Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection

Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection
by Ingmar Bergman

Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection
List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $35.99
You Save: $3.96 (10%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $14.00 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

Compare Prices for Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection

(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD Cover Information

Actor: Halvar Bj?rk, Ingrid Bergman, Lena Nyman, Liv Ullmann, Marianne Aminoff
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Swedish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.66:1
Running Time: 92 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-01-18
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Criterion

Movie Reviews of Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection

Movie Review: NOT A MOVIE; RATHER, A KIND OF CINEMATIC NOVELLA
Summary: 5 Stars

Recently heard McMurty holding forth on the diminishment of reading in our culture; not so much the advancement of illiteracy, only the shrinking community of functioning literacy in politics, the arts and culture, and in human interaction. It would seem that the big books, the 19th century "psychological" novels as well as novels of social relevance and insight, are becoming neglected and consequently irrelevant. Probably true. And I could say, following that line of thought, that the big movies (and by that I mean complex, often novel-into-film movies) that used to dominate one's concerns, as well as the high end of SHOWBIZ biz, are themselves vanishing. There are fewer of them and their emotional content appears to have been diluted by cinematic or photographic effects; all flash and dazzle. If that decline in cinematic literacy has been a constant over the past few decades, say, since the end of the Cold War, then little, distilled small screen films like this one appear more potent, more suffused with meaning and importance by contrast with... What might have been. Bergman's SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE may have begun the trend in two-character, intimate dramas. It was a for-TV show and had a big impact. Imitators here and abroad followed. For me, an over-abundance of riches. Except for Fassbinder, nobody equaled Bergman, though Allen came and comes close.

Personally, I am not greatly entheused by the prospect of prolonged intimate contact with people who are, after all, only fictional creations with bourgeois concerns and trappings, behaving in fixed, artistically-contrived situations, no matter how convincing-looking they appear to be. One thinks of the neuroticism of Pfeiffer cartoons.

Myself, dealing with people and their often literarily-inspired fantasies about their often predictable agonies of self importance is seldom entertaining or even bearable, like Freudian parlor games. Fortunately, skilled keen-edged artists like Bergman are able to trim the psycho-fat from even the seemingly unavoidale, even obligatory in vino veritas spasms of self-revelation -- like that of daughter Liv Ulman here, and mother Ingrid Bergman -- and present us with something like a dramatic scene, with a beginning a middle and an end. But not quite. To have been raised by a narcissistic parent resonates, but... Not quite.

This remarkable work, and it is truly remarkably realized, with moments of surprising and shocking beauty, has much of that quality Maughm disliked in the plays of Chekov; to him they seemed not complete or completed works, but disturbing, self-indulgent character sketches. I agree. Even this piece has the quality of a sketch for a larger, future project. And so it falls into a category of size and/or scale like a Novella to a Novel, or a Sketch or Print to a Painting. And that's not a bad thing. We don't look at prints much, anymore; etchings, engravings, block prints and wood engravings, and when we think of them at all, if and when we ever do, we tend to see them in our minds on walls, displayed the way small pictures are usually shown. But this is inappropriate. The best way to enjoy a print is at something a bit less than arm's length, as it is mounted on paper in a folder or portfolio, and that folio rests on an easel. We read a pring much as we read a printed or illuminated page. And if you have ever looked into a Rembrandt etching no bigger than a couple of inches square, you know what I mean.

And this wonderful thing is of that Rembrandt nature; something not best seen blown up on a big screen, or projected for a big audience in a darkened cinema, but best shown and best enjoyed in solitude, projected on a television screen. On that scale it comes into its own as a treasure meant to be savored in privacy: Something like one of those carved jade pieces that are pretty to look at and to examine on a writing table, but best reveal their true glory when held in a warm and appreciative hand.

A quiet, intimate revelation.
Write your own review
More Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Summary of Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection

A stunning union of two of Sweden's national treasures, Autumn Sonata pairs Ingmar Bergman with Ingrid Bergman for their only joint effort. Ingrid plays a mother who, after forsaking her family for a music career, attempts a reconciliation with her oldest daughter (Liv Ullmann) through a night of painful revelation. Sven Nykvist contributes glorious Eastmancolor cinematography to this quietly beautiful story of forgiveness. Criterion is proud to present Autumn Sonata in a gorgeous digital transfer.
Bergman (Ingrid) meets Bergman (Ingmar) in this fine but not outstanding story from 1978 of a concert pianist who meets up with her estranged daughter (Liv Ullmann) for the first time in seven years, and spends an evening confronting unresolved ill feelings from the past. Ingmar's been down this road plenty of times and in better films (Cries and Whispers); but even as a minor work, this is a powerful piece with two top actresses of their day. This was Ingrid Bergman's last film. --Tom Keogh

Art House & International DVD Video
DVD Video
Movies most talked about in World Cinema
The Phantom of Liberty ImageThe Phantom of Liberty
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2005-05-24; DVD
Best price: $20.04
Price in other shops: $29.95
The Tin Drum - Criterion Collection ImageThe Tin Drum - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-05-18; DVD
Best price: $19.54
Price in other shops: $39.95
Dog Day Afternoon (Two-Disc Special Edition) ImageDog Day Afternoon (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2006-02-28; DVD
Best price: $5.43
Price in other shops: $26.98
Marketa Lazarov? [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Great Britain ] ImageMarketa Lazarov? [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Great Britain ]
DVD
Best price: $31.99
Closely Watched Trains - Criterion Collection ImageClosely Watched Trains - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2001-09-18; DVD
Best price: $19.30
Price in other shops: $29.95
Woman Under the Influence - Criterion Collection ImageWoman Under the Influence - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-11-04; DVD
Best price: $19.95
Price in other shops: $39.95
That Obscure Object of Desire - Criterion Collection ImageThat Obscure Object of Desire - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2001-11-20; DVD
Best price: $20.01
Price in other shops: $29.95
Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection ImageAutumn Sonata - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2000-01-18; DVD
Best price: $26.93
Price in other shops: $39.95
Taste of Cherry - Criterion Collection ImageTaste of Cherry - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 1999-06-08; DVD
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops: $29.95
Scenes From a Marriage - Criterion Collection ImageScenes From a Marriage - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-03-16; DVD
Best price: $33.00
Price in other shops: $49.95
Similar DVD Movies
The Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection ImageThe Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 1999-01-26; DVD
Best price: $25.00
Price in other shops: $39.95
The Magic Flute - Criterion Collection ImageThe Magic Flute - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2000-05-16; DVD
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops: $29.95
Eclipse Series 1 - Early Bergman (Torment / Crisis / Port of Call / Thirst / To Joy) (Criterion Collection) ImageEclipse Series 1 - Early Bergman (Torment / Crisis / Port of Call / Thirst / To Joy) (Criterion Collection)
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2007-03-27; DVD
Best price: $48.15
Price in other shops: $69.95
Ingmar Bergman - Four Masterworks (Criterion Collection) ImageIngmar Bergman - Four Masterworks (Criterion Collection)
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2007-12-04; DVD
Best price: $69.83
Price in other shops: $99.95
The Virgin Spring - Criterion Collection ImageThe Virgin Spring - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2006-01-24; DVD
Best price: $24.95
Price in other shops: $39.95
Persona ImagePersona
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2004-02-10; DVD
Best price: $14.39
Price in other shops: $24.98
Wild Strawberries - Criterion Collection ImageWild Strawberries - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2002-02-12; DVD
Best price: $24.93
Price in other shops: $39.95
Smiles Of A Summer Night - Criterion Collection ImageSmiles Of A Summer Night - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-05-25; DVD
Best price: $17.62
Price in other shops: $29.95
A Film Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman - Criterion Collection (Through a Glass Darkly/Winter Light/The Silence) ImageA Film Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman - Criterion Collection (Through a Glass Darkly/ Winter Light/ The Silence)
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2003-08-19; DVD
Best price: $56.24
Price in other shops: $79.95
Scenes From a Marriage - Criterion Collection ImageScenes From a Marriage - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-03-16; DVD
Best price: $25.99
Price in other shops: $49.95
Books | Health and Personal Care | Beauty | Digital Cameras and Photo | Kitchen and Housewares | Tools and Hardware
Copyright © 2005-2007 dvdnear.com
Google
 
Web dvdnear.com
Compare prices and read customer reviews for more than one million DVD titles.
Oscar 2005 Winners