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Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection

Autumn Sonata - Criterion Collection

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bergmans and Ullmann
Review: I remember watching this wrenching drama in a movie theater so quiet one could literally hear a pin drop. The film itself is standard Bergman - Lutheran pastor, family problems within the scope of strained family relationships, a quiet denouement.

The acting is magnificent and the slow, barely perceptible comprehension of the source of the anger between daughter and mother (Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullman) is breathtaking in its intensity. The tension-filled. The scene where, in the brief interlude from the fight, the afflicted younger sister crawls onto the stairs and pierces the silence with incomprehensible speech is riveted into my brain. Great film and great acting.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Typical Bergman, Typically Great
Review: I remember watching this wrenching drama in a movie theater so quiet one could literally hear a pin drop. The film itself is standard Bergman - Lutheran pastor, family problems within the scope of strained family relationships, a quiet denouement.

The acting is magnificent and the slow, barely perceptible comprehension of the source of the anger between daughter and mother (Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullman) is breathtaking in its intensity. The tension-filled. The scene where, in the brief interlude from the fight, the afflicted younger sister crawls onto the stairs and pierces the silence with incomprehensible speech is riveted into my brain. Great film and great acting.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A powerful and moving film
Review: I rented this video several times about 10 years ago, and it was in english. As with other Ingmar Bergman films, it is chillingly realistic and therefore a bit depressing at times, but the filmmaking artistry is without peer and is a must see for serious film buffs.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A SO-SO BERGMAN FILM
Review: I think Autumn Sonata distinguishes itself by being one of the few mediocre Bergman films, in a career of otherwise exhilarating triumphs and tedious failures. (In the latter category, films such as Devil's Eye and The Rite come to mind, among a handful of others.) Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann clearly do their best with the material, but unfortunately the material is a little heavy-handed and, at the same time, mundane. The mother-daughter conflict dramatized in Autumn Sonata is merely a talky regurgitation of standard Psych 101 fare; it is the somewhat tired scenario of the controlling, aloof, and egocentric mother versus the insecure, repressed, and resentful daughter. One of the main problems with this dynamic is that Bergman (surprisingly) fails to elaborate on these characters in an interesting or unique way. Instead, Liv Ulmman and Ingrid Bergman are reduced to reciting the pat psychological positions of these two woman without ever making them human, real, or anything beyond case studies. Ingrid Bergman is nevertheless effective, given the limitations of the material, in her harsh, muscular performance, and Liv Ullmann works admirably but unsuccessfully to make her character sympathetic and nuanced, but neither is allowed to break free from the often bland, one-note script.

Ingmar Bergman, meanwhile, employs the variously clumsy and preposterous technique of having his characters address the "audience" (i.e., the camera) directly in a few scenes. This isn't to say that this doesn't work well in other films, but within the sober and somewhat naturalistic tone of the film, the "soliloquys" come off as nothing so much as... well, goofy. The entire project of Autumn Sonata seems to allude to a director who has become more comfortable telling us rather than showing us. The exposition and the interminable arguments seem to preclude the audience from ever appreciating the characters as anything but an collection of neuroses and hang-ups.

Meanwhile, as if the verbal sparring and exposition were not sufficiently burdened with clunky symbolism, Bergman decides to give Liv Ullmann's character a sister with (seemingly?) some sort of degenerative muscle disease--whom, of course, the mother despises, as an all too obvious symbol of her maternal failures. (The film goes even further, with Ullmann accusing her mother of precipitating her sister's ailment with, of all things, her poor mothering. The delivery and context do nothing to mitigate the absurdity of this accusation.) The movie-of-the-week melodrama reaches a fever pitch when the sister crawls out of her room, barely able to lift her head off the floor, calling out for her mother. (Get out the hankies, right? Wrong. As previously mentioned, none of these characters rises above the status either of case study or of plot device, so you're more likely to feel manipulated than moved.) Then, in addition to all of this, Bergman also throws in a dead child (of Liv Ullmann's character).

Before you look for the Lifetime Movie Channel logo in the bottom right corner of your set, however, remember that this is a Bergman film, and as such it is not a total loss. The camerawork, as always, is meticulous; a few exchanges between the mother and daughter are effective (such as when they play dueling Chopin and when the mother first arrives); and--I don't know if this makes sense--even though the acting is not successful in rising above the material, it's somehow interesting to watch. Nowhere does the work of acting become more foregrounded than in a film that is underwritten, and Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann are certainly no slouches in that department...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Straight to the bottle..
Review: If you are contemplating suicide but can't find enough angst to be decisive, watch "Autumn Sonata",Ingrid Bergman's last film, and only collaboration with Ingmar. The dialogue and acting are terrific and very, well, real, but I doubt I'll ever recover my former sense of humor, since apparently:
1. Life is a steaming pile of excrement.
2.Relationships are tenuous and scarring,
and finally
3.Nobody really loves anyone.

Oh well, even bad IB is better than other stuff. So, open up your best bottle of red wine, lock up the razor blades and enjoy 8).

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A SO-SO BERGMAN FILM
Review: If you are contemplating suicide but can't summon enough angst to be decisive, watch "Autumn Sonata", Ingrid Bergman's last film, and only collaboration with Ingmar. The dialogue and acting are terrific and very, well, real, but I doubt I'll ever recover my former sense of humor, since apparently:

1. Life is a steaming pile of excrement.
2.Relationships are tenuous and scarring,
and finally
3.Nobody really loves anyone.

Oh well, even bad IB is better than other stuff. So, open up your best bottle of red wine, lock up the razor blades and enjoy 8).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bergmans
Review: Ingmar Bergman is probably the greatest filmmaker of all time.Ingrid the greatest actress,remember she worked with Renoir,Hitchcock and Ingmar (among others) But,as always,is a Liv Ullmann movie.Liv Ullmann (with Ingrid Thulin) is the ultimate Bergman actress.The main thing here is really this 2 great actress...everything else seems pointless.At this point the great master didn't have anything else to prove ,and he let them fly.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: One question....
Review: Ingmar Bergman really made Charlotte (played by Ingrid Bergman) to be a selfish and self-centered pianist, who is unaware of the damage that she caused her family. Moreover, she doesn't want to see the damage that she caused. Hint--the 7 year absence and her initial refusal to see Helena. I just have one question....

Would Charlotte have been a better mother to Eva and Helena if she had stayed at home? That's the question that needs to be addressed in "Autumn Sonata." Unfortunately, Ingmar Bergman refused to acknowledge it. As a result, we're left with a lop-sided movie.

In my humble opinion, I think Charlotte would have been a worse mother if she had stayed home, and was actually doing Eva and Helena a favor by going out on the road. There has been a lot of studies conducted on the effects that career-women and housewives have on their children. In some instances, the children were better off with the career-women who weren't at home so much. The career women were less likely to take out their stress and frustration on their children and instead channel them in a positive manner at work. Isn't this what Charlotte was doing? All right I asked two questions.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bergman & Ullmann EXCELL
Review: Ingrid Bergman shines as Charlotte in this film, she`s not merely a Hollywood star, but a working actress in this film. Ingmar Bergman has many a time told the story of how he had to work on her(she had planned her performance in detail before they met).

She agreed to c the rushes and agreed she was overplaying. They had to take it from there and their long discussions and arguments made Ullmann cry and think it wouldn`t work out.

As it turned out; it did. Though I do find the elements of Eva`s dead son, the scenes from their stay at the cottage unnesessary. It would - in my opinion - have been better and more structured, if Bergman just had Charlotte and Eva talk about it without feeling the neccesity of showing it.

It is a must for all people who wants to see a parent-child confrontation movie and the subject of coming of age. The brilliance of it is striking at times.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the very best.
Review: Is it available in English


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