At 84 years old Ingmar Bergman comes out of retirement and writes and directs this father /daughter drama and photographs it with a high definition video camera hardly the work of an old fuddy duddy. In the supplemental content on the DVD, Bergman a man in his mid 80's is quite alert and spry. In fact he looks better than Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann playing two of the four leads in this film.
Saraband has been called a sequel to Scenes From a Marriage but that's probably pushing it a bit. True Josephson and Ullmann are playing Johan and Marianne the names of their characters from Scenes From a Marriage but they don't really seem to act like the same people from that film. Johan and Marianne are more observers than active participants in this film. But I suppose having two of his closest collaborators was important to Bergman for this film.
Saraband is basically focused on Johan's son Henrik and Henrik's daughter Karin. Henrik is mentoring Karin on the cello in order for her to get a scholarship to a music academy. However Henrik seems to have what they call an unhealthy interest in his daughter. Henrik is also one of those tormented Bergman characters who you would probably call a loser.
This is a good Bergman film and I don't think anyone needs to make apologizes for Bergman's age. Bergman was always good at portraying his characters thoughts, desires and insecurities throughout his career and this film is no exception. There is also a prevailing feeling of death throughout the film which I suppose is not surprising coming from Bergman at this point in his life. Saraband is an interesting and good film to wrap up his impressive film career.
Written by Ingmar Bergman, the running time is 112 minutes.
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