Fanny and Alexander (1982)

Two young Swedish children experience the many comedies and tragedies of their family, the Ekdahls.

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writer:

Ingmar Bergman

Stars:

Bertil Guve, Pernilla Allwin, Kristina Adolphson

Won 4 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kristina Adolphson	...	Siri - Ekdahlska huset
Börje Ahlstedt	...	Carl Ekdahl - Ekdahlska huset
Pernilla Allwin	...	Fanny Ekdahl - Ekdahlska huset
Kristian Almgren	...	Putte Ekdahl - Ekdahlska huset
Carl Billquist	...	Police Superintendent Jespersson - Ekdahlska huset
Axel Düberg	...	Witness to Bishop's Death - Ekdahlska huset
Allan Edwall	...	Oscar Ekdahl - Ekdahlska huset
Siv Ericks	...	Alida - Ekdahlska huset
Ewa Fröling	...	Emilie Ekdahl - Ekdahlska huset
Patricia Gélin	...	Statue - Ekdahlska huset (as Patricia Gelin)
Majlis Granlund	...	Miss Vega - Ekdahlska huset
Maria Granlund	...	Petra Ekdahl - Ekdahlska huset
Bertil Guve	...	Alexander Ekdahl - Ekdahlska huset
Eva von Hanno	...	Berta - Ekdahlska huset
Sonya Hedenbratt	...	Aunt Emma - Ekdahlska huset

Storyline

It's the early twentieth century Sweden. Adolescent siblings Alexander and Fanny Ekdahl lead a relatively joyous and exuberant life with their well-off extended paternal family, led by the family matriarch, their grandmother, Helena Ekdahl. The openness of the family culture is exemplified by Helena's now deceased husband ending up becoming best friends with one of her lovers, a Jewish puppet maker named Isak Jacobi, and their Uncle Gustav Adolf's open liaison with one of the family maids, Maj, who everyone in the family adores, even Gustav Adolf's wife, Alma. Between the siblings, Alexander in particular has inherited the family's love of storytelling, his parents and his grandmother who are actors and who manage their own theater. Things change for Alexander and Fanny when their father, Oscar, dies shortly after Christmas 1907. Although she truly does believe she loves him, the children's mother, Emilie, decides to marry Bishop Edvard Vergérus, who she first met as the officiate at ...

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Plot Keywords:

austerity | domestic violence | grief | marriage of convenience | abusive stepfather | 

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Taglines:

En film av Ingmar Bergman

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

To encourage a more natural performance from his young lead actor, Ingmar Bergman specifically didn't tell Bertil Guve what the film was about and what was going to happen in it.

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Goofs

Among the Christmas decorations in the Ekdahl house, there is a garland of miniature flags of the Nordic countries, including the Finnish flag. The Finnish flag was in fact only designed and adopted after Finnish independence in 1917, a decade after the events of the film.

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Quotes

Ekdahlska huset - Helena Ekdahl: Everything can happen. Everything is possible and probable. Time and space do not exist. On a flimsy framework of reality, the imagination spins, weaving new patterns.

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Alternate Versions

Theatrical version is 188 minutes long. Director's cut is 312 minutes long.

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Connections

Referenced in Vsechnopárty: Episode dated 11 January 2019 (2019)

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Soundtracks

Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44
(1842)
Written by Robert Schumann
Performed by Marianne Jacobs

User Reviews

Could well lay claims to being the best European film of all time

I am not one for putting up idols on pedestals; mostly Bergman's films leave me tepid or even cold. But Fanny och Alexander is a splendid production, beautifully made, so superb it even evokes feelings of having come from a novel. Excellent characterization throughout, all the way down the cast, lending that magic touch to the costuming of the early 1900s. Mesmerising throughout, the film is not a single minute too long. The development of the story-line is superbly handled in an absorbing and coherent manner, manifesting the great empathy between director and actors. If the cinematography is visual poetry, the script is philosophical and full of awareness or consciousness of things in life, but not at a pretentious, abstract and theoretical level, but at a real human dimension.

If you only have 10 videos in your collection, Fanny och Alexander should be one of them. My vote is a bit higher than the IMDb average.

These comments refer to the 3-hour version.

Details

Country:

Sweden France West Germany

Language:

Swedish German Yiddish English French

Release Date:

17 December 1982 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Fanny and Alexander

Filming Locations:

Valvgatan, Uppsala, Uppsala Län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$6,783,304

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$6,795,771

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinematograph AB, Svenska Filminstitutet (SFI), Gaumont

Technical Specs

Runtime:

188 min 312 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1