Faithless (2000)

An imaginary woman recollects the painful experience of adultery to a storyteller.

Director:

Liv Ullmann

Writer:

Ingmar Bergman

Stars:

Lena Endre, Erland Josephson, Krister Henriksson

8 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Lena Endre	...	Marianne
Erland Josephson	...	Bergman
Krister Henriksson	...	David
Thomas Hanzon	...	Markus
Michelle Gylemo	...	Isabelle
Juni Dahr	...	Margareta
Philip Zandén	...	Martin Goldman
Thérèse Brunnander	...	Petra Holst (as Therese Brunnander)
Marie Richardson	...	Anna Berg
Stina Ekblad	...	Eva
Johan Rabaeus	...	Johan
Jan-Olof Strandberg	...	Axel
Björn Granath	...	Gustav
Gertrud Stenung	...	Martha
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Åsa Lindström	...	Prompter 2

Storyline

Marianne is a theatre actress married to an orchestra conductor, Markus. She becomes involved in an affair with their director friend, David, which leads to a painful divorce and battle for custody of their daughter, Isabelle. Although all of them are merely fictional characters created by Bergman, their experiences become very real and traumatic for him.

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Plot Keywords:

adultery | actress | orchestra | metaphor | dialogue driven | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, some nudity and language

Details

Country:

Sweden Italy Germany Finland Norway

Language:

Swedish French

Release Date:

15 September 2000 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Faithless

Filming Locations:

Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$63,841 (Sweden), 17 September 2000, Limited Release

Opening Weekend USA:

$29,462, 28 January 2001, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$734,597, 8 July 2001

Company Credits

Production Co:

Classic, Nordisk Film- & TV-Fond, Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK)

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The story is loosely based on experiences of adultery from Ingmar Bergman's own life.

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Connections

Featured in Bergman: A Year in a Life (2018)

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Soundtracks

Quartet for piano and string trio, Opus 60
(3rd movement)
By Johannes Brahms

User Reviews

Bergman's beautiful melancholy lives

Scripted by Ingmar Bergman and directed by his protege Liv Ullman, this film is much closer in spirit to Bergman realist dramas of the '70's than to his earlier expressionist work. Many of his characteristic themes are here: the responsibility of artists, and the hopelessness at the heart of modern relationships are prominent.

It's a deeply melancholy film, the only piece of comic relief is a scene where one of the protagonists is rehearsing a play which is hopelessly overwrought: if cinema is Bergman's mistress and theatre his wife, in this case, she's a wild, psychotic spouse. The movie as a whole is deeply theatrical, though, saved from being stagey by a few beautifully poetic cinematic touches. The acting is wonderful, bringing to a well-worn tale a deeply moving grandeur.