CENES FROM A MARRIAGE Movie Review

The husband and wife are Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson), and their marriage is in trouble long before she finds out about his affair with a younger woman (Bibi Andersson). Word has it that all of Sweden tuned in for director Ingmar Bergman's six-part television series chronicling the disintegration of Marianne and Johan's unhappy household; America got a version of about half that length, which was edited into a single feature film and successfully released to theatres. Even in its shortened form. Scenes from a Marriage is realistic and volcanic enough to be alarming, frightening, and familiar. (I have a feeling some couples watched it with hands over their faces, as if it were a slasher film.) As you would expect, the performances are superb and the individual confrontations—which occur with the regularity of rounds in a prizefight—are timed and tweaked to the same nerve-wracking perfection as the couple's Volvo. After its theatrical run, PBS broadcast the complete version in its original six episodes, but regardless of which version you see, it's still a galvanizing, devastating experience. National Society of Film Critics’ awards for Best Picture, Screenplay, Actress, and Supporting Actress.

NEXT STOP … Face to Face, The Passion of Anna, Shoot the Moon

1973 (PG) 168m/C SW Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson, Jan Malmsjo, Anita Wall; D: Ingmar Bergman; W: Ingmar Bergman; C: Sven Nykvist Golden Globe Awards ‘75: Best Foreign Film; New York Film Critics Awards ‘74: Best Actress (Ullmann), Best Screenplay; National Society of Film Critics Awards ‘74: Best Actress (Ullmann), Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Andersson). VHS HMV