Saraband
2003
Reuniting the cast of "Scenes from a Marriage" (1973), the film details the relationship between Marianne and her ex-husband JOhan, whom she visits after 30 years. Before long she finds herself embroiled in a family feud stemmed by the hatred a son has for his father... Read more
| Starring | Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Borje Ahlstedt, Julia Dufvenius |
|---|---|
| Director | Ingmar Bergman |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
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Saraband
Reuniting the cast of "Scenes from a Marriage" (1973), the film details the relationship between Marianne and her ex-husband JOhan, whom she visits after 30 years. Before long she finds herself embroiled in a family feud stemmed by the hatred a son has for his father...
| Starring | Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Borje Ahlstedt, Julia Dufvenius, Gunnel Fred |
|---|---|
| Director | Ingmar Bergman |
| Studio | PALISADES TARTAN |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 47 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: Swedish |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 27 Mar 2006 Production year: 2003 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (4)
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SARABAND is a commandingly restrained final composition and as the theme of classical musicianship suggests very much an affair of close attention to the nuances of performance
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Ms. Ullman, now 65, and Mr. Josephson, 81, have a supreme mastery of the Bergman style. Their performances are spiritual and emotional X-rays.
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Most helpful member's review
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13 out of 13 people found this review helpful
First class production
One has to have watched Scenes From A Marriage before seeing Saraband. Not that Saraband cannot be appreciated on its own, but for the sake of continuity, one should follow the order of the two films.
Both Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson (along with the rest of the cast) delivered a superb performance. At no point did I feel that they were acting - I naturally felt that they were real-life characters, and that is the best kind of acting one can achieve. Strong direction and stunning acting really drew me into the story.
A message to those who are always deterred by arthouse films because of the tempo, this film is absolutely paced appropriately. Not dead slow, and not in a rush.
And did I mention Ingmar Bergman? The master among all masters. Can you really resist such a film? -
Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Customer Review
This chamber piece concludes Bergman's exploration of the pathology of human relationships. Johan (Erland Josephson) is a reclusive millionnaire who lives in a remote place surrounded by forest and lakes. His son, Henrik (Börje Ahlstedt) lives in a smaller house in his father's grounds with his daughter, Karin (Julia Dufvenius). Karin is a promising cellist and her father is teaching her to play a difficult Bach saraband (a saraband is a slow dance in a certain rhythm). He presses her too far on occasions, even using physical force to stop her leaving a lesson. Johan's wife and Karin's mother, Anna, died a few years before from what sounds like cancer.
This trio is the emotional engine of the film, in particular the hatred between Johan and his son. Lying over all three, like a shroud, is the absence of Anna and her love. When Anna is mentioned in a significant way, her black and white photograph is seen, the camera tracking slowly towards it. I gather that the lovely woman is Bergman's late wife and this fact gives her ghostly presence an autobiographical poignancy. Her death was a devastating blow to her emotionally inadequate husband and son.
Henrik teaches music but makes a poor living. Though not obviously a spend thrift, he cannot live on his income and repeatedly asks his father for money. This keeps him in Johan's orbit despite their mutual hatred for each other. Johan hated Henrik almost from the start - overweight and wheedling - and in one powerful scene he tells his son how, when Henrik was 18, he made an apology of sorts and was rebuffed. It seems Henrick is like he is because of Johan. What emotional damage would be done by a father who was repulsed by you and hated you? Yet Johan does not appear to be a cruel man in other ways. In the last interview he ever gave in 2005, Bergman was asked why he never kept in touch with his many children. He replied that he wasn't really into family life. Could the Johan-Henrik relationship have some bearing on Bergman's own absence of emotional bonds to his offspring?
Henrik's relationship with Karin is far from normal. He is over-dependent on his daughter and this is a strain on her. Although there was nothing explicit, I thought there was sexual overtones to their relationship. They slept in the same double bed and there was one scene (used in publicity photos for the film) where she kneels before her seated father. She puts her arms round his neck and strokes his neck with her hands. She does this as she would to a lover. She is extremly tender and I found this scene surprisingly beautiful.
Marianne (Liv Ullman) plays Johan's ex-wife who decides to look him up. She tries to explore their distant marriage, without much success. She strikes up a relationship with Karin - perhaps the young woman finds some of the love her mother gave her. Marianne's role, though important, is partly a structural device, facilitating the flow of the film, book-ending it with her photographs spread out on her table at home and leading us into the main action (perhaps not an appropriate word for a Bergman film). -
News and features
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Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007
- 31 Jul 2007
See the entire LOVEFiLM Bergman Collection here Checkmate. Death has finally taken the great Swedish master, Ingmar Bergman, as he always knew it must. No filmmaker wrestled longer and more painfully with the knowledge of his own mortality. His father was a severe Lutheran minister, and a figure who cast a long shadow over Bergman's films, including his premature swansong, Fanny and Alexander (1982), and perhaps his purest masterpiece, Winter Light (1962), a portrait of a pastor who has lost... Read more
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