Autumn Sonata

Two of Scandinavia's top actresses light up the screen in this classic tale of a mother and daughter trying to get a grip on the past and on each other.An aging but still magnetic Ingrid Bergman is Charlotte, a concert pianist with an international reputation. She gets a letter from her daughter Eva (an incandescent Liv Ullmann) inviting her for a visit. The two haven't seen each other for seven years. In that time, Eva has married Viktor (Halvar Bjork) a pastor in rural Norway and moved to the parsonage with him. They've had a son together, Erik, who drowned when he was four. Charlotte has another daughter, Helena, with a spastic condition that renders her nearly mute and mostly immobile. After Charlotte arrives, Eva informs her that she's moved Helena into the parsonage, which Charlotte reads as a rebuke to her own decision to place Helena in an institution.This is one of Ingmar Bergman's chamber movies, in which he puts a small number of characters in a claustrophobic setting and steadily builds up the pressure until emotions explode. Charlotte and Eva start off cordial to one another, but Eva's anger at her mother for sins of omission and commission can't be contained. Her sense of grievance builds, reaching a crescendo in a late night scene where the wine comes out and the gloves come off.As is often the case with Ingmar Bergman's chamber movies, a somewhat schematic script is offset by brilliant moviemaking. This begins with the actresses. Ingrid Bergman (ill with cancer during the filming) gives a superb performance. Ullmann's would be astonishing if he hadn't seen her hit these heights in Bergman's movies time and again. Cinematographer Sven Nyquist's captivating lighting shows the characters moving in and out of the shadows in the parsonage, an analogue for the moments of illumination and concealment Eva and Charlotte experience in their confrontations with one another.The blocking and framing and editing are superb. In one particularly mesmerizing scene, Charlotte is at the piano playing a difficult concerto. All of her attention is on the instrument. Eva sits on the bench next to her, and we see Charlotte in profile to the right of the frame and Eva facing forward. As Charlotte plays, a lifetime of emotions pass across Eva's face: appreciation tinged with envy at her mother's talent; sadness at the price her mother paid to pursue that talent, and sadness at the cost to those who loved her; and, finally, anger as she realizes she's lost her mother yet again to music, the one thing that truly matters to Charlotte. It's a stunning piece of acting and filmmaking.Charlotte leaves for her next concert. We see her on the train with her agent. Her makeup is in place, and the confusion and vulnerability she let peek out during the long night with Eva have been tucked away. Charlotte is a tough woman for whom the show must go on, no matter the price. Our last glimpse of Eva is back at the parsonage. She's written another letter to her mother; she hopes they'll continue trying to reach out to one another. Eva has had her catharsis, but she's still locked in to the little girl she was, endlessly yearning for what she'll never get. We see Charlotte reading the letter, skepticism spreading across her face: she's not going back there.As Peter Cowie points out in his commentary, the characters' scripted emotions resonate in Bergman's personal life. As he reveals in Bergman Island, the recently released biographical film by Marie Nyrerod, Bergman felt guilty about neglecting his own children while he poured all his emotional energy in to his film and theater families. This movie is an earlier attempt to come to grips with that guilt, and makes the case for both the narcissistic artist and the victims damaged by the artist's emotional triage. The two great actresses use their magic to bring this dilemma movingly and memorably to life.

Ingrid Bergman, in her final movie role, stars as a famous concert pianist. She had pursued her musical career, while being an absent mother who was distant and critical of her daughter (played by Liv Ullmann as an adult). She returns for a short visit after an extended absence. Mother and daughter confront the pain of their broken relationship. This is an intense drama that, if you are a sensitive person, will bring you to tears. Ingmar Bergman (no familial relationship to Ingrid) shows his talent as a great director. The film was made in 1978, in "dark colors" typical of Bergman. The DVD has excellent video and audio quality. It was filmed in Swedish, with optional English subtitles that are very easy to read. You can also select a dubbed English soundtrack, which I have not tried. You also get a second DVD, which is a documentary about the making of the film. I have not watched that yet, so I can't comment on it.

I had to learn the hard way, that there are less than "perfect" renditions of this DVD out there to be sold. The first I bought was one of these. I won't go on to "name call", but paying extra for the Criterion Collection is a must for any Bergman fan. The poor film quality and subtitles (to the point they are distracting from the film and at times so bad they are humerous) make paying anything at all a sheer waste of money for a Criterion Collection substitute.I don't agree that Autumn Sonata is a mediocre film. I think Bergman did understand women well, and portrayed this mother/daughter relationship nicely. He was able to show in his dialectically opposite approach, the vulnerabilities of the narcisstic artist and the self depreciating/ martyr. They exposed themselves, faced off and retreated to their comfortable life positions by the end of the movie. The use of the unnamed ailment of the younger daughter represents the other side of mother who often cries as a baby of her back pain, but at least is left whole enough to express herself also in her music. The death of the son at age four I think represents the symbolic death of the innocence in all of the "chamber music" of characters in this film (mother, daughters and husband) which Bergman uses in many of his movies. The sparing use of scenery and number of protagonists adds to the reality of the despair here. Anyway, I could go on too long....enough said. I think this movie is worth a watch and a long ponder.

While I remembered this as an unalloyed masterpiece from seeing it in the theater on first release,I had a few small problems re-seeing it 32 years later.But, in the end, it is a remarkable film, featuring two amazing performances from Liv Ullman andIngrid Bergman as a mother and daughter desperately hashing out old wounds during a visit paidby the mother, a famous pianist and cold perfectionist. Meanwhile her daughter has clung to oldhurts to the point of self-paralysis.A moving testament to the need for forgiveness and growth.But some of the peripheral story elements feel a bit tacked on, and to perhaps stack the deck tooeasily to one side, particularly a sickly younger sister that Bergman's character can barely deal with.It's a minor flaw, since the power of the key confrontations carries the film to the heights (and depths).But I couldn't help wishing Bergman had trusted us a bit more to work out our own feelings abouttwo complex characters, as he did with the even more brilliant `Scenes From a Marriage'.

I absolutely loved this movie! One of Bergman's best, with excellent acting all round.

Artist & Saint - two personality types as distinguished by Iris Murdoch.Mother & daughter have a reunion after years of absence with disastrous results.Mother (Ingrid Bergman) is a well-known concert pianist. She is the artist, being egocentric, selfish, but also life-affirming. She neglects & destroys those close to her while at the same time gives joy & meaning to the world through her art.Daughter (Liv Ullmann) is a vicar's wife & takes care of her disabled sister. She represents the saint, being self-effacing, altruistic, but also awkward. She gives warmth & hope to those around her while at the same time assumes a moral high-ground & harbours hatred for her mother.This film explores these two personality types - the great (the artist) or the good (the saintly) - and mother & daughter are superbly acted by Ingrid Bergman & Liv Ullmann.In the 'piano lesson' scene, daughter plays a Chopin prelude cautiously & without much imagination, then mother explains how the piece should be played and then gives a beautifully shaped performance. The saint may give comfort but it is the artist who communicates meaning to the world.If the director had sided exclusively with the daughter then the film would have failed. But this film reminds us that a great artist can also be a deeply flawed human being (in fact great artists are often flawed human beings) that the greatness of art should not be confused with the moral good of the artist.

A lovely film. It was the only time that Ingrid Bergman appeared in an Ingmar Bergman film and was made shortly before the actress died. Beautifully acted and touching. Liv Ullmann's portrayal was especially convincing.

While some of Ingmar Bergman's actors consistently gave great performances over a number of films, the greatest one-off performance in a film of his is that of his namesake, Ingrid, in this, her last film before she died of cancer.Well into her seventh decade, Ingrid Bergman's beauty as an aging concert pianist, Charlotte, is striking, especially in contrast with her daughter played by Liv Ullman. Ullman's astonishingly attractive looks (which dominate such classics as "Persona" "The Passion of Anna" "Cries and Whispers" and "Scenes from a Marriage") are convincingly masked by the dowdy attire, owlish glasses and prissy manner which give great credibility to her depiction of a priest's wife, unloved by and resentful of her mother.Unique among Ingmar Bergman's films, the principal relationship under examination is that of mother and daughter. The closest film in this respect is "Cries and Whispers" but there the presence and unflattering characterisation of the mother is principally designed to informs the tortured relationship between the sisters Agnes, Maria and Karin as we see the similarities between Maria and her mother. Although "Autumn Sonata" touches on many of Bergman's favourite themes, the mother and daughter angle gives a freshness to the film and makes the quality of the acting all the more treasurable."Autumn Sonata" tends to be forgotten in comparison with Bergman's other late period works, both those made in exile from Sweden and those made before such as "Cries and Whispers" and the trimphant home-coming "Fanny and Alexander" both of which richly deserved Oscars.Although "Autumn Sonata" is not as technically adventurous or as stunning visually as others, Ingrid Bergman deserved more than the Oscar nomination she received and the awards bestowed upon the film as a whole were richly deserved. Furthermore, the use of the Chopin prelude, in revealing Charlotte's personality is perhaps the most successful use of music in Bergman's directing history.The extras are spare as one has come to expect from Tartan. Best is the original trailer which manages to capture the film's essence without being sensationalist or sentimental.

loved the film and the acting is superb.. Ingrid Bergman- what a star lady