tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795601141833900338.post5230884455209329460..comments2023-04-03T05:11:10.672-07:00Comments on THE MOVIE PROJECTOR: Family Therapy: Two by Ingmar Bergman, Part 2R. D. Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05045080274131718843noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795601141833900338.post-16507111420074718192009-08-09T23:56:04.882-07:002009-08-09T23:56:04.882-07:00I have referred to you in my Ingrid Bergman blog. ...I have referred to you in my Ingrid Bergman blog. You have just earned a follower and I look forward to exploring your entire blog as well as your future posts. I love reading educated and well organized essays about film. Thank you for your contribution! <br /><br />http://ingridbergmanfilms.blogspot.com/2009/08/movie-projector-blog.html<br /><br />AlexisAlexishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07389213560455534983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795601141833900338.post-56993300846023352592009-08-04T17:43:13.814-07:002009-08-04T17:43:13.814-07:00Sam, it's good to hear from you again, and as ...Sam, it's good to hear from you again, and as always I thank you for your kind and insightful comments. I wasn't sure how to include those thoughts about "Through a Glass Darkly." I felt it would be neglectful of me not to include them, yet they seemed to be a digression when included in the text of the post. So I decided just to make them an addendum. I've long considered Bergman to be the greatest director of all time, and that combined with the fact that (especially in his later films) he has such an emphasis on using narrative to illuminate ideas and themes makes him a pleasure to write about. I find that the process of writing about Bergman makes me grasp his points more clearly, so in that sense writing about him is really quite rewarding. It has been a real experience catching up on the films from the 70s, many of which were new to me, and it is the WitD 70s poll that inspired me to do it. So I thank you doubly!R. D. Finchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05045080274131718843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795601141833900338.post-44065694466075764602009-08-03T13:07:11.342-07:002009-08-03T13:07:11.342-07:00Nice parallel to the earlier THROUGH A GLASS DARKL...Nice parallel to the earlier THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, which I agree was the forerunner of the Bergman we see later in PERSONA, SCENES OF A MARRIAGE, AUTUMN SONATA and finally in SARABAND, which brings back the same two characters and actors who played them.<br /><br />In the simplest terms possible (and you are far more complex later in the review) here's how you rightly deliniate what the film is about:<br /><br />"Yet as one might expect from a film directed by the magisterial Bergman, there is a great deal more going on here than meets the eye. Like Scenes from a Marriage, Autumn Sonata is basically a two-character movie (the two characters are brilliantly inhabited by the great actresses Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann), and it is the incredible complexity of those characters that is responsible for the depth, subtlety, and surprise wrung from such a seemingly simple premise."<br /><br />And your analytical examination reaches it's height here:<br /><br />"After that confrontation, we begin to see Charlotte in a different light too. If at first Eva was entirely sympathetic, appearing to be a victim, then Charlotte came off as comparatively unsympathetic. Under her soignée, poised exterior, she seemed a cool, aloof, and self-centered woman immersed in her career and avoiding true intimacy, a woman capable of superficial affection but not of any kind of deeper love, even for her own daughters. She treats Eva politely but is rather formal and distant with her. Something of a perfectionist, she is obviously repelled by Helena's disability."<br /><br />The dropping of masks role revearsal you rightly speak of in recalling PERSONA can also be at least partially applied to the scenario in THE PASSION OF ANNA, although mental illness intrudes there as well.<br /><br />I can only say R.D. "bravo" to this:<br /><br /> "In Autumn Sonata Bergman tells yet again a story of individuals that gives the viewer an intensive, microcosmic picture of all human relationships. That Eva and Charlotte can love each other only from a distance merely emphasizes the larger concept of the universal and unbridgeable distance between all human beings, even when they are related by blood, and when they share the emotional bond of love."<br /><br />This film peels away the gauze and strips all aurface appearance to get to the (not so pleasant) revelations that do exist in all relationships.<br /><br />Your work here with Bergman in these two parts (and before with CRIES AND WHISPERS) is at the highest level of critical examination I have ever seen at this site.Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.com