| | | An Ingmar Bergman Film
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Dolby Surround Sound, English, French, Subtitled
Saraband - the acclaimed follow-up to the Golden Globe-winning Best Foreign Film, Scenes From a Marriage - is director Ingmar Bergman's last statement on film, "a powerful and poignant final roar from the grand old man of cinema" (Richard Corliss, Time). Thirty years after their divorce, Marianne (Liv Ullman, in a reprise of her National Society of Film Critics Award-winning role) impulsively decides to visit Johan (Erland Josephson) at his isolated country retreat. Upon her arrival, she bears witness to the tortured relationship between her bitter ex-husband, his hated son Henrik (Borje Ahlstedt), and 19-year-old granddaughter, Karin (Julia Dufvenius). Unable to cope with his wife's recent death, Henrik expresses his grief through an unhealthy obsession with his teenage daughter. Ignoring his son's protests, Johan offers to send the girl to a prestigious music conservatory, forcing Karin to choose between a promising future as a cellist or caring for her tormented father.
"It is a luminous, sensuous examination of human relationships." James Verniere, Boston Herald
"...a testament to Bergman's skill as a filmmaker..." Jamie Woolley, BBC
Editor's Note
In this heartfelt drama from the inimitable Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, a woman (Bergman's longtime favorite Liv Ullmann) visits her ex-husband after a 30-year separation, only to become involved in the lives of his son and granddaughter from his late second wife.
| Features | Audio: Swedish Dolby Digital Stereo | | Interactive Menus | | Making-Of Featurette | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 5/23/2006 |
| Running Time: 111 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 10898 | | UPC: 00043396108981 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Swedish | | Available Audio Tracks: Swedish | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"[Y]ou feel the pull of Bergman's craft..." 07/15/2005 p.53New York Times
"Ms. Ullman, now 65, and Mr. Josephson, 81, have a supreme mastery of the Bergman style. Their performances are spiritual and emotional X-rays." 07/08/2005 p.E18 Movieline's Hollywood Life
"[I]t dissects painful family dynamics with scalding power....As always in a Bergman film, the acting is magisterial." 07/01/2005 p.99-100 Sight and Sound
"SARABAND is a commandingly restrained final composition and -- as the theme of classical musicianship suggests -- very much an affair of close attention to the nuances of performance." 10/01/2005 p.44-45 San Francisco Chronicle 9 of 10
If Saraband is not one of the best Bergman films, it's a very good one and a valuable statement from a great artist in old age. Grief hangs over the film, echoing the long-lasting grief Bergman experienced over the death of his wife, Ingrid, in 1995. So is the grim conviction that people can't be fixed and few are saved. Yet there's one thing heartening about Saraband, aside from its being a brilliant showcase for the actors. It assures us that Bergman is unchanged. - Mick LaSalle
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
The overwhelming fact about this movie is its awareness of time. Thirty-two years have passed since Scenes from a Marriage. The years have passed for Bergman, for Ullmann, for Josephson, and for us. Whatever else he is telling us in Saraband, Bergman is telling is that life will end on the terms with which we have lived it. If we are bitter now, we will not be victorious later; we will still be bitter. Here is a movie about people who have lived so long, hell has not been able to wait for them. - Roger Ebert
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