Product: Saraband (2005)
Rating: 5.0
A sequel like no other
We return to the couple from `Scenes From a Marriage' 30 years later. They haven't seeneach other in all that time. Marianne, still working as a lawyer, goes to visit Johan, nowliving off a rich inheritance in a house in the woods. The film examines the tremendousand sad complexity of Johan's life, and the further unsettling influence of Marianne'sreturn to the scene.While there is a surface pleasure in seeing the two together again, we realize how poisonousJohan has become, allowing his 61 year old son from an earlier marriage, and his granddaughterto live in a separate house on the estate, although he hates his son. The granddaughter is in turntrapped by a desperate, near incestuous relationship with her father. In a series of simple, honest,and very powerful scenes, we watch these characters bounce off of each other in various combinations.And while all of them are plagued by deep, perhaps unforgivable flaws, I always understood thatBergman felt for them, and wished the fragments of humanity buried inside could free them. I didn'tfeel the film was as dark as many people for this reason. Like a directing priest, Bergman hates the sin,but not the sinner, so these people, so easy to hate, or at least dismiss on paper, keep us interestedand emotionally involved, praying they will find their way out of the darkness. A strong and powerfulwan song from a great film-maker, making his last film at 85.