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Saraband

  • TV Movie
  • 20032003
  • RR
  • 1h 47m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
8.1K
YOUR RATING
Saraband (2003)
Home Video Trailer from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Play trailer1:20
3 Videos
65 Photos
DramaMusic
Marianne, some thirty years after divorcing Johan, 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 a... Read allMarianne, some thirty years after divorcing Johan, 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.Marianne, some thirty years after divorcing Johan, 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.
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
8.1K
YOUR RATING
    • Ingmar Bergman
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Stars
    • Liv Ullmann
    • Erland Josephson
    • Börje Ahlstedt
    • Ingmar Bergman
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Stars
    • Liv Ullmann
    • Erland Josephson
    • Börje Ahlstedt
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 57User reviews
    • 86Critic reviews
    • 80Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos3

    Saraband
    Trailer 1:20
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    Saraband
    Trailer 1:15
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    Saraband
    Trailer 1:20
    Watch Saraband

    Photos65

    Ingmar Bergman in Saraband (2003)
    Julia Dufvenius and Liv Ullmann in Saraband (2003)
    Julia Dufvenius in Saraband (2003)
    Ingmar Bergman, Erland Josephson, and Liv Ullmann in Saraband (2003)
    Ingmar Bergman, Julia Dufvenius, and Liv Ullmann in Saraband (2003)
    Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann in Saraband (2003)
    Erland Josephson in Saraband (2003)
    Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann in Saraband (2003)
    Ingmar Bergman in Saraband (2003)
    Liv Ullmann in Saraband (2003)
    Börje Ahlstedt and Julia Dufvenius in Saraband (2003)
    Saraband (2003)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Liv Ullmann
    Liv Ullmann
    • Marianne
    Erland Josephson
    Erland Josephson
    • Johan
    Börje Ahlstedt
    Börje Ahlstedt
    • Henrik
    Julia Dufvenius
    Julia Dufvenius
    • Karin
    Gunnel Fred
    Gunnel Fred
    • Martha
      • Ingmar Bergman
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Last film project directed by Ingmar Bergman.
    • Goofs
      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.
    • Connections
      Featured in Bergman Island (2004)
    • Soundtracks
      Cello Suite no. 5 in C Minor, Movement 4: Saraband
      Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach

      Performed by Torleif Thedeen (as Thorleif Thedeen)

    User reviews57

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    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++
    helpful•61
    6
    • Quinoa1984
    • Oct 23, 2004

    Details

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    • Release date
      • December 1, 2003 (Sweden)
      • Sweden
      • Denmark
      • Norway
      • Italy
      • Finland
      • Germany
      • Austria
      • Sony Classics
      • Swedish
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
    • Production companies
      • SVT Fiktion
      • Danmarks Radio (DR)
      • Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 47 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby Digital

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