There are numerous long close-ups throughout the film, however, where their eyes reveal a lot more than their words. The camera patiently observes Bergman (at the time already seriously ill) and Ullmann's faces as they remember the past and then unleash their emotions. The film looks and feels like a carefully staged theater play. Bergman shot the film with his favorite cinematographer Sven Nykvist in Norway in the fall of 1977, soon after the Swedish government had accused him of income tax evasion. It takes place over the course of a single day inside a very stylish country house nearby a picturesque lake. Then in a similarly surprising confession, Charlotte reveals that she never wanted to be the mother Eva needed.Īutumn Sonata is an indescribably beautiful yet brutal film. When Eva needed Charlotte to be her mother, she was always busy practicing or performing in Europe's best concert halls. Feeling lonely for the first time in her life, Charlotte is shocked to hear Eva confessing that she never thought she was the mother she should have been. The casual planning quickly evolves into a tense discussion about parental responsibilities, missed opportunities, and eventually guilt. Eva has been taking care of her sister for years, without telling Charlotte. She is almost completely paralyzed and unable to speak properly. Then while waiting for Victor to come home, the two women try to decide how to best spend their time together.Īlso staying in the house is Helena (Lena Nyman, I Am Curious), Eva's mentally ill sister. It is early autumn, the best time to travel through the Swedish countryside.Įva enthusiastically greets her mother and immediately proceeds to show her the room where she will spend the weekend. It channels a lot of their own frustration with family members who had profound effect on their lives when they were younger.Īcclaimed concert pianist Charlotte Andergast (Ingrid Bergman, Europe '51, Stromboli - Terra Di Dio) decides to visit the country house of her daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann, Persona, Cries and Whispers) and her husband Victor (Halvar Bjork, The New Land) seven years after the last time they met. Region-Free.Īutumn Sonata is the one and only film for which the two legendary Bergmans, Ingmar and Ingrid, teamed up. In Swedish or English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. The supplemental features on the release include an original trailer for the film exclusive interview with Liv Ullmann archival video interview with Ingrid Bergman long documentary film produced by Arne Carlsson introduction by Ingmar Bergman and audio commentary by film critic Peter Cowie. "Autumn Sonata" (1978) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. It’s fair to say modern cinema wouldn’t exist as we know it without him.Reviewed by Dr. Echoes of Rossellini’s approach to filmmaking are still felt in movements around the world, from China to Iran to South America to the United States. As always, he yearned to show life’s minutiae unadorned, bare and pure. In the final phase of his career, after calling a news conference and announcing, “Cinema is dead,” Rossellini turned to historical television dramas about major subjects and figures (Louis XIV, Blaise Pascal, Descartes, the Medicis), made with a rational, almost scientific approach. Francis), a documentary about India ( India), and a wartime melodrama that was one of his biggest hits ( Il Generale Della Rovere). Through the 1950s, Rossellini experimented with different forms, offering an ascetic religious film ( The Flowers of St. After making films under Mussolini’s fascist regime early in his career, Rossellini broke out with Rome Open City, a shattering and vivid chronicle of the Nazi occupation of Italy’s capital, followed by Paisan and Germany Year Zero, which round out his “war trilogy.” Rossellini’s adulterous affair with Ingrid Bergman led to the biggest controversy of his career (they were both condemned by the United States Senate) but also to another trilogy- Stromboli, Europa ’51, and Voyage to Italy, all starring Bergman and all about spiritual crises they were dismissed at the time of their release but are widely praised now. A founder of Italian neorealism, Roberto Rossellini brought to filmmaking a documentary-like authenticity and a philosophical stringency.
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