Product: Saraband (2005)
Rating: 5.0
Saraband
In today's film environment, watching a new Bergman feature is like experiencing a rain-shower during a drought. Anyone who recalls 1973's "Scenes" will be particularly moved by the reunion of Ullmann and Josephson. But the director is wise enough to include some fresh characters who help us better understand the ones we think we already know. The sub-plot concerning Henrik's over-reliance on the lovely, talented Karin is heart-rending, as is the nasty, unbridgeable divide between father and son. Ullmann's Marianne, wiser and more observant than in earlier days, calmly tries to make sense of all this dysfunction, right along with us. A worthy swan-song for the octogenarian director, "Saraband" is piercing, profound and altogether brilliant.