Smiles of a Summer Night

An attorney (Gunnar Bjornstrand), his young, virginal wife (Ulla Jacobsson), a vulnerable son returned home from college, their slatternly maid (Harriet Andersson), a visiting actress (Eva Dahlbeck), her officer lover (Jarl Kulle), and his troublemaker wife all converge on a country estate where various affairs come to light, jealousies and anguish abound, and tempers flair. Ingmar Bergman's first, liberating mass success is sharp, provocative, light, and amusing, made with delicate cinematography, and a game cast with Bergman regulars Bjornstrand and Andersson standing out and Kulle highly memorable as a caddish officer always seeking satisfaction. For a worthy reworking see Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy.

*** out of ****

Ingmar Bergman's Silence of God Trilogy

Through a Glass Darkly (1961)

 A young woman (Harriet Andersson), just released from the hospital following treatment for schizophrenia, retreats to a remote island and frolics with her bookish brother (Lars Passgard) while her sullen husband (Max von Sydow) attempts to repair their marriage and she learns the devastating news that her author father (Gunnar Bjornstrand) has been exploiting her sickness for his work. Immaculately shot by Bergman's longtime cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Through a Glass Darkly is cerebral, shocking, and sorrowful with a possessed, otherworldly performance from Andersson.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Winter Light (1963)

A Lutheran minister (Bjornstrand) practices mass without feeling, offers his own feelings of helplessness to a suicidal man (von Sydow) who reaches out to him, and treats his loving mistress (Gunnel Lindblom) with nothing but disdain as the only true believer in his clergy is the hunchback Sexton. Striking, succinct, penetrating, and humorless, Bjornstrand's performance and Lindblom breaking the fourth wall during the letter reading scene stand atop an austere Winter Light.

*** out of ****

The Silence (1963)

A sensual woman (Lindblom) and her child stop for a layover in a bizarre, unnamed and virtually inaudible European town when her cold and distant sister (Ingrid Thulin) takes ill during a journey by train. Oblique, extremely minimalist, and starkly filmed The Silence is ultimately a shocking and viscerally moving experience.

*** out of ****

The Virgin Spring

A beautiful and pious maiden leaves her country home making her way through the woods to church when she is accosted and murdered by three vile brothers, who happen to find themselves at their victim's home and subject to her kin's mercy. Ingmar Bergman's adaptation of a 13th century folk ballad (which has been reworked several times as horror fodder that totally misses the point) is haunting, violent, and brooding, filmed with pristine black and white photography with many memorable sequences, the finest being its striking ending.

**** out of ****

Fanny and Alexander

A lively family of actors gather at their mothers on Christmas Eve for a night of drunken revelry. Soon, the eldest brother and troupe leader expires on stage leaving his widow to remarry a tyrannical Lutheran bishop who removes her two children from their inspiring family household and subjects them to an austere, monastic form of living. Upon its release, Fanny and Alexander was announced as the final film of Ingmar Bergman and can be viewed as a vividly sumptuous summation of the director's work and life, who here presents a simple story functioning on a visceral level with brilliant staging, wonderful acting, and Sven Nykvist's unforgettable closeup cinematography.

**** out of ****

Cries & Whispers

A woman lays dying of cancer in a remote country estate (Harriet Andersson) and receives no comfort from her emotionally cold, self-serving sisters (Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Thulin), and gains her only solace from a saintly and mistreated servant (Kari Sylwan). Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers astonishingly and in a quietly moving manner finds hope and affirmation in a harsh, castigating, and utterly bleak story. The film is brilliantly shot in profuse reds and whites and expertly acted by a band of Bergman familiars.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Persona

A nurse (Bibi Andersson) is assigned to care for an actress (Liv Ullmann)  who suffered a breakdown and has ceased speaking entirely. The two women retreat to a seaside cottage in hopes the tranquil settings will help in the form of therapy and quickly form a powerful bond and find their personages beginning to fuse together. Ingmar Bergman's is challenging, quintessential art house fare that I'd be damned to offer any meaningful analysis on. It is dark, beautiful, hypnotic, haunting, and cryptic, filled with jarring imagery and containing excellent performances from its female leads.

*** 1/2 out of ****

The Seventh Seal

A world weary knight (Max von Sydow) making his way home from the Crusades happens upon Death and challenges him to a chess game with the hopes of preempting and preventing the inevitable. During the course of their game, the knight ruminates on the existence of God, his impending death, and the meaning of life. Ingmar Bergman's quintessential arthouse masterpiece is a brilliant and emotionally draining discourse on human nature, pristinely shot, and replete with stunning sequence after stunning sequence including a mercy killing preceding a burning at the stake, Death slowly creeping into the frame, a troubadour's fake demise followed by his actual one, and, of course, the haunting dance of death.
**** out of *****

Autumn Sonata

A celebrated concert pianist (Ingrid Bergman) who has long neglected her family returns to the home of her daughter (Liv Ullman) and, to her surprise and shock, finds her other mentally challenged daughter (Lena Nyman) whom she had long ago institutionalized. An awkward reacquaintance and dinner is followed by a late-night conversation between mother and daughter where years of unspoken hatreds and regrets come bubbling to the surface. Autumn Sonata joined two of Sweden's most celebrated international talents Ingmar and Ingrid Bergman, in what would be a late career triumph for both of them. Ingrid, who is cold and tremendous in her role, would earn an Academy Award nomination and not make another feature film, and Ingmar, whose film is as dark and challenging as any of the many great works he crafted, would receive further critical accolades and also an Oscar nod for screenwriting. The cinematography by his longtime collaborator Sven Nykvist is sumptuous and Liv Ullman is match for Ms. Bergman in a heartbreaking performance.

Bergman Island

Early in the 1960s, art house master Ingmar Bergman discovered the island of Faro off the Swedish coast where he would film several of his classics ("Through a Glass Darkly", "Persona", "Scenes from a Marriage") and live in relative seclusion until his death in 2007. In 2004 he granted a series of exclusive interviews to filmmaker Marie Nyrerod at his home which were made into three separate films, which were whittled down into this feature length version I viewed. Bergman details his childhood, personal life, distinguished career, and day to day living habits, often in brutal detail and clarity, which is par for the course with his most cherished films.

Saraband

Marianne addresses the camera directly and asks whether or not she should visit her ex-husband Johann, whom she has not seen in almost 30 years, and answers almost immediately in the affirmative. Travelling to his cabin in the woods where he now resides, the couple picks up where they left off as if no time has passed and begin to ruminate their lives while becoming involved in a scenario with Johann's son and his unhealthy relationship with his prodigious teenage daughter. In the final statement of his abounding career as a director, Ingmar Bergman reunites his characters 30 years following "Scenes from a Marriage". Now in the twilight of their lives, Liv Ullman and Erland Josephson once more give tender and consummate performances as a couple who long ago ended their marriage but have still managed to maintain their friendship and even attraction. When Ullman and Josephson grace the screen "Saraband" is wonderful and intelligent film, and a touching tribute to the legendary director whom they both worked under at length. When the story involving Johann's son and grandaughter takes center stage, it is (unsurprisingly) less engaging as we await for the two stars to reappear. "Saraband" is a moving and fitting both to a wonderful story as well as an unsurpassed career.

Scenes from a Marriage

Marianne and Johan are two middle aged successful people residing in Stockholm with two daughters and seemingly content marriage. However, when Johan reveals his affair with another woman, Marianne begins divorce proceedings as hidden layers of disdain and contempt are revealed from their still loving relationship. "Scenes from Marriage" is a Swedish television series which was written and directed by legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and remains one of the most regarded and successful works of his considerate. I viewed the 6 part, 6 hour television version (the one most have seen in the U.S. is a feature length and with a slightly different tone) which is an intimate, beautiful, and often harsh work, shot in closeups and consisting almost exclusively of its two stars, Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson as they enact as the various scenes of their partnership with great power and emotion. "Scenes from a Marriage" is an insightful and difficult character study to the greatest degree from a master filmmaker, his loyal cinematographer Sven Nykvist, and featuring two great performances from his longtime collaborators.