Autumn Sonata by Ingmar Bergman

Category: Non-English

One of the only color films of Bergman I have managed to land my hands on Autumn Sonata is a masterpiece in its own right. Although more celebrated for its performances by Ingrid Bergman & Liv Ulman, Bergman has to be credited with his almost flawless handling of the delicate relationship shared between a mother and a daughter.

Ingrid's character has been busy all her life, pursuing a career as a celebrated pianist she in turn has forgone her personal life and her children - Eva and Helena. Through the film Bergman pokes, prods and annihilates their personal space by creating a new one. He uses this new space to analyse and dissect their interpersonal relationship. From the start it's the mother who is in a dominant position but eventually it gives way to the daughter finally getting a hold on things and finally managing to get her mother to acknowledge the pain they underwent as kids. Helena on the other hand is a spastic child who is now almost incapable of communicating, only with the help of her sister, Eva can she actually put forth her emotions and comments.

The characters he creates and particularly the joy of what color can do for a film is brilliant exposed by Bergman. The lighting in the scene where there's a projector, when there's a warm glaze of sunlight coming from outside do you realize how important the lighting and how much color holds. The reds in Bergman's films are definitely always spoken about and for once I got to see a taste of this power.

Most of all Autumn Sonata - with it's powerful music of Chopin & Bach lend a very interesting comparison to the characters he creates on screen. His framing, relying heavily on his close ups but now capturing 2 central characters is almost undeniably brilliant of his work. Even though it's been made in 1978 it still, in my mind, belongs to the early 50's of European Cinema.

Recommendation level: 5/5 - Eventually the film is quite relentless but for his vastly different way of handling female relationships - Bergman gets a 5 on this! Note that unless you're used to Bergman you will find this 92 minute film to be quite boring. My personal copy!