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Credits

Rated: R; DVD Release Date: Jan 10, 2006; Genres: Drama, Foreign Language; With: Liv Ullmann; Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Ingmar Bergman's Saraband reunites characters from his 1974 Scenes From a Marriage: After 30 years, Marianne (Liv Ullmann) decides to visit her ex, Johan (Erland Josephson), at his country estate and finds herself a bystander to family strife. The structure — 10 duologues — and Bergman's many close-ups require the four actors to invest every twitch with a mesmerizing intensity of emotion, and they do it brilliantly (though you may still wonder if Swedish ex-wives really drop in and linger indefinitely). EXTRAS A making-of doc discloses that the director was moved to write this somber story by his wife's death. That said, the 87-year-old Bergman engages spryly with all aspects of the production, even demonstrating to actress Julia Dufvenius how to slide down a wall and collapse to the floor. But once completed, Bergman says, a film declares its independence from him: ''First it takes a few halting steps, then it gets up and walks away.''


Posted Jan 13, 2006
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