Saraband

Ingmar Bergman came out of retirement to direct this made-for-tv film, to revisit the couple from Scenes from a Marriage thirty years later. It’s a bit of a bait-&-switch, however, even though Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson return as Marianne and Johan, now in their sixties and eighties respectively. The focus is on Johan’s grand-daughter, and his hateful relationship with her father, his son by a previous marriage. In the wake of her mother’s death, the beautiful 19-year-old girl is being held as an emotional hostage by her father, who has not only lost his loving -- even saintly -- wife but also his professorship and his leadership of a musical consort. The lovely girl is a cello prodigy, taught by her father, but now due to go to conservatory, and she is in danger of becoming a pawn in the lifelong conflict between her father and grandfather. Marianne comes into this volatile situation when she takes it into her head to drop in on Johan at his wilderness cottage, after years of no contract, despite Johan’s distaste for such “improvisations.” The film is composed of ten blackout duets between the various characters, with a prologue and epilogue by Marianne looking over a table full of photos and speaking directly to the camera. Bergman retains his capacity for intimate, soul-wrenching conversations, but also his grim take on human nature, the human condition, and all human relationships. The character duets are compelling, as is the music, but the visuals are perfunctory -- e.g. the picture postcard view from Johan’s front porch is exactly that, a picture postcard. The whole is well-made, in the manner of the master, but airless and hopeless, though not entirely unsympathetic. (2004, dvd, n.) *6* (MC-80.)