Rating: 
Summary: A rare movie that invites you to spend TIME with people.
Review: 'Scenes from a marriage' may seem like a bit of a chore: three hours relentlessly focused on two people falling apart. And yet, it is one of Bergman's easiest films to watch, perhaps because it was made for TV, where there is rather more of a duty to hold a casual audience. There are no deep metaphysical questions in the film, no long abstract conversations, little narrative trickery, just the everyday problems of recognisable people, perhaps slightly more articulate than the rest of us.Bergman gives us a host of conventional reasons for the marriage's failure, but he has never been very interested in the naturalistic causes of anything. In long, compelling takes, he gies us the process of marital drama; the experience, the taste, the gestures, irritations; the words expressed to fill up space, or words not thought through enough, yet taken as Holy Writ by the partner; the games, strategies, sarcasms, insults; the veneer of middle-class civility teetering on the brink of savage violence. There is nothing as irreperable or final as a Hollywood film here, people feel one thing one minute, do another the next: they bear the scars but move on, there is no 'fixed' character. People used to Hollywood practices of closure or plot inevitability may find this disturbing. The characters played by Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann are rarely sympathetic, but they are more: difficult, sometimes devious, always vulnerable people forced to make hasty decisions that can change lives, or who bear the scars of routine for years before flaring out. In other words, real, true - infinitely more important.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal Honesty. One of Bergman's Best
Review: A departure from the complexity of Persona and The Passion of Anna, Bergman put together a highly accessible and clear portrait of the lives of a stereotypical "successful" suburban professional couple entering middle age and beyond. Bergman is absolutely perfect in presenting the ebbs and flows of the relationship. The dialogue is amazing, and Ullman and Josephson couldn't have been better. Bibi Andersson's quasi-cameo sets the stage for the entire film, and the brutally acerbic dinner table scene is a classic of cinema. A lot of people have been looking forward to the proposed sequel, but I'm not. Scenes from a Marriage couldn't have been better, and a sequel is likely to detract from one of Bergman's Top 3 movies in a long and illustrious career.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal Honesty. One of Bergman's Best
Review: A departure from the complexity of Persona and The Passion of Anna, Bergman put together a highly accessible and clear portrait of the lives of a stereotypical "successful" suburban professional couple entering middle age and beyond. Bergman is absolutely perfect in presenting the ebbs and flows of the relationship. The dialogue is amazing, and Ullman and Josephson couldn't have been better. Bibi Andersson's quasi-cameo sets the stage for the entire film, and the brutally acerbic dinner table scene is a classic of cinema. A lot of people have been looking forward to the proposed sequel, but I'm not. Scenes from a Marriage couldn't have been better, and a sequel is likely to detract from one of Bergman's Top 3 movies in a long and illustrious career.
Rating:
Summary: disturbingly powerful
Review: Bergman's most honest and probing film. No one has captured the pain, suffering and alienation of love better than Bergman. The world is a better place with Ingmar Bergman in it.
Rating:
Summary: 13 now 41
Review: How I was allowed to watch this series on ?PBS? when it first came out...I'll never know. But at around 13 y/o its haunting images of a marriage "gone bad" has stayed with me for nearly 2 decades. I literally fell in love with Liv Ullman and her acting (which at the time I was not far from believing that I was watching a documentary of a real couple falling apart at the seams) It was an intense and captivating series that had me literally "willing" the week to go by faster so I could watch the next installment. Through the years I had always searched for a way to watch it again and now (BIG difference in the "disposable income" of a child vs. an adult :), I will be purchasing this as part of my collection of memories from my youth. Thanks to Criterion for taking the time in putting this together for us.
Rating:
Summary: 13 now 41
Review: How I was allowed to watch this series on ?PBS? when it first came out...I'll never know. But at around 13 y/o its haunting images of a marriage "gone bad" has stayed with me for nearly 2 decades. I literally fell in love with Liv Ullman and her acting (which at the time I was not far from believing that I was watching a documentary of a real couple falling apart at the seams) It was an intense and captivating series that had me literally "willing" the week to go by faster so I could watch the next installment. Through the years I had always searched for a way to watch it again and now (BIG difference in the "disposable income" of a child vs. an adult :), I will be purchasing this as part of my collection of memories from my youth. Thanks to Criterion for taking the time in putting this together for us.
Rating:
Summary: Marvellous
Review: I watched Scenes from a marriage twice the very first time i rented it from a local library. And yet so far it is one of the best movies i ever watched in my life. Dear Amazon please please make a DVD edition of this movie. You will thank me at the end from its sales.Trust me
Rating:
Summary: Love & Marriage
Review: Ingmar Bergman to me is one of cinema's most powerful directors. And, "Scenes From A Marriage" is the most powerful, and haunting film I've ever seen about love and marriage.
There's just something about Bergman's vision as a director and the camera of Sven Nykvist that brings this film to life. Bergman just throws these characters right into our faces, and we are truly mesmerize by them and their actions.
For those who have never seen this film, it is basically just as it's title may suggest, a look into the life of one couple's marriage. Marianne (Liv Ullman) and Johan (Erland Josephson) are our couple in question. They have been married for a while now, and seem to have a good solid marriage. One wouldn't think anything was wrong, especially when compared to their friends like Katarina (Bibi Andersson) and Peter (Jan Malmsjo) a couple whom act like their about to kill each other at any given moment. The scene is involving them, is one of many sterling moments in this masterpiece.
If I were to go on and talk about more scenes in this film, I would clearly be ruining the entire experience for you. Just rent this movie or even better buy this movie and be prepared to see the power that cinema can convey.
"Scenes From A Marriage" is one of Bergman's best films. And, while yes, there is talk of a sequel, I can only hope, that it all remains a rumor. To make a sequel out of this masterpiece would surely be a mistake. Here's a film that is perfect as it is. Just leave it alone and don't add anything to it. Though, Bergman did make a sequel out of the Katarina and Peter characters and made "From the Life of the Marionettes", which does have it's powerful moments, but doesn't quite build up to what this film has become.
For those who have never seen a Bergman film, I'd suggest watching "Wild Strawberries" first, then "The Seventh Seal", "Cries & Whispers" and then build yourself up to this one.
Bottom-line: Truly one of Bergman's most powerful films. The single greatest film I've seen as of yet on the subject of marriage. This movie hits an intensity few have have ever achieved!
Rating: 
Summary: Challenging, truthful, utterly rewarding look at marriage
Review: Ingmar Bergman's 1974 chamber-drama masterpiece was originally made as a six part mini-series for Swedish television--hence the divided tableau and emphasis on close-ups. Of course Bergman is the greatest purveyor of the close-up, and here he uses it to accentuate the psychological torment and strain that a marriage propagates on its victims (after this movie you'll view marriage as a war, if you already don't). Josephson and Ulmann shine as the dissenting couple, who first put up facades to deny the inevitable, eventually divorce, dive to relationship hell, and ultimately find a happy medium with a burgeoning love that could have never flourished if they stayed married. Interestingly, Bergman chooses to never show the couple's children (that would simply add another tumult to an already tumultuous puzzle). And, if it needs to be said, Sven Nykvist's photography is strikingly beautiful. "Scenes from a Marriage" suffers slightly from too much dialogue and being a bit lengthy--the poignancy is nullified after 170 minutes of relationship vicissitudes--but deserves to be cherished by any fan of "good" cinema or of Ingmar Bergman.
Rating:
Summary: Only two reviews !
Review: OK, so its not Hollywood, but this film is totally rivetting without one gunshot or car chase in sight. No schmaltz or syrupy sentimentality, just a dispassionate look at two people who endure the agony of a long time marriage breaking up. If you are bored with Holloywood overload, take a look at something that is totally intelligent and engrossing. Take a look at what others in the world think and do.
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