Product: Saraband (2005)
Rating: 4.0
Great final(?) film...
"Saraband" is an intense movie. It should be watched sitting very still, so that everything makes itself known to you. To me, the film is essentially about parents and children--mostly about fathers and sons, but also about mothers and daughters, as the viewer will see briefly at the end of the film. It seems to say: there are two ways of having a relationship with your children: you can abandon them, spurn their love, and watch your soul wither in the process; or you might smother them with your own issues and grief and love--that too can lead to disaster and maybe violence. However, by implication there is a third way, though you won't find it in this film. That way would be somewhere between these two, a way that doesn't involve the nauseating narcissism that Johan and Marianne showed from time to time in "Scenes from a Marriage" when, for instance, an abortion is procured for no better reason than the pregnancy seems inconvenient at the time (this is in the longer version of that film). These people clearly need to learn to live beyond themselves, and that's why the figure of Anna, hovering over the film like the Holy Ghost, is so important. Clearly she knew the right way.The one flaw I see in this film is the way the men and women are set up, a way that seems to me stereotypical: the men are sullen, withdrawn, melancholic and prone to violence. The women are strong, prone to nurturing and caring. While these tendencies are clearly part of reality, they make the film, for me at least, less than it could be. Still, "Saraband" proves that some of Bergman's best work has been that of his "retirement". I hope I'm this productive and wise in my eighties.