Ullmann and Borje Ahlstedt were brilliant in their roles: their performances lighted the screen every time they were on; fantastic was their scene together at the church where Henrik confesses his hatred for his father. Erland Josephson was also very good, better here than in 'Cries & Whispers:' his argument with Henrik in his office will stay in my mind forever. There's something very autobiographical in when Johan says 'I know I've been a lousy father' and Henrik replies 'You haven't been a father at all.' This is something which according to Bergman one of his sons actually told him. It's amazing how this director channels so much of his own life into his work! Julia Dufvenius was very good as Karin considering it's one of her first movies, although I wonder why they didn't choose an actual 19-year-old girl to play the Karin, was it perhaps because of some of the content.
Saraband is one of the best movies I've ever seen; 2005 is still young, but already I know I won't watch such a fine movie this year again. If this is Bergman when he's in his eighties, then I wish he'd keep on making movies until he's a hundred! This is cinema at its best.
The storyline was straightforward: it's about family, about an old couple Marianne and Johan meeting again after several years separated. I never saw the original 'Scenes From A Marriage,' so I feel I missed a lot about their relationship, but Bergman tells it with so much clarity I never felt alienated. If anything, it's whetted my interested in the older movie. Contrasting this old couple reuniting we have the story of a father and a daughter, Henrik and Karin, the dramatic essence of the movie to me. I've just realised this movie focus on 4 characters, three of them over 50-years-old, and yet it's extremely engaging to someone my young age. The core conflict is Karin feeling torn between leaving her father to have the life, knowing he'll die without her, or staying and seeing life pass by her. It's not an easy decision for her, however I'm glad she makes the one I expected her character to make and not the one I wanted her to make: I love a happy ending, but not when they're forced and characterisation suffers in the process. The structure was also interesting: it's several small vignettes, each involving just two characters at a time; so the film is basically just a collection of conversations. It worked very well for me; each unit serves a different purpose while building on the previous one to form the bigger whole; the way Marianne and Karin struck a friendship, for instance, was nicely done; or Henrik explaining to his daughter his fear of being abandoned and how it all relates to his dead wife, Anna.
I loved the strange little touches and moments in the movie: Marianne talking to the viewer right at the start was bizarre; her 'one minute longer' scene was funny; Karin's screaming in the middle of the woods was unbearable; seeing her sleep in the same bed with her father took me by surprise; and when she kisses him in the mouth by impulse at the height of an argument, I felt disturbed; Johan's peeing himself at the end left me feeling sad for him, it's these moments of ordinary embarrassment and fear that Bergman seems so good at capturing on the screen. The cinematography was beautiful, for a television movie it could put to shame many studio productions. I particularly loved the scene where Karin is playing her cello against a white background and the camera zooms out until she fades as a speck against the horizon.
Liv Ullmann and Borje Ahlstedt were brilliant in their roles: their performances lighted the screen every time they were on; fantastic was their scene together at the church where Henrik confesses his hatred for his father. Erland Josephson was also very good, better here than in 'Cries & Whispers:' his argument with Henrik in his office will stay in my mind forever. There's something very autobiographical in when Johan says 'I know I've been a lousy father' and Henrik replies 'You haven't been a father at all.' This is something which according to Bergman one of his sons actually told him. It's amazing how this director channels so much of his own life into his work! Julia Dufvenius was very good as Karin considering it's one of her first movies, although I wonder why they didn't choose an actual 19-year-old girl to play the Karin, was it perhaps because of some of the content.
Saraband is one of the best movies I've ever seen; 2005 is still young, but already I know I won't watch such a fine movie this year again. If this is Bergman when he's in his eighties, then I wish he'd keep on making movies until he's a hundred! This is cinema at its best.