Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
Written and played with amazing honesty. It's simple on the surface, and plain (which is different), and it might just seem insignificant as it goes. Even in the 2 ½ hour version, instead of the 5 hour one.
But the two (and pretty much only) actors are so utterly convincing, and transparent, and the writing is so everyday and so profound, the result is something deeply moving. It's never especially fun, though it is often warm. It's absolutely not exciting, and in a sense very little happens, bordering on nothing.
Except for what is said. This is a five hour conversation between two bright people who seem to love and understand each other better than most people every hope. And yet it isn't enough. They have a love without real passion, and without drama, or even surprise. The question for them, and us, ends up being, who cares? What really matters? What's the meaning of life after all?
Famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman doesn't worry about making inaccessible or offputting films. He makes them so subtle in their probing of life's mysteries (and it is the mystery that we are confronted with, not the events under out noses), they stand apart, almost from anything anyone else has made. It's not for everyone. If you are new to his films, don't start here. It isn't fair. (Start, maybe, with Wild Strawberries.) But this one is interesting if not exciting, and deeply felt. Woody Allen often professes a tremendous admiration for Bergman's films, and you can even see an influence here, where ordinary, educated people deal with ordinary, profound issues.
Written and played with amazing honesty. It's simple on the surface, and plain (which is different), and it might just seem insignificant as it goes. Even in the 2 ½ hour version, instead of the 5 hour one.
But the two (and pretty much only) actors are so utterly convincing, and transparent, and the writing is so everyday and so profound, the result is something deeply moving. It's never especially fun, though it is often warm. It's absolutely not exciting, and in a sense very little happens, bordering on nothing.
Except for what is said. This is a five hour conversation between two bright people who seem to love and understand each other better than most people every hope. And yet it isn't enough. They have a love without real passion, and without drama, or even surprise. The question for them, and us, ends up being, who cares? What really matters? What's the meaning of life after all?
Famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman doesn't worry about making inaccessible or offputting films. He makes them so subtle in their probing of life's mysteries (and it is the mystery that we are confronted with, not the events under out noses), they stand apart, almost from anything anyone else has made. It's not for everyone. If you are new to his films, don't start here. It isn't fair. (Start, maybe, with Wild Strawberries.) But this one is interesting if not exciting, and deeply felt. Woody Allen often professes a tremendous admiration for Bergman's films, and you can even see an influence here, where ordinary, educated people deal with ordinary, profound issues.