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Saraband
Sony Pictures Classics


8.1

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 11 votes
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FILM:

Fanny and Alexander

MPAA RATING: R for brief nudity, language and a violent image

Starring Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Börje Ahlstedt, Julia Dufvenius, and Gunnel Fred

In this sequel to Bergman's 1973 film "Scenes from a Marriage," Marianne and Johan meet again after thirty years without contact, when Marianne suddenly feels a need to see her ex-husband again. She decides to visit Johan at his old summer house in the western province of Dalarna. And so, one beautiful autumn day, there she is, beside his reclining chair, waking him with a light kiss. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Ingmar Bergman
DIRECTED BY:	Ingmar Bergman
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 10, 2006 Theatrical: July 8, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	107 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Sweden
LANGUAGE(S):	Swedish / English / German (with English subtitles)

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Time Richard Corliss

Saraband makes for a powerful and poignant final roar from the grand old man of cinema--the movies' lion king.

100

Film Threat Phil Hall

One could literally milk a thesaurus in trying to find the right words to lavish on Saraband: brilliant, towering, majestic, challenging, remarkable.

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Its leisurely, deliberative style is a perfect complement to the emotions it deals with - emotions so penetrating that I warn you at the outset how jarringly intense you may find Bergman's most brilliant drama in decades.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Bergman has never been an ordinary filmmaker, and what he's given us is no genial last hurrah but rather an intensely dramatic, at times lacerating examination of life's conundrums that is exhilarating in its fearlessness and its command.

100

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Bergman's Saraband is sublime.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

If it's not an actual masterpiece, it's at least the next best thing, a fully characteristic, fully alive work by a master of his art.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Powerfully, painfully honest.

100

Washington Post Tim Page

It would be difficult to identify a single frame in Saraband that is not a distinguished composition in itself; Bergman has the eye of a latter-day Vermeer.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

A joy to watch.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

Saraband portrays a sad vision of aging, yet the film is never depressing. For those inclined to search for psychological twists, the film offers plenty of Freudian situations capable of provoking lengthy discussions.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Builds slowly and naturally to an unbearable personal crisis.

Newsweek David Ansen

With Saraband, the great writer-director has stepped back into the ring for one last epic wrestle with his demons. There is, as always, no easy outcome. But no one ever fought for higher emotional and spiritual stakes.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Ms. Ullmann, now 65, and Mr. Josephson, 81, have a supreme mastery of the Bergman style. Their performances are spiritual and emotional X-rays.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A pure distillation of the great director's ongoing themes of the frailty of the human psyche and mankind's willful inability to accept the inevitable, whatever that may be.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Bergman's creation of family banter that turns irredeemably cruel remains without peer.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Anyone expecting a tender sunset elegy, however, has wandered into the wrong film. Saraband, despite a few wistful moments, is a poison pill of a reunion.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This is as bitter and despairing an exploration of the human spirit as any of Bergman's films, and it is just as vibrantly written and directed.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Saraband -- the term means an erotic dance for two -- is like watching four people take turns trying to swim with one of the others clinging to an ankle. It's grim and gripping.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Bergman has not gone soft, not emotionally, philosophically and certainly not artistically. This is as tough a film as he has ever made.

TV Guide Ken Fox

A rare, unexpected treat.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

If ultimately the highly talky Saraband comes across as a minor entry in the canon, it nonetheless marks a dignified farewell for one of cinema's greatest directors.

Variety Gunnar Rehlin

A bitter but finally moving story about lost love, hatred between generations and a curious kind of liberation, Saraband officially closes one of the most prestigious and influential careers in the history of cinema.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Saraband doesn't ask to be considered prime-cut Bergman, and it isn't, although its slightness may not matter to the art-film starving class.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The screenplay of Saraband feels concocted, not absorbed from life in sense and soul like so much of Bergman's work.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Saraband, flat and static both visually and thematically, doesn't begin to approximate the austere beauty of the director's art-house classics.

Empire David Parkinson

Insightful as ever but a little dated in the set-up and treatment of the shooting.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

This uneven new film, a series of dialogues from the legendary Ingmar Bergman, is assembled like movements of a concerto.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Feels like the effort of a tired artist reworking the same themes.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The performances are perfectly distilled, but the traits I dislike in Bergman are all here -- self-pity, brutality, spiritual constipation, and an unwillingness to try to overcome these difficulties.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Robert S. gave it a9:
How amazing that Bergman, in his late 80s, still has the touch. Saraband may not be up to the level of his greatest films, such as Fanny and Alexander, but it is certainly on the same level as Scenes From a Marriage.

Dr. Suess gave it a4:
Bergman can do so much better than this.

Robert B. gave it a10:
Elegant with bitter, intensity that like great art rises to the sublime. The sad and bitter dialogues are redeemed by the grace note of Marianne's "calling" (by Anna I suspect) to bring the grace that has been missing since Anna died. Anna's presence is a "mother Mary" figure grieved by all but present through Marianna. The bitterness and distance all the parents have created through their selfishness is elevated through the little miracle of this visit. The letter from Anna is discovered, Karin frees herself and Marianne is sent to help her disengage from her guilt. The movie is sublime, intense and a great morality play.

Dana M. gave it a6:
If the subtitles don't get in the way, the emotional extremes and sexual deviancy just might. The acting is exceptional. The movie story is written in acts, as if it were written for a play. Liv Ullman talks directly to the audience which can be distracting. Even though the dialogue doesn't directly address it, it's understood that the father is having sexual relations with his teenage daughter, sleeping in the same bed. For a group of people living in isolation, these people need to get to a psychiatrist pronto. A movie to rent.

bernice b. gave it a10:
Mesmerizing...as close to being a fly on the psychoanalyst's wall as you can get. run to see this one.

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Saraband Sony Pictures Classics

Saraband
Sony Pictures Classics