Saraband

Saraband
by Ingmar Bergman

Saraband
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: B?rje Ahlstedt, Erland Josephson, Gunnel Fred, Julia Dufvenius, Liv Ullmann
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language); German (Original Language); Swedish (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-01-10
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures

Movie Reviews of Saraband

Movie Review: saying and meaning
Summary: 5 Stars

Bergman is deeply aware of the gap that separates "saying" from "meaning". His characters always put honesty before consideration, and this is usually the drama they are faced with. His plots take place in the hiatus that separates the depth of thoughts and feelings from the surface of expression. The soothing, conventional expressions, the high-sounding words of love and gratitude, the hollow and pathetic apologies are never uttered, or when they are they do not come without a sense of betrayal. The most genuine impressions are faked as soon as spoken-- because as soon as they are shaped into words one becomes aware of what one is saying; feeling gives way to acting, and, in an irony that reveals the ambiguity of the very word "acting", we, the actors, immediately become spectators of ourselves. We then listen to ourselves speaking, we weigh the words against their meaning and watch ourselves as if from outside while hoping to speak from the inside, and in taking the utmost care to make sure the words and gestures are convincing, we betray them with a false, phony spontaneity. This complex tension between words and meaning, spontaneity and acting, truthfulness and consideration, is the matter of which Bergman's movies -- particularly Scenes from A Marriage, together with its sequence, Saraband-- are made. There's a grain of contempt in every spoken word, Nietzsche said somewhere. In Bergman, each word is spoken as if the speaker, or even the words themselves, were painfully aware of the contempt they carry and the betrayal in which they incur. And because of this they carry a weight and a significance that are rarely to be found today, when the right expression comes instantly on-demand and tailored for the right situation, and words abound full of sound, fury, and little else.

Summary of Saraband

After their divorce johan & marianne lost touch. Johan now retired has withdrawn to his grandparents summerhouse. Here he leads a solitary life with his books. Marianne who is still a practicing attorney decides to look up johan. After 32 years of separation they begin several intense weeks together. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/23/2006 Starring: Liv Ullman Erland Johnson Run time: 111 minutes Rating: R Director: Ingmar Bergman
You know you're back in Bergman country when a character begins speaking to the camera right from the start. In the prologue to Saraband, which was made for Swedish television, Marianne (Liv Ullmann) recounts the changes that have taken place since Scenes From a Marriage, the miniseries-turned-feature that introduced the central couple. Johan (Erland Josephson) has retired from academia, while she continues to practice family law. Since splitting up for good, they haven't seen each other in over 30 years. Marianne decides it's time to reconnect and makes plans to visit Johan at his remote cottage. While they catch up, she gets to know his estranged son, Henrik (B?rje Ahlstedt), and beloved granddaughter, Karin (Julia Dufvenius), who are staying in the guest house. Both are still reeling from the death of Henrik's wife, Anna, two years ago. Although she never appears--she's represented by a portrait of Bergman's late wife, Ingrid, to whom the film is dedicated--Anna's ghost haunts them all (even Marianne, who never knew her). Divided into 10 parts plus the prologue and epilogue, Saraband looks more like a play than a film, which is not necessarily a drawback (it's in keeping with the "scenes" of the original series). The focus is on the characters and their words. They could be anywhere at any time; their problems are personal yet universal. For two hours, the outside world does not exist. In the complete universe Bergman has created for them, it doesn't need to. As much a love letter to his wife as to his muse, Ullmann--who has rarely been better--Bergman has stated that Saraband will be his final work. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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