Saraband

Ingmar Bergman is one of the undisputed masters of cinema. Among the greatest films ever made you would have to count his Wild Strawberries, Through a Glass Darkly, The Silence, Winter Light, Persona, Hour of the Wolf, Shame (my personal favorite), Passion of Ann, and Fanny and Alexander. There is no other director who even comes close to having made as many classics as Bergman. His latest, Saraband, has several scenes that rival even his finest work, including a horrifying sequence where a father and daughter fight and then, briefly, and without comment, kiss passionately, before returning to their fight. Sadly, these fine moments are embedded among some extremely long, extremely dull talking-heads sequences that make Saraband very difficult to sit through, and as such I can’t really recommend this film. There are great performances by Julia Dufvenius as the faithful daughter who is stifled by her needy father, and Borje Alstedt as the man who has failed at everything and now wants only to be loved by anyone. Liv Ullman also does her usual tone-perfect performance as an elderly woman who, on a whim, seeks out the ex-husband (Erland Josephson) she hasn’t seen in years, and becomes entangled in his messy family life. Still, in spite of all these strengths this will go down as a minor last moment in the unbearably brilliant career of Bergman.