Saraband -- Ingmar Bergman

[e_dog]

recent film ca. 2003 by Ingmar Bergman, the greatest director/screenwriter ever.

this is purportedly his 'last' film; and it is good, by his standards, which is to say, great by any other standards. if you are a fan of his, get the DVD version of this 'cause it has a documentary on the making-of this film, which is in a way at least as good as the movie itself! -- that is, if you are interested in his work b/c it enable you to see him work, indeed micromanaging the process.

the title is a term for a typeof musical piece. the film is scenario-wise a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage, which was [planned as. or actually?] a serial television show [Swedish] then released as a feature film, consisting of -- you guessed it -- scenes from a troubled marriage of professionals. starring Liv Ullman, one of the best actresses to work with Bergman. Scenes from a Marriage, btw, formed the basis for Woody Allen's comedy Scenes from a Mall from the late 80s i think.

however, the characters from the prior film are more peripheral in muchj of Saraband which focuses primrily on the man's granddaughter, played by young actress Julia Dufvenius, whose portrait the camera is occupied with taking during many shots; she is a vintage Bergman woman in the tradition of Liv Ullman and Bibi Anderson [if you don't know what i am talking about, See: PERSONA, ca. 1961, or for that matter, THE SEVENTH SEAL 1957 -- the greatest film ever made].

but the film this one most resembles, thematically, is Wild Strawberries, with its emphasis on the interweaving of themes of aging, family, love, hate, nostalgia, anxiety-unto-death.

what is quite striking, and is explicitly revealed in the accompanying documentary, is that the problem of the meaning of death for life, whch is one of the central concerns of this most existentialist of filmmakers, is a problem that has remained unresolved throughtout the auteur's career -- no surprise there -- but still one that he seeks a solution for. inspiring and depressing at the same time, like much of tragic art and maybe even the comic as well?

[Arcadia]

I saw the film in video-version, thanks!
I wonder if I saw Wild Strawberries (the spanish translation of the title is easy but the translators are sometimes very imaginative people...)
saludos,

Arcadia

[e_dog]

Wild Strawberries -- the English translation of whatever the real title is -- is the one released about a year after The Seventh Seal, so around 1958, about an old retired professor traveling to the university for an honorary ceremony acompanied by his estranged son's estranged wife and an assortment of hitchhiker characters along the way, stopping at his childhood family villa where he has flashbacks to youth, and there's several surreal nightmare-dream sequences thruout the movie. a lot of excellent memorable scenes, one of those films that improves the more you view it. which is, i think, the truest criterion of great films, those that are rich and deep enough to get better the more you see 'em rather than, like most hollywood crap, become boring -- and this is the basis for what struck me as a shocking conclusion when i found myself coming to concede that Point Break, that surfing-and-bank-robbery flick is something like a classic because it actually stands the test of time and repeated reviewing. crazy!

[Arcadia]

Point Break? is it a film?
thanks for your displaying of ideas, I always like to read them.
I´ll look in the video-stores if there is something near "Frutillas salvajes".
saludos,

Arcadia

[e_dog]

creo que el nombre es Fresas salvajes.


awesome site resource i just found --
http://www.bergmanorama.com/career.htm

[Arcadia]

thanks! I´ll check it.

[e_dog]

El Senor Bergman, el es muerto.

aDIOS!

[Arcadia]

si...
maybe he´s with W Allen is his last film now...
or singing strawberry fields forever...
or in his secret island
or in the theathre
or blowing up with Antonioni
or...

[Arcadia]

yeah... adiós!!!

(he already did that things somehow when he was alive!!)

[Arcadia]

I read yesterday a Woody Allen´s article translated by Cristina Sardoy and originally published in The New York Times.

Interesting, here´s the title and copete of the nota.

Adiós al poeta de la mortalidad

Pese a las obsesiones filosóficas y religiosas de sus filmes, Bergman era divertido, bromista e inseguro, afirma Woody Allen. Aquí analiza la obra del autor de "Persona", rebobina sus encuentros y largas conversaciones telefónicas y confiesa: el 30 de julio murió "el mejor director de cine de toda mi vida"

here, a so graphic passage that made me laugh:

"Nunca acepté sus invitaciones para ir a visitarlo porque el viaje en avión me alteraba, y no me entusiasmaba la idea de viajar en un avión pequeño a un punto cercano de Rusia para lo que imaginaba como almorzar un yogur"... that´s great!!

[judih]

yes, Arcadia. That line in Allen's memorial is fantastic.
"I never accepted his invitations to visit because the plane travel bothered me, and I didn't relish flying on a small aircraft to some speck near Russia for what I envisioned as a lunch of yogurt." (p.2 of article)

Here's the article in English:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/08/arts/woody.php

[Arcadia]

I read that again and it still make me laugh...!!! (maybe because I hate yogurt...!!!) Thanks for the original version!!