AUTUMN SONATA Movie Review
Hostsonaten
Autumn Sonata marked the only time that the cinema's two most treasured Bergmans—Ingrid and Ingmar—worked together. When two legends get together the results are often less than the sum of the two brilliant parts, possibly because the very pairing can be intimidating to all. Happily, Autumn Sonata is an exception. The story is of a mother (Bergman) who spends a long and painfully revealing evening as she attempts to rekindle a relationship with her oldest child (Liv Ullmann).The friction comes from the fact that the Bergman character deserted her family years before in order to pursue her career as a concert pianist. Ingmar Bergman's career has been marked by films that are, to varying degrees, autobiographical. But the boldness of Ingrid Bergman portraying a character who deserted her family for a greater passion has an unmistakable parallel to the real-life “scandal” in which she left her family and career in the United States for the love of director Roberto Rossellini. All of this would seem to be the kind of baggage that even the most insightful of artists would have trouble handling, but both Bergmans pull off near-miracles here. Photographed with a characteristic lack of fussiness by Bergman collaborator Sven Nykvist, Autumn Sonata is a superbly orchestrated and surprisingly moving demonstration that in families—no matter how severe the damage or how bitter the resentments—it's never too late to discard what's unimportant and to try just one more time to learn the meaning of forgiveness.
NEXT STOP … Fanny and Alexander, Tokyo Story, Terms of Endearment
1978 97m/C SW Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Halvar Bjork, Lena Nyman, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Erland Josephson; D: Ingmar Bergman; W: Ingmar Bergman; C: Sven Nykvist. Golden Globe Awards ‘79: Best Foreign Film; National Board of Review Awards ‘78: Best Actress (Bergman), Best Director (Bergman); New York Film Critics Awards ‘78: Best Actress (Bergman); National Society of Film Critics Awards ‘78: Best Actress (Bergman); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘78: Best Actress (Bergman), Best Original Screenplay. VHS, LV FOX