Fanny och Alexander

Plot synopsis:
The story is set during 1907–09 (with an epilogue in 1910), in the Swedish town of Uppsala where Alexander (Bertil Guve), his sister Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) and their well-to-do family, the Ekdahls, live. The siblings' parents are both involved in theater and are happily married until their father, Oscar (Allan Edwall), suddenly dies from a stroke. Shortly thereafter, their mother, Emilie (Ewa Fröling), marries Edvard Vergérus (Jan Malmsjö), the local bishop and a widower, and moves into his ascetic home where he lives with his mother, sister, aunt and maids.
Emilie initially expects that she will be able to carry over the lavish, joyful qualities of her previous home into the marriage, but realizes that Edvard's harsh authoritarian policies are unshakable. The relationship between the bishop and Alexander is especially cold, as Alexander invents stories, for which Edvard punishes him severely. Edvard immediately confines the children to their bedroom. As a result, Emilie asks for a divorce, which Edvard will not consent to; though she may leave the marriage, legally it will be considered desertion, placing the children in his custody, including the infant to which she will shortly give birth. Meanwhile, the rest of the Ekdahl family has begun to worry about their condition. When Emilie secretly visits her former mother-in-law, Helena (Gunn Wållgren), to explain what has happened, their friend Isak Jacobi (Erland Josephson), helps smuggle the children from the house. They live temporarily with Isak and his nephews in their store.
Emilie, now in the later stages of her pregnancy, refuses to restore the children to the home. Edvard insists she do so. Emilie allows Edvard to drink a large dosage of her bromide sedative. She explains to him, as he shows signs that the medication is working, that she intends to flee the home as he sleeps. He claims that he will follow her family from city to city and ruin their lives, then blacks out. After Emilie gets away, Edvard's dying aunt knocks over a gas lamp, setting her bedclothes, nightgown and hair on fire. She runs through the house in flames to seek Edvard's help, igniting him. Despite the sedative, he is able to get her off him, but dies shortly thereafter.
Alexander had fantasized about his stepfather's death while living with Isak. Isak's mysterious nephew, Ismael Retzinsky (Stina Ekblad), explains that fantasy can become true as he dreams it.
The story ends on a happy, life-affirming note, with the christening celebration of Emilie's and the late bishop's daughter as well as the extra-marital daughter of Alexander's uncle, Gustav Adolf Ekdahl (Jarl Kulle), and the family maid, Maj (Pernilla August). Alexander encounters the ghost of the bishop who knocks him to the floor, and tells him that he will never be free. Emilie, having inherited the theatre, hands Helena a copy of August Strindberg's play A Dream Play to read, and tells her that they should perform it together onstage. Initially scoffing at the idea and declaring Strindberg a "misogynist," Helena takes to the idea and begins reading it to a sleeping Alexander.

Tags: psychedelic, gothic, magical realism, sentimental

Review:
The first time I saw this film was in 1984, on tv and with a much shorter version than the one released in England in 2002, which is the full 300-plus minute original.That day I was scared -really scared- watching the scene where Alexander is been helped to let out his most evil thoughts by Ishmael, a completely mysterious character with supernatural insight.
As Ingmar Bergman's "swan song" (which wasn't necessarily the case once After the Rehearsal and the recent Saraband were released), Fanny and Alexander was a film I saw many months ago, in its truncated, 3-hour version.
Broken up here into 5 Acts, Bergman takes another semi-autobiographical approach to his storytelling, and it's a sumptuous tale of a turn of the 20th Century family (the Ekdahls, comprising of Oscar and Emilie, the parents, Fanny and Alexander, the kids- Alexander being mostly the driving force behind the story- and also the other relatives Carl and Gustov Adolf, brothers of Oscar, Helena, Alma, Lydia, and also the housemaid Maj) who own a theater company.What makes Fanny and Alexander work as a major achievement, if anything else for my money is that all the elements seem balanced out over the acts, with story and characters, each sharply defined.
Bottom line, this character, whether you like the film or not, is one of Bergman's greatest creations, and is pulled off by Malmjso with icy, disturbing perfection; it's one of the most memorable of the kind in film I can think of, right up there with Nurse Ratched, HAL 9000, and Darth Vader.But what torment and anguish the characters, as well as much of the audience, seem to endure in the fourth/fifth acts; there also comes revelatory moments of sheer beauty and enchantment.
With the fates of the Bishop, Emilie, and Alexander and Fanny brought to a close, as with the Grandmother, the uncles and aunts, and so on, it's all very symbolic, metaphorical, and real, and it gels together.One last note- Sven Nykvist, who one his second Oscar with Bergman for this film, creates the kinds of shots that some could only have in their dreams.
To put this all in another way, I could go on and on about this huge, heart-rendering work, but it all comes down to this- as an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual (surprisingly for me, who sees religion as a kind of fantasy) sort of film-viewing experience, Fanny and Alexander is one of the most profound I've ever had.
"Fanny and Alexander" (1982) was announced at the time of its release as Ingmar Bergman's swan song, his last film for the big screen.
Set in Sweden in the beginning of the 20th century, the film follows the lives and adventures of two children, brother and sister Fanny and Alexander Edkahl.I love Bergman in every mood and in every genre - I love him dark, bleak, harrowing ("Shame"), mysterious ("Persona"), merciless and devastating ("Scenes from a Marriage, "Face to Face", "Autumn Sonata).
Even for a master of Bergman's powerful talent, "Fanny and Alexander" is extraordinary - a profound film which is also one of his most accessible works.Pablo Picasso said once, "When I was 9 years old, I could paint like Rafael; as an adult, all my life I tried to learn how to paint like a child".
I have wanted to see this film for years but I have missed it several times they were showing it on television.And also because of my father does not like Bergman(why??) but still think that this film is fantastic.I saw it yesterday just after having read Bergman´s  autobiography and this film is much a autobiographical film.I would like to say something about the cinematography and acting.But what is there more to say about Sven Nykvist´s cinematography then MASTERFUL.Before I saw the film I read in a newspaper that this is the best Swedish acting film ever made and it was actually picked as number two as the best Swedish film ever made for a couple of years ago(film fans voted).The WHOLE cast acts SUPERB,I am not sure if I have ever seen anything more perfect.This is a chronicle over a family.It has a a great poetic script that combines just as it sad in a other comment:striking visuals.Bergman has really done this to a masterpiece.Now I want to see the five-hour version(i saw the 3 hour version).Colorful,perfect,frightening and sometimes even funny.What I guess I liked most was that they showed everything from the children´s eyes.One of Bergman´s best.5/5.
After all, the fans will always stick by you.Fanny and Alexander, Bergman's farewell to the cinema (in more ways than one since it was made for television) is a problematic film - it is a well crafted work, but undistinguished, not nearly as great as some of his past achievements.
Not really - nobody hits a home run every time at bat.Fanny and Alexander is a long (over 3 hours) Dickensian period piece that lacks much of the trademark Bergman touches.
This is Ingmar Bergman's semi-autobiographical Life and Times of wealthy theater family Ekdahl in 1907 Uppsala, mainly told from the eyes of young Alexander as his mother is widowed, remarries a harsh bishop, and moves into his church estate with both the children.
Why?Well, I caught the 188 min' version, and many bits - although enjoyable on their own, such as Kulle's monologues and erotic shenanigans - seem to be from completely different films altogether in tone, patched up to a big quilt with unfitting seams, in contrasting the children's ghastly torment of their stepfather (Alexander's head-to-head battles of will with him IS a highlight), with the unrelated, more easy-going content from the family's head estate.
Perhaps the TV-series version is more cohesive?Bergman's love for the theater is of course ubiquitous, both in establishing the family's relation to it, as well as much of the overly theatrical acting/line delivery, heavily metaphysical & religious symbolism and solemn theme presentation (with a nod to August Strindberg at the end).
Skimming some of the IMDb reviews before seeing this film, I came across comments like, "Every frame a Rembrandt", "triumphant", "Bergmans swan song is his ultimate masterpiece", "could be the best European film of all time".
It unfolds like a rich novel, full of multi-dimensional characters, and takes the viewer on a journey of discovery -- of love, loss, laughter, despair, God, truth, and the supernatural.This film is haunting and beautiful, more finely detailed, photographed and acted than any film I have ever seen.These were my thoughts upon seeing the 3-hour theatrical version for the first (and second, and third...) time in the mid-'80s.
It is a great work of film art and storytelling, with intricacies never realized before or since, made with incredible love and determination by the two most talented filmmakers ever to treat us with their skills -- Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist.THE masterpiece..
The film, of course, is well directed, actors are pleasant (although the children Fanny and Alexander are not much seen during the first half), and background/costumes provide additional value, enabling this sequence of different scenes to be combined and better understood.
Any serious film buff has to consider the master Ingmar Bergman one of the greatest movie directors who has ever lived.
And these two worlds—those of children and adults—interact in pleasant and somewhat grim ways.From the start with Alexander alone in his grandmother's apartment, through an extravagant Christmas party, to the richness of the theater, to the much darker residence of the next chapter of this family's life, the movie is simply an exquisite piece of artistic beauty of early 20th Century Sweden.
The performances are all terrific, and I'm particularly fond of Bertil Guv as Alexander, Gun Wallgren as his reserved grandmother, and Jarl Kulle as his boisterous uncle.The movie, in spite of some quite dark elements, is quite a bit more upbeat than typical Bergman film.
Really don't know what all the fuss is about...Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, the story of two children, Fanny and Alexander (strangely enough), and what happens after their father dies.Underwhelming, a bit of an ordeal and vastly overrated.
I really cant say anything negative about this film that shows the developments and experiences of the most amazing family i have ever seen on screen through the eyes of its two youngest - Fanny & Alexander.Don't give up, even if its hard, you have to watch this one!.
Perhaps more so because the protagonists, Fanny and Alexander, are both children less than ten years old.Bergman laces his characters- an eccentric, hedonistic, passionate and opulent family led by an elegant and radical matriarch- with clever psychological trimmings in an atmosphere combining lassitude and surreal richness.
The children's world is rampant with mischief, lies, loneliness, mortality, and love.The people around him search for worldly salvation but seem to fail miserably, his kind, contemplative father has just died, his young, gorgeous mother marries a "spiritual" ascetic-looking string bean whom he treats like the Devil, and to top it all off, the Ekhdahl's theater company is in financial ruin.With deft hands, Bergman trains his slow-moving camera to scenes that evoke wonder, magic, stunning beauty.
but not for very long, for just when the lush imagery utterly seduces you, you are sucked back to the merciless dirge-like flow of the story.Bergman weaves a story about family love and redemption and turns it into an almost mythical theme through Alexander's troubled hungers and dark imagination.
The film covers roughly one year in the life of the Ekdahl family, mostly seen through the eyes of young Alexander.
What we see is not necessarily the reality of the film, but the thoughts and feelings of Alexander through the death of his father and his new life with his evil stepfather.Bergman, as usual, transcends the world of reality and dives deep into the hearts of his main characters as we see their feelings projected onto the screen.
Those other two visit less sophisticated theatrical landscapes, but they do it on foot, engaged in the hot, sweaty and dangerous transport of ourselves.So I will tell you it is sublime in many ways and not very useful to building a real life in film.Bergman himself is in three characters here: the boy (as widely known), the magical Jew who makes the illusions that we believe to be real as the film, and the stern stepfather.
However, Fanny and Alexander is a film that is beautiful to look at, but almost a bore to listen and think about as it trudges its way through so many different stories that it becomes hypnotizing to watch.
The film depicts the lives of its title characters, Fanny and Alexander, and their extended family, the Ekdahls, a wealthy aristocratic family living in the early 20th century Uppsala, Sweden.I've personally only seen the mini series, so I'm a bit unclear as to what was taken out for the 3 hour feature version, but let's talk about the story as a whole.
Ingmar Bergman's 'Fanny och Alexander', originally intended as the director's "swan song", is a five-hour five-act epic which explores the lives of the different members of the Ekdahl family.
I must seek out more of her work, having only seen her in this and one of her earliest films, ORDET (and I can't recall her role in that at all).This is a film that celebrates the creature comforts of life, finding pleasure in "the little world." For as much as Bergman gets saddled with labels like "austere", here we see him practically spitting in the face of austerity.
With that same magical power of storytelling, Bergman makes us believe in ghosts and mummies and evil forces.It's such a phenomenally beautiful piece of work (thanks especially to Nykvist and the set design) that always offers me something new, and keeps me enthralled throughout the entirety of its 5+ hour running time (okay, the "Hamlet" rehearsal drags a bit, but it has such thematic resonance).
Fanny and Alexander is my favorite film and, in my opinion, Bergman's finest work.
The lavish, beautiful costumes, the heavily detailed and atmospheric sets, the perfect performances, the writing, the masterful cinematography, the writing, and of course the direction -- all working in sync to create a masterpiece of cinema and art.It's obviously a very nostalgic film for Bergman, as much of it is based on his own life experiences in some way.
There's also the scene involving Oscar with his children before they go to sleep, in which he tells them a story, which ranks as one of the more memorable, touching scenes of the film - from here, we can understand how this brings to Alexander (Bertil Guve, in a performance that is touching by being so straightforward with the innocence of child-hood) to the state he's in for much of the rest of the picture.Then the second and third acts come around, and the tragedy unfolds as penetrating as I've seen in any film, much less from Bergman.
There's also the scene involving Oscar with his children before they go to sleep, in which he tells them a story, which ranks as one of the more memorable, touching scenes of the film - from here, we can understand how this brings to Alexander (Bertil Guve, in a performance that is touching by being so straightforward with the innocence of child-hood) to the state he's in for much of the rest of the picture.Then the second and third acts come around, and the tragedy unfolds as penetrating as I've seen in any film, much less from Bergman.
"Fanny and Alexander" is a drama movie in which we watch a family gathering for Christmas and everything seems to be great but everything is going to change.
Two young Swedish children experience the many comedies and tragedies of their family, the Ekdahls."Fanny and Alexander" won four Academy Awards, which is unusual for a foreign film.
A variety of fantastic characters are introduced including the two young children of an actor (Fanny and Alexander) They are young, innocent, and are both beginning in their early stages of life to experience the world in new and frightening ways.
The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona and Cries and Whispers are all wonderful films(The Magic Flute is also very interesting), and Fanny and Alexander is up there as one of Ingmar Bergman's best films.
The direction as you'd expect with Bergman is superb, even if Fanny and Alexander is perhaps different from Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries in the themes it explores and with not as much visual imagery, it all feels well-paced that I never felt myself getting bored throughout the three-hour running time.
The atmosphere Fanny and Alexander also compels you in, right from the fairy-tale cosy like feel of the start of the film at Christmas to the scary and frightening scenes with Ishmael.
Released in 1982, 'Fanny and Alexander' was created in two formats, as some of the other later work of Ingmar Bergman - as a TV series and as a big screen feature film.
This film has characters that are fully formed.Bergman's created a magical, fantasy world that at times tends toward the supernatural, but then throughout the story is fleshed out as realistic as they come.
He continued to make staggering films far into the 70's as well, long after many of his closest contemporaries had submitted to self-parody and over indulgence, and was still able to produce great work like Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes from a Marriage (1973) and Face to Face (1976) even when working within the incredibly limiting confines of Swedish television.With this in mind, Fanny and Alexander (1982) would seem to be the culmination of everything that Bergman had been working towards throughout his entire career; with many of the themes, ideas, ghosts and characters that had appeared and reappeared not only in his work but also in his life and childhood being written into the script and presented on the screen.
Not really about the children Fanny and Alexander (as the title would suggest) so much as about the entire Ekdahl family, this film is meticulously detailed and highly autobiographical.
The characters (with the exception of little Fanny herself) are painted with detailed strokes by the acting and writing, and Bergman uses his production design to great effect, juxtaposing the sumptuous interiors of the Ekdahl's home with the ascetic house of the stepfather.The movie floundered a bit for me, though, in the second half.
There's more than a story about children in "Fanny and Alexander", the title is rather misleading on that level, the film, set at the dawn of the 20th century, circa Bergman's childhood, shows the very world that shaped the tormented mind of the soon-to-be cinematic genius, a world of contradictions where lust is forbidden but temptation everywhere.
The screenplay offers up so much detail and so much thought on so many topics that it's hard to really make your mind up about the film but I'm sure this is the type of movie that a hundred people could watch and they'd all walk away with different feelings and emotions about what it all meant.For me personally, I think the film is about everything possible, from life to death to love to religion and most importantly to imagination.
Released in 1982 in a 5-hour version for Swedish television and cut to 180 minutes for theatrical release, FANNY AND Alexander was meant to be Ingmar Bergman's last film.
The Ekdahls' torment living under the bishop is the great crisis of the film, and their unexpected liberation from it presents Alexander with a burden that he will carry into his budding manhood.The original television version is the way to see Bergman's final masterpiece.
It's a highly autobiographical film that tells the story of young Alexander Ekdahl and his sister Fanny as they live their luxurious life with their mother and father.
Fanny and Alexander is a wonderfully moving and important film, one of the greatest Bergman ever made.
Rarely I've felt the sense of familial warmth and love in a film or elsewhere as I have with Fanny and Alexander.