Rating: 
Summary: This "Sonata" Is Missing A Few Chords!
Review: "Autumn Sonata", from what I know about Bergman, is one of the few films he's made that he dislikes. Though, I have heard he did have some qualm with "Shame" as well. Bergman feels he made "Autumn Sonata" completely wrong. He originally had a more poetic concept for the film, in the line of "Persona". But, he adbandoned this idea and made it into a more realistic account, which he nows regrets. He wanted to build the film in the same structure as a sonata, with the changing moods of that kind of a musical piece. That sounds like the Bergman I know! It sounds like a much better idea than what he did come up with. Bergman to me writes beautiful dialogue. I think his films are full of passion, some may disagree and say his films are "bleak" and "hopeless". True, there are these elements in his films, but, thats where the passion come froms. If you were to examine a little deeper into his films, they do try to provide a strong positive message. "Autumn Sonata" lacks the passion his other films such as "Wild Strawberries", "The Seventh Seal", & "Scenes From A Marriage" have. I didn't connect with the characters. They remain cold and distant. This was not Bergman's intention.
Movies about families and how they struggle to keep together are among my favorite movies. Parents and childern rarely see eye to eye. Childern sometimes remember their childhood differently. Sometimes they remember things being better than what they actually were. Or maybe they remember things worst then what they were. Parents have a tendency to do the same thing also. "Autumn Sonata" from my view, is about what happens when you bring these things out into the open. Of course it will change your relationship with your parent or parents, but how? For better or worst? This sounds like it has Bergman written all over it. In the first few scenes I did enjoy what I saw. But, then the film slows down. Yes, the acting in this movie is wonderful, as is the cinematography by Sven Nykvist, and the choice of music is pleasureable as well. But, there just isn't any passion. There is one great scene that hits the level of intensity I wanted to entire film to achieve. The scene late at night when Eva (Liv Ullmann) and Charlotte, her mother (Ingrid Bergman) are sitting in the kitchen and for the first time they discuss Eva's youth. Here is where everything comes forward! We can see the passion the rest of the film does not have. We are caught up in this moment. The performances in that scene are so strong and believeable we forget we are watching a movie. That is without any doubt in my mind the strongest scene in this entire movie. I wish I could say I liked this film. As I am a fan of Bergman's work. Some of his films I feel are among the greatest ever made, but, "Autumn Sonata" is a lesser attempt by a genius.
Gunnar Bjornstrand has a small cameo in this film. He was in Bergman's "Dreams", yet again another brief role. And has been in "The Seventh Seal" as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Emotionally devastating!
Review: A great masterpiece by the master Ingmar Bergman. Compares to his best like A Passion of Anna, Cries & Whispers & Persona. The Criterion DVD brings out the best in Sven Nykvist's cinematography. And the performances...! Bravo to both Ingrid Bergman as the callous and indifferent mother trying to make sense of her life by extracting the last remaining sensitivity in her and Liv Ullman as the tormented Eva who struggles in vain to anesthesize her pain through the years. In their confrontation scene, which I believe like others is the Allegro con brio second movement of this quasi-sonata film, neither mother nor daughter emerges the victor since the viewer feels for both. A great cinematic experience.
Rating:
Summary: Emotionally devastating!
Review: A great masterpiece by the master Ingmar Bergman. Compares to his best like A Passion of Anna, Cries & Whispers & Persona. The Criterion DVD brings out the best in Sven Nykvist's cinematography. And the performances...! Bravo to both Ingrid Bergman as the callous and indifferent mother trying to make sense of her life by extracting the last remaining sensitivity in her and Liv Ullman as the tormented Eva who struggles in vain to anesthesize her pain through the years. In their confrontation scene, which I believe like others is the Allegro con brio second movement of this quasi-sonata film, neither mother nor daughter emerges the victor since the viewer feels for both. A great cinematic experience.
Rating: 
Summary: a review of the disability
Review: Autumn Sonata was a film I watched to evaluate the portrayal of the disability that Helena has due to tuberculosis. Thus, my view is that the character Helena was put in the film simply to add drama with her dramatic and not necessarily accurate scenes in which she falls out of her bed and crawls to the den screaming MAMA, MAMA. She is not shown, except for three times in the film, each scene illustrating her as a child, which she is not, and her diability would not make her so. Basically, if you are to think about it, she doesn't eat with them or socialize with the family at all. It's a terrible portrayal, and that's my schtick.
Rating: 
Summary: Bergman directs Bergman
Review: Before she was an international star of incomparable charisma and beauty, and even before Ingmar Bergman became a legendary director of films bleak and intense, Ingrid Bergman played in the Swedish cinema. So it is entirely apropos that someday Bergman might direct Bergman. Ingrid plays Charlotte, a concert pianist who has, upon the recent death of her longtime lover, Leonardo, returned to her native land to visit her daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann), whom she hasn't seen for seven years, and her husband Viktor (Halvar Bjork), who is a minister. Ullmann is frumpish in specs with her hair up and her dress loose and ill-fitting. She is Ingrid's nerdish daughter who has been throughout her life entirely overshadowed by her glamorous mother. Eva has an unpleasant surprise for mom. Her other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), who suffers from a crippling disease, perhaps muscular dystrophy, is on hand. Eva didn't tell her mother that Helena was now living with them. She says she didn't tell her because she knew that, if she had, Charlotte would not have come. And so we can guess that there are issues that will come out, issues between mother and daughter that have been festering for decades. I got goose bumps seeing Ingrid Bergman as an elderly woman, and seeing the smooth, graceful style again, the elegant presence, a hint of the old gestures, the sly glances, the tentative half smiles... It was really wonderful and at the same time disconcerting to examine her face (Sven Nykvist's intense close ups expose every inch of skin) and sigh and remember and understand the effect of the passing years. Ingrid is elegant but she has been robbed of her beauty so now we are able to see her character; unfortunately Ingmar's script allows little of the real Ingrid Bergman to appear. Hers is not a pleasant part to play. She is an entirely selfish and self-centered woman who has put her career before her family, but is unaware of what she has done. Eva seizes this opportunity to punish her mother by dredging up the neglect of her childhood to throw it in her mother's face (which perhaps explains why Charlotte hasn't been home in seven years). The sheer cold hatred that Eva expresses is enough to make the devil himself cringe. After a bit one begins to feel sorry for Charlotte, despite her failures as a mother, to have a daughter so unforgiving and so hateful. Liv Ullmann is rather startling in this portrayal, with her penetrating eyes, her hard, Neandethalish forehead, the severe specs, and the uncompromising tone of her voice. Charlotte is ashamed and begs for forgiveness and tries to defend herself, but it is no use. Eva is too strong for her. This is one of the more intense scenes in cinema, and one not easily watched. Meanwhile in the upstairs bedroom and then in the hallway and down the staircase, Helena has heard them arguing and is pulling her crippled body over the floor, desperately trying to reach them. She cries out, "Mama! Mama!" but is not heard. Viewers might want to pick sides between mother and daughter to say which is the more at fault. Indeed, it is hard to say who Bergman himself found more at fault. Perhaps there is no fault, only human weakness and stupidity. Such scenes are usually followed by a greater understanding, forgiveness and a willingness to start anew. However, although Charlotte wants that, it is not clear in Bergman's script that anything good will come of what has happened. Charlotte leaves, the minister returns to looking at his wife, (having overheard the argument, about which he has said nothing) and Eva writes a letter to her mother. It is not clear whether she wants to patch things up or to gain another opportunity to pick her mother to pieces. The viewer is left to decide. Perhaps the best scene in the film is the one that follows dinner the night of Charlotte's arrival in which Eva plays the piano, a Chopin prelude. She has worked hard on it and hopes to please her mother. Alas, her play is not so good. After all, the mother is a genius, the daughter only the daughter of a genius. Charlotte sits down next to Eva and takes the keys to gently demonstrate how the piece should be played. We see and feel at once the inadequacy of the daughter in her mother's eyes. It is a great scene filmed with a tight focus on the faces of the two women. When Eva turns to stare at her mother, who is, of course, playing brilliantly with great finesse and touch, the expression on Eva's face, held for many long seconds, is unforgettable. Not to second guess the master, but I would have liked to have seen the entire movie played in this, a more subtle key than that which followed. However when it comes to dysfunction and disease, Ingmar Bergman is unrestrained. Ingrid Bergman was nominated for an academy award for best actress in this, her last feature film (she had already been diagnosed with cancer), but lost out to Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978).
Rating:
Summary: Another Bergman classic
Review: Beginning with The Seventh Seal, I have been enamored with the austere and intellectual world of Ingmar Bergman. His cinema is so literate and engaging, without being boring or preachy or devolving into baseless abstraction. Recently I was able to see his 1978 film, Autumn Sonata, with Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Bergman and was touched by its emotional power. Starting with an introductory monologue by Viktor, the pastor of the area and husband of Eva, it sets the tone of the piece and explains Eva's feelings of lovelessness and distance. After hearing of the death of her mother's lover, Eva invites her mother Charlotte to visit, and after a seven-year hiatus, the old professional pianist acquiesces. Eva's feelings towards Charlotte are very complex and we seem them unfold throughout the film, the layers peeling away, eventually, on both sides. Charlotte's arrival shows a sophisticated and worldly older woman who is demanding and easily overshadowing of her quiet daughter. Quickly upstaging the situation, Charlotte breathlessly tells Eva the tale of Leonardo's slow death and her bedside vigil, suddenly changing gears when she hears her other daughter, Helena, is staying with Eva at the parsonage, and has been for several years. Charlotte's face shows her shock clearly enough and would not have made the visit had she known. When she sees Lena's deteriorated condition, spastic and only able to be understood by Eva, she still maintains control of the situation, though we know she is internally at odds with her outward features. It is apparent Eva still longs, like a child, for the approval of her mother. When she describes the feelings she has after the death of her son, Erik, her mother listens politely and doesn't attempt to touch on the real emotions there. She stands in the glare of her own emotional spotlight and cannot shake the egoism that always surrounds her. The death of Erik created departures of different levels for his parents - one the one side, Viktor's life "grayed again," but Eva's feelings for Erik were left uncorroded. She thinks of heaven as "a world of liberated feelings" and one night of insomnia with her mother brings about the chance to share her true feelings with her. Eva recounts to her mother all the missed time from her adolescence; when Charlotte was abroad entertaining foreign crowds and indulging her own selfish appetites. Eva's wine bibbing loosens her tongue and it turns into a raw and emotional exchange. During this time, they depart from their mother/daughter roles and deal with the other - for the first time - as equals in adulthood. In her lengthy and beautiful soliloquy, Eva states "you had the charge of all the words in our home." A grand way to put it, and Bergman's great success in the writing of these difficult scenes is the lack of sentimentality and the balanced pathos. The scenes are emoted wonderfully by the two actors and captured beautifully by long-time Bergman cinematographer, Sven Nykvist. The film crescendos at this point and is heading for a recapitulation of all the elements, which marks a musical sonata. Autumn Sonata is a great film in the Bergman corpus and not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: my favorite Bergman (Ingrid or Ingmar ?)
Review: Both. Ingrid Bergman (in an Oscar-nominated performance - her last feature role) returned to Swedish cinema after 4 decades to play a pianist coming home to an problematic reunion with her daughter (Liv Ullmann-great as always).Yet another reason why Sven Nykvist have so many admirers.
Rating:
Summary: don't buy cheaper DVD substitutes
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: don't buy cheaper DVD substitutes
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars to Criterion for transfer
Review: I previously reviewed this film on a VHS format and now that I've seen the DVD, I have a greater appreciation for this Bergman masterpiece and the highest respect for Criterion for the finest treatment it gave this film. The colors are more enhanced and finally I got to watch it in its original Swedish language with English subtitles. There is also an audio-narrative that's very interesting. I hope Criterion will handle the releases of Bergman's other great works like "Cries and Whispers" & "A Passion of Anna". A DVD to own!
|
