After the Rehearsal (TV 1984)
"Efter repetitionen" (original title)

Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She ... See full summary »

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writer:

Ingmar Bergman

Stars:

Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, Lena Olin

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Erland Josephson	...	Henrik Vogler (older)
Ingrid Thulin	...	Rakel Egerman
Lena Olin	...	Anna Egerman (older)
Nadja Palmstjerna-Weiss	...	Anna Egerman (younger)
Bertil Guve	...	Henrik Vogler (younger)

Storyline

Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She is the lead in his new production of Stindberg's "A Dream Play." She talks of her hatred for her mother, now dead, an alcoholic actress, who was Vogler's star and lover. Vogler falls into a reverie, remembering a day Anna's mother, Rakel, late in life, came after rehearsal to beg him to come to her apartment. He awakes and Anna reveals the reason she has returned: she jolts him into an emotional response, rare for him, and the feelings of a young woman and an older man play out.

---

Plot Keywords:

actress | director | mother daughter relationship | human relationship | nudity

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

9 April 1984 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

After the Rehearsal

Filming Locations:

Sweden

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinematograph AB, Personafilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

70 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The plan was to rehearse for three weeks and then have Sven Nykvist film the results. However, the plan quickly went awry with the production beset by problems, mainly because Ingmar Bergman and his acting troupe simply sent too long agonizing over every line and how to deliver them.

---

Connections

Featured in Bergman Island (2004)

User Reviews

Soap writ existential..

This is only my second Ingmar Bergman viewing, the first being the magnificent "Seventh Seal", which left me with a long lasting impression. Perhaps it is not fair to compare this little ditty to the impressive, thoughtful epic that was the former film, but it was with such unrealistic expectations that I started watching "After the Rehearsal".

Unfortunately, I left the film disappointed and indifferent. The plot revolves around an aging play director's relation to his young lead actress, and concerns itself with acting, the personal relations of people in the profession, parenthood and estrangement. Alas, I'm afraid even my simplistic presentation makes the film sound far more interesting than it really is. In the end, "After the Rehearsal" only amounts to a monotonous (if articulate) study of romantic and interpersonal manipulation. I suppose viewers interested in acting and the theater might find something of interest in this movie, especially concerning the issues of what it means to act and direct, and how it affects persons of the field.

Personally, however, I was not engaged at all to the characters' petty personal issues, nor could I project parallels to issues larger than their own particular microcosm from their mundane -if eloquent- verbal sparring. If the "Sevent Seal"'s characters could be likened to those of Dostoyevsky's literature, "After the Rehearsal"'s protagonists would be more similar to Oscar Wilde's aestheticists and their monologues. Who do you prefer?