Saraband (2003)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Saraband (2003) – I. Bergman

Ingmar Bergman’s last feature, shot on digital video for Swedish TV, is a return to the couple of Scenes from a Marriage (1973), played again by Liv Ullmann (now 65) and Erland Josephson (now 80), whose characters had earlier divorced (after his affair) but remained attached.  Well, thirty years later, after no contact for decades, Marianne (Ullmann) decides to visit Johan (Josephson) at his country retreat (paid for with a fortune inherited from a rich aunt). Marianne introduces this journey by speaking directly to the camera and giving us a rundown of what has happened to both of them in the intervening years – but it is hard not to look at Ullmann (and then Josephson) and think about aging and the effects it has on the body and soul.  (David Lynch worked this same magic with his most recent series of Twin Peaks).  Of course, viewers watching the films in the new blu-ray boxset in the order intended will have just watched the 1973 film/series and will be sensitive to any variations in Marianne and Johan’s behaviour.  If anything, his insensitivity and cruelty has intensified, but it is still hard to get a read on her.  She maintains her centered confidence (scored at the end of 1973) but is her attendance to others and advice to them part of a continued avoidance of self-scrutiny? At any rate, much less devotion is paid to Marianne than to Johan in this film (given that Johan is a Bergman surrogate but also here perhaps a surrogate for Bergman’s own father?).  In actuality, however, the plot of Saraband (broken into ten duets between players) focuses more on Johan’s granddaughter Karin (Julia Dufvenius) and her relationship with her parents, Johan’s son Henrik (Börje Ahlstedt) and her deceased mother, Anna.  In the two years since Anna’s death, Henrik has retreated from his work as a musician scholar to take an (unhealthy) interest in training Karin to become a cellist.  The real crime here is that he has also treated her as a wife surrogate (reinforced by a couple of startling moments).  His weakness and inability to cope are not tolerated by Johan nor Marianne who both seek to free Karin from his grasp.  But ultimately it is her decision to make.  On the surface, then, Saraband seemed similar to other Bergman chamber dramas, but with the initial expectation of “return/retread”, I was prepared to be underwhelmed.  However, he had not lost his punch and the tensions in the relationships here – and their frankness – reverberated with me the next day.  Bergman’s experience may not be our own but his self-analysis and skill at dramatization combine for some powerful theatre (I mean TV). His final statement echoes his earlier emphasis on the sins of the father and subsequent liberation from them, a story of his life.