FANNY AND ALEXANDER Movie Review

Fanny och Alexander

For those who've never had the opportunity or the interest—for whatever reason—to experience one of the films of the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, there is probably no better place to jump in than with his 1983 Fanny and Alexander. As with so many great films, this one has a simple story; ten-year-old Alexander and his eight-year-old sister Fanny, growing up in a glowingly happy home in a turn-of-the-century Swedish town, find their life turned horrifyingly upside-down following the unexpected death of their father. Their mother remarries—this time to a pathologically strict clergyman—and the privileged, comfortable life that the children used to know is suddenly replaced by punishment, deprivation, and cruelty. All of this is seen through the eyes of a child, as is the film's miraculous, redemptive ending. It's an ending that the children deserve, of course, and one that Bergman has wisely and rather generously chosen to not deny to either himself or his audience. In a sense, seeing this tormented filmmaker allow himself a note of grace after so many films drenched in self-doubt, fear, and despair makes an already marvelous experience into a celebration. The movie makes us happy and it makes us happy for its creator as well. But even if those other films aren't present in your mind at the end of Fanny and Alexander—it may actually be your first Bergman, after all—you'll probably be enchanted enough to begin exploring others. By the way, you should know that Fanny and Alexander runs three hours and seventeen minutes, but you should also know that it doesn't run a second too long. Academy awards for Best Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, and Foreign Language Film; nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

NEXT STOP … The Seventh Seal, The Magician, Night of the Hunter

1983 (R) 197m/C SW Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve, Gunn Walgren, Allan Edwall, Ewa Froling, Erland Josephson, Harriet Andersson, Jarl Kulle, Jan Malmsjo; D: Ingmar Bergman; W: Ingmar Bergman; C: Sven Nykvist; M: Daniel Bell. Academy Awards '83: Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Foreign Film; Cesar Awards '84: Best Foreign Film; Golden Globe Awards '84: Best Foreign Film; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards '83: Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Film; New York Film Critics Awards '83: Best Director (Bergman), Best Foreign Film; Nominations: Academy Awards '83: Best Director (Bergman), Best Original Screenplay. VHS, LV, Closed Caption COL, NLC