Saraband (2003) (TV)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writer:

Ingmar Bergman (writer)

Release Date:

1 December 2003 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Marianne (Ullman), some thirty years after divorcing Johan (Josephson), decides to visit her ex-husband at his summer home. She arrives in the middle of a family drama between Johan's son from another marriage and his granddaughter.

Plot Keywords:

Ex Husband | Cello | Kiss | Granddaughter | Organist

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Liv Ullmann	...	Marianne
Erland Josephson	...	Johan
Börje Ahlstedt	...	Henrik
Julia Dufvenius	...	Karin
Gunnel Fred	...	Martha

Directed by
Ingmar Bergman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ingmar Bergman		writer

Cinematography by
Stefan Eriksson
Jesper Holmström
Per-Olof Lantto
Sofi Stridh
Raymond Wemmenlöv

Film Editing by
Sylvia Ingemarsson

Production Design by
Göran Wassberg

Costume Design by
Inger Pehrsson		(as Inger Pehrson)

Makeup Department
Cecilia Drott	....	makeup artist (as Cecilia Drott-Norlén)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Torbjörn Ehrnvall	....	assistant director

Art Department
Teddy Holm	....	painter
Åsa Persson	....	assistant production designer
Rasmus Rasmusson	....	set dresser
Håkan Sanchis	....	construction manager
Jan-Erik Savela	....	property master
Ulla Smith Örn	....	graphic designer
Karin Söderberg	....	upholsterer
Jan Stenmark	....	graphic designer

Sound Department
Anders Degerberg	....	sound (as Anders Degerman)
Carl Edström	....	sound (as Calle Edström)
Börje Johansson	....	sound
Erik Näsman	....	sound technician
Göran Nylander	....	sound technician
Per Nyström	....	sound
Ulf Olausson	....	sound
Gábor Pasztor	....	sound re-recording mixer (as Gabor Pasztor)

Visual Effects by
Mats Holmgren	....	digital colourist (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Sven Jarnerup	....	assistant camera
Lars Stålberg	....	electrician
Per Sturk	....	electrician
Per Sundin	....	lighting technician
Mike Tiverios	....	Steadicam operator (as Michael Tiverios)
Bengt Wanselius	....	still photographer
Adrian Wester	....	grip

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Inger Eiserwall	....	assistant costumer

Editorial Department
Ulf Nordin	....	color grader
Jesper Svedin	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Pia Ehrnvall	....	project manager
Gylla Ersson	....	publicist
Ann-Mari Langer	....	production accountant
Hanna Pauli	....	prompter
Kerstin Sundberg	....	script supervisor
Ola Westman	....	technical coordinator
Irene Wiklund	....	technical manager

Production Companies

• Danmarks Radio (DR)
• Network Movie Film-und Fernsehproduktion
• Nordisk Film- & TV-Fond
• Nordiska TV-Samarbetsfonden
• Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK)
• Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI)
• SVT Fiktion
• Sveriges Television (SVT)
• Yleisradio (YLE)
• Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)
• Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF)

Distributors

• Sveriges Television (SVT) (2003) (Sweden) (TV)
• CDI Films (2004) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• IFA (2004) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Mongrel Media (2005) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Rézo Films (2004) (France) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Classics (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) (2004) (Italy) (TV)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Anna (Sweden) (working title)
Saraband (Finland)
Sarabanda (Italy)
Sarabande (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for brief nudity, language and a violent image.

Runtime:

Argentina:120 min | Hong Kong:107 min | UK:107 min | Singapore:107 min | Sweden:220 min (TV version)

Country:

Sweden | Italy | Germany | Finland | Denmark | Austria

Language:

Swedish | English | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:MA | Japan:R-15 | Argentina:13 | Portugal:M/12 | USA:R | Finland:K-11

Company:

Danmarks Radio (DR)

Trivia:

Interviewed in Swedish TV, Ingmar Bergman said that this was his last work.

Goofs:

Plot holes: There are some interesting discrepancies in relation to the time line of the characters. The ages given for the characters are 63 (Marianne), 86 (Johan) and 61 (Henrik). Marianne says that she has not seen Johan for 32 years and that they had been married for 16 years. This means that she married Johan when she was 15 and he was 38. Johan had a falling out with his son when Henrik was 18/19, which must have been after Johan's marriage to Marianne.

Movie Connections:

Follows Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973)

Soundtrack:

Symphony no. 9 in D Minor, Movement 2: Scherzo

One of the very best films of the year; Bergman's last cinematic out-pouring is sublime

With Saraband, writer/filmmaker Ingmar Bergman closes the book, so to speak, on his life's work. It's a sequel, which could have been thwarting (why go back and do the same thing over again, one could ask). But it is the kind of sequel that bears significance. Bergman brings back two actors/friends he's worked with numerous times, Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, and uses their characters from his film/TV series Scenes from a Marriage for a higher purpose than to rake in the bucks. He's out to bring some closure to their relationship, however not entirely based on nostalgia. This time two other characters in the film, new ones, become the centerpiece of the story. As with the majority of his works, he finds two key assets that work to his advantage behind his own personal attachment to the project- the camera/lighting, and the cast.

It may be too easy to compare and contrast this film and the series. But it is of interest if only for curiosity sake. There is something of note that revealed to one how the actual cinematography can evolve properly or at least in a fashion that is not off-putting. This time around (unlike Sven Nykvist's perfect work on 'Marriage', a kind of pre-Dogma 95 style to use the camera with the story), Bergman decided to make the film for television (his on occasion work aside from theatre for the past twenty years since Fanny and Alexander) and also decided to implement digital photography. There are five cinematographers, and it's too tedious to pick out if which one did what properly or who lit this right and so on. But that in Saraband, however, doesn't suffer by way of the digital perspective. If anything, it serves its purpose fully by keeping the naturalistic mood. Some scenes are seen with as clear an eye as ever for Bergman. Others that may be a little more obscured by darkness are affecting psychologically in a way. Bergman's preference is to look at faces and expressions, without much to obscure the actors.

What is of surprise is that Bergman injects two things that he intentionally kept out of 'Scenes'- inner visions (actually shown, not just spoken and felt by the actors), and music. In at least a couple of scenes, to add an intensity and a sense of the surreal, we see what Karina sees in some key moments. She describes an ugly incident with her father. She runs through the woods. When something very ugly occurs, it happens off screen, with a pause given in-between one scream. Needless to say it was tremendously moving. The other involved an enormous, involving fantasy. She's just been told information by her grandfather Johan that is crucial for her decision towards the end. When she sits on the stairs, the camera suddenly cuts to pull back on her on a chair, against a white background, and the camera pulls back further and further at a quick pace. This kind of technique I could feel as if I've seen in maybe a dozen films. When Bergman does this, after such a hopeful scene for Karina, it is a useful technique. Whatever the intention, it's far greater a grab then in a standard action film. Those are the two kinds of scenes/images that are very emotional and immediate on a first viewing.

Ullmann and Josephson, who portrayed Marianne and Johan thirty years ago, never lose their ability to play off each other as actors. The focal point this time is with Henrik and Karina though, so the performances by Ahlstedt and especially Dufvenius for Bergman had to be even more affecting than those of the observers. Ahlstedt's Henrik is a tricky sort to empathize with perhaps: can an audience be with him when the drama unfolds with his daughter? Turns out he brings the humanity in all its darkness and seemingly complex inner-damnation as one of Bergman's most memorable characters. His conflicts with his father and daughter stem from a number of elements, but the key one is very identifiable- death of the one you've loved the most. How can change occur? This is a question posed as well for Karina, and in Ahlstedt playing her she already shows enough talent and gusto to take on stronger roles in the future. At first sight, I thought she might have been over-hitting her mark, or that Bergman was over-directing. This was not the case, and in the subtle moments she revealed herself on the level of one of Bergman's 'ladies' (i.e. Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, and Harriet Anderson).

As the closure, what does Bergman do? He does something rather wise to weave the story of the father and daughter together with the continuing story of Johan and Marianne with an equal resonance and emotional weight. The younger two find their own ends to the means, and I would not dare reveal how and why. But for Marianne Bergman answers a question that was asked if not out-right then with all of the action and tension and buildups and payoffs in 'Marriage'. Does a person know what emotion is, or what it feels like? In the final scene (to put it mildly), he and Ullmann answer it in an approach that practically had me in tears. This would not mark the first time this has happened while viewing a Bergman film, yet the fact that this is the last gave me a cleansing feeling, of the greatest cathartic release with a thoughtful film.

If it's one of the key objectives for a filmmaker in drama and tragedy to reveal it as truthfully as possible, and bring us with the character(s) full-circle, Ingmar Bergman's pulled it off wonderfully. Saraband is one of the crucial swan songs in film history (for my money, and will soon find its way to American theaters (digital projectors more or less likely). A++