Autumn Sonata | Movie Review

Autumn Sonata - 1978

Directed By : Ingmar Bergman

Incurable diseases, hopeless marriages, broken relationships, indifferent hearts; resentment, hatred, pain, guilt, loss, insanity and death! Utterly disgusting in its rawness of emotions that one feels the very same emotions crawling in his skin, after watching this naked display of guilty emotions, where people are in want of love but also would not refrain themselves from eating each others heart alive by cruel, with unbearable words and passionate hatred. 

Starting with a sombre tone, as the gentle husband introduces his wife, with apparent disappointment in his manners, the film going through severe changes in tone, and until we know it we are already guttered in this extraordinary display of familial guilt and trauma. The wife initially seems cheery, naive, easily irritable and really wants to make her mother happy when she arrives to her place to spend few days with the family. Matters get ugly, secrets are revealed, by suggestive language, they are not the people they seemed. The film resembles an oppressive chamber drama which Bergman is a master of. The film reaffirms the fact that Bergman had directed hundreds of plays, for the film acting much like a play; cutting and effectively harsh dialogues, with his intimate closeups, and characters putting out souls in confined space. But with only difference that, this time we are actually forced into this intensely personal dramatic work of Bergman, a moving display of neurotic relationships, one of his barest, sharpest works. 

5/5

Random Thoughts - 

- Its an acting showcase. With unbelievable rawness to it and still deliberate performances. Ingrid is phenomenal, but its Liv Ullman whose performance leaves a strongest mark. 

- In a scene where Eva spits out her hatred and sorrow over a bottle of wine, visibly drunk, the sudden outburst of repressed emotions following it is purest and unbelievably powerful thing put on screen, acted by Liv Ullman with such genius. 

- The use of music is fascinating, with focus on classical music, as is usual in his other works. There is a particular scene where Eva plays Chopin's Prelude for Charlotte, and later Charlotte is invited to play. Its a masterly orchestrated scene where the music, Nykvist's meaningful composition, and both leading actresses phenomenal acting, all come together to make one of the most perfect scenes his works. 

- Nykvist's cinematography is quite different with rest of his works with the director. Earlier the look where more 'perfect', with meticulous attention on lighting and composition. It all works for the benefit of the film, and the shades of orange, brown and red gives it an unique feel to it. 

- Bergman strips things down to their bare essentials, ignoring all that is not relevant to this drama. It makes us feel what Eva and Charlotte are feeling. And the way dialogues are written serve the exact purpose. The dialogues are cutting and never irrelevant. Its not plausibility that matters, the characters talk to themselves, quite theatrically, but they represent what characters are thinking, and its made quite clear what kind of film this is, ie. a theatrical play in the form of cinema. 

- Liv Ullman is officially now my favourite actress!