Product Description

A woman visits her ex-husband after thirty years, as he, his son and granddaughter continue to mourn the loss of the son's wife who died two years earlier.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42866 in DVD
• Brand: ULLMANN,LIV
• Released on: 2006-01-10
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, German, Swedish
• Subtitled in: English, French, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.com
You know you're back in Bergman country when a character begins speaking to the camera right from the start. In the prologue to Saraband, which was made for Swedish television, Marianne (Liv Ullmann) recounts the changes that have taken place since Scenes From a Marriage, the miniseries-turned-feature that introduced the central couple. Johan (Erland Josephson) has retired from academia, while she continues to practice family law. Since splitting up for good, they haven't seen each other in over 30 years. Marianne decides it's time to reconnect and makes plans to visit Johan at his remote cottage. While they catch up, she gets to know his estranged son, Henrik (Börje Ahlstedt), and beloved granddaughter, Karin (Julia Dufvenius), who are staying in the guest house. Both are still reeling from the death of Henrik's wife, Anna, two years ago. Although she never appears--she's represented by a portrait of Bergman's late wife, Ingrid, to whom the film is dedicated--Anna's ghost haunts them all (even Marianne, who never knew her). Divided into 10 parts plus the prologue and epilogue, Saraband looks more like a play than a film, which is not necessarily a drawback (it's in keeping with the "scenes" of the original series). The focus is on the characters and their words. They could be anywhere at any time; their problems are personal yet universal. For two hours, the outside world does not exist. In the complete universe Bergman has created for them, it doesn't need to. As much a love letter to his wife as to his muse, Ullmann--who has rarely been better--Bergman has stated that Saraband will be his final work. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

From The New Yorker
In the film that Ingmar Bergman, now eighty-seven, has declared will be his last, Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson reprise their roles from Bergman's 1973 "Scenes from a Marriage." Marianne, a sixty-three-year-old lawyer, drops in on her ex-husband Johan, an eighty-six-year-old scholar living in rural isolation, whom she has not seen in thirty-two years. Nostalgia quickly dissipates as Marianne is drawn into Johan's titanic battle with his son Henrik (Börje Ahlstedt), a widowed music professor, as conflict over Henrik's possessive plans for his teen-age daughter, Karin (Julia Dufvenius), lays bare decades of buried resentments. Johan, an egomaniacal monster whose great charm derives from the force of his unyielding will, might live and laugh mockingly forever-at the expense of those who are drawn to his brutality. At times, the raw power of the emotions is almost unbearable; the director conjures them through somewhat obvious theatrical devices. Nonetheless, his stark contrivances distill a lifetime of bitter wisdom.-Richard Brody
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Curtain Call
Bergman first introduced us to Johan and Marianne in his 1974 masterpiece Scenes from a Marriage, one of the cinema's most exacting dissections of our all-too-human failure to connect. Bergman and the splendid Scandanavian actors Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann took us through Johan and Marianne's marriage, divorce, and post-divorce reconciliation. In the end, they live apart, but still make room for the bond between them.

Three decades later, Bergman, Josephson and Ullmann have given us Saraband, a late-life gift. Marianne decides that even though she hasn't seen Johan since the 1970s, it's time to make contact again. Johan has inherited money from an aunt, and lives in splendid isolation overlooking a lake. She literally wakes him with a kiss, but soon enough Marianne's fantasy of an idyllic reunion evaporates as she gets drawn deeper into the power struggles in Johan's family.

Henrik, Johan's son, is staying in a nearby cottage with his daughter Karin. Both of them still mourn Anna, Henrik's wife and Karin's mother, who died two years before. Henrik, a music teacher, is preparing Karin, an accomplished cellist, for her conservatory entrance exams. The elderly Johan remains cold-hearted but charismatic (not unlike Bergman's own father) and one of the questions the movie explores is why people are so attracted to him. Henrik wants his father's affection and acceptance, even though Johan refuses to give it, ostensibly due to some slight by Henrik when he was 19 years old. In a painful scene, Henrik goes to Johan to ask for money to help Karin, and in his 61 year old face, we see the bewilderment of the boy who never came to grips with his self-absorbed father.

For Karin, her grandfather is a counterweight to the suffocating embrace of her father. Karin struggles to figure out what she owes Henrik, what she owes to the memory of her mother, and what she owes to herself. She lets Marianne see some, but not all, of the turmoil she's going through. For Marianne, her attraction to Johan remains as difficult to pin down as it was when she was married to him. She's always wanted something from him, but since she can't define what it is, she'll probably never get it.

The struggles between the characters get played out over ten riveting scenes bookended by Marianne's opening and closing monologues. Karin makes her choices. Henrik reacts. Marianne throws herself once more against Johan's emotional aloofness. As he's done throughout his brilliant career, Bergman brings it alive through artful dialog, perfect dramatic timing, and riveting cinematic composition. The characters are not always likable, but they are never less than engrossing.

The Criterion's DVD includes a mini-documentary of Bergman making Saraband. We watch the 87 year old director slump to the floor to illustrate some blocking, kid around with the crew, poke and prod his actors into position. It's a treat to watch him work. One wonders if any other director will ever elicit such an emotionally powerful performance from Julia Dufvenius, the fine young actress who plays Karin. One also wonders why Bergman put himself through the grueling labor of making another film after he'd announced he was through.

Bergman spent his entire career obsessed by the difficulties of human connection. Apparently he wants to say one last thing about it, which seems to be this: after all the tears and shouting, all the posturing and cruelty, all the reaching out and pulling back, this is what remains: marriages of true minds (the photo of Anna used in the film is a picture of Bergman's great love, his deceased wife Ingrid); the fraught ties of fathers and sons; memories of old loves; what you give and get from children; and the devolution of the flesh. None of it is easy, the master tells us, but all of it is necessary. In the end, it's all you have.

What's truly sad is that Bergman, sixty years after embarking on his cinematic journey, claims that he's done. He did for film what Shakespeare did for theater, took it to new levels by expanding the language used to describe the glories and follies of human striving. He will certainly be missed and he can't be replaced.

But don't see Saraband for nostalgic reasons. It's a moving, insightful film that deserves a place in the director's canon. Saraband stands on its own, but it's a deeper experience if you watch Scenes from a Marriage first.

Bergman's Swan-Song?
"Saraband" is the name of a movement in a classical piece of music by Bach. It is also the name of a dance and just like a piece of music Ingmar Bergman weaves his story to a certain rhythm of emotions.

"Saraband" touched me on a deeply personal level. It is the greatest movie going experience of my life. Now I know what many of you are thinking. How dare you! What about the "Lord of the Ring" movies, the "Harry Potter" series, the "Star Wars" movies and of course "Titanic". How on earth could I possible justify my reaction to dare say a much smaller film, a film that will go unseen by millions, yet alone, a Swedish film, is the greatest movie going experience of my life. Well you see I never really got caught up in the "Lord of the Ring" movies. I enjoyed them but I never read the books, nor have I ever read the "Harry Potter" books and I don't intend to ever read them, I simply don't have any interest. But what makes "Saraband", for me, the ultimate experience is the fact it was the first film I ever saw by Ingmar Bergman in a theatre. It was such an experience to be able to go out and watch a movie by my favorite director on the big screen. That is my explanation.

Bergman originally released this film two years ago on Swedish television just as he did "Fanny and Alexander" back in 1983. "Saraband" though is quite a cinematic event for film lovers. It is the first film Bergman has directed since 1984's "After the Rehearsal" to be released in theatres. Is that not cause for a celebration or what?

The film is a sequel to Bergman's 1974 masterpiece "Scenes From A Marriage". It is divided into 10 chapters and tells the story of Marianna (Liv Ullman) meeting Johan (Erland Josephson) 30 years after "Marriage". It is explained that Marianna simply had a sudden urge to visit him. Could it be as she grows older she wonders about what her life could have been like? Maybe. So the two meet as it turns out to be one of the most joyous moments in the film.

At this point it should be pointed out one doesn't have to watch "Scenes From A Marriage" to appreciate or understand this movie. But I must admit it does help. If only because to watch these characters on-screen is like visiting old friends. When we first see them meet our minds flood with images. We recall the first film and the impression it left on us. If you haven't seen that movie "Saraband" may have a harder time putting you under its spell.

As the film goes on we find out Johan's son, Henrik (Borje Ahlstedt) and his daughter Karin (Julia Dufvenius) are staying in his guest house. We also find out Johan and Henrik are not really on the best of terms. At most it is polite conversation whenever they are in the same room. Which is something they both try to avoid happening.

Henrik plays cello and has been teaching his daughter, who has a great gift for the instrument we are told. But their relationship is a strange one. After Karin's mother died two years ago she feels she can not leave her father to go and study because it would shatter him. It is feared he might kill himself. But Henrik is not letting his daughter live her own life. The two get into an agrument which turns violent and suddenly I was thinking about the best friends and their marriage in "Scenes".

"Saraband" begins to tell the story of love, the past, and reconciliation between former husband and wife, father and daughter and father and son.

I wrote a review a long time ago for "Scenes From A Marriage" in it I said the movie has an intensity that few films have matched. Bergman just seems to throw these characters in our face as we watch them explode. I also felt it was the greatest film I had seen on the subject of love and marriage. "Saraband" is the only film that comes closet to matching that film's power.

I should though mention, in order to be fair and balanced, that "Saraband" is not a better film than "Marriage" I seriously doubt many fans will think it is either. That is not to say "Saraband" is not a good film. Or a nice companion piece to "Scenes". Or a film without beautiful dialogue, strong performances, and powerful directing. It is a touching absorbing film but it just didn't seem to hit me as hard as "Scenes" did.

Some of my favorite scenes in the film include a conversation between Henrik and Karin about an agrument Henrik and his wife had. Another powerful scene deals with Johan and Henrik. Here we can see what kind of relationship this father and son have. We can actually fill the hate and disgust between them. And finally a scene with Marianna and Karin, as Marianna describes Johan to Karin is quite moving. In fact all of the moments in this film are wonderfully expressed by this cast and Bergman's ear for dialogue.

Are their faults with the film? Yes. The relationship between Henrik and Karin seems very strange and deserved an explanation but is given none. Also information about Karin's future is never given and we are left with that same murkiness with Johan's future. Though all in all "Saraband" is a masterpiece that is dominated by strong performances. It's emotions are real and we believe what we are seeing. I can not recommend this film strongly enough.

Bottom-line: The greatest movie going experience of my life. Ingmar Bergman's sequel to "Scenes From A Marriage" may not be as powerful as that movie, but so few films are. "Saraband" though exceeds as its own film. It feels complete as is. It has powerful acting, strong directing, and some truly beautiful speeches all set to a wonderful score by Bach.

Great final(?) film...

"Saraband" is an intense movie. It should be watched sitting very still, so that everything makes itself known to you. To me, the film is essentially about parents and children--mostly about fathers and sons, but also about mothers and daughters, as the viewer will see briefly at the end of the film. It seems to say: there are two ways of having a relationship with your children: you can abandon them, spurn their love, and watch your soul wither in the process; or you might smother them with your own issues and grief and love--that too can lead to disaster and maybe violence. However, by implication there is a third way, though you won't find it in this film. That way would be somewhere between these two, a way that doesn't involve the nauseating narcissism that Johan and Marianne showed from time to time in "Scenes from a Marriage" when, for instance, an abortion is procured for no better reason than the pregnancy seems inconvenient at the time (this is in the longer version of that film). These people clearly need to learn to live beyond themselves, and that's why the figure of Anna, hovering over the film like the Holy Ghost, is so important. Clearly she knew the right way.
The one flaw I see in this film is the way the men and women are set up, a way that seems to me stereotypical: the men are sullen, withdrawn, melancholic and prone to violence. The women are strong, prone to nurturing and caring. While these tendencies are clearly part of reality, they make the film, for me at least, less than it could be. Still, "Saraband" proves that some of Bergman's best work has been that of his "retirement". I hope I'm this productive and wise in my eighties.