Scenes From a Marriage

Locations
Call Number: DVD FLC-SWE Scenes
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 1-week checkout	DVD FLC-SWE Scenes	1-week checkout	Reshelving
Westgate Adult A/V 1-week checkout	DVD FLC-SWE Scenes	1-week checkout	Due 05-01-2024

Originally filmed in 1973 for Swedish television, released as an edited theatrical film in 1974.
Special features: comparison between the television and theatrical versions by film scholar Peter Cowie; exclusive new video interview with stars Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson; video interview with Ingmar Bergman; new essay by author Phillip Lopate (container insert); television (299 minutes) version and theatrical versions.
Disc 1-2. Television series (299 min.) -- disc 3. Theatrical film version (169 min.).
Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson, Jan Malmsjö, Gunnel Lindblom.
Marianne and Johan always seemed to be the perfect couple. But when Johan suddenly leaves Marianne for another woman, they are forced to confront the disintegration of their marriage. Chronicles ten years of turmoil and love that bind the couple despite their divorce and subsequent marriages. Portrays the brutal pain and uplifting peace that accompany a lifetime of loving.--Container.
DVD, region 1, full screen presentation; Mono, new high-definition digital transfer with restored image and sound, RSDL dual-layer ed.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
Summary / Annotation

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Seriously? No reviews for this monumental movie? Keep seeing stupid sequels from the out-of-ideas morons in Hollywood submitted by Tassos on November 13, 2022, 8:35am This is a famous movie. The DVD has three disks, I first saw the last one, which was the movie, because it is much shorter (and probably better) than the TV movies in the other two disks.

Any film by Bergman is automatically hailed (or was hailed) as a landmark masterpiece etc etc. I really like some of them, esp "Wild Strawberries" (Borrow it from the library, study both CDs) but others I liked less.

THis one starts very well but deteriorates fast. Many things are not convincingly portrayed as the movie continues. For example, the scene where the husband or ex-husband hits his wife, it seems it came out of nowhere, there was no build-up, not even an obvious reason why he did so. (not that it would be forgivable even then!)

Best Bergman submitted by answer-beat on January 20, 2023, 9:26pm I've watched some of Bergman's other classic movies and I appreciate them but for some reason this is the only one I've seen so far that I really connected with. Not really sure why, because I've never been married, and I probably won't ever. It's just that this one is so emotionally direct. I know some of the people who write reviews here seem to have a problem with movies that are long and/or slowly paced, but in this case, the story works much better in the miniseries format, which totals 5 hours. It's best to watch one episode per day instead of all at once, the way it was originally broadcast. The 3-hour movie version feels a bit rushed in comparison, there's not as much character development, which is important to the story. In both versions, however, there's a lot of sudden mood shifts. Like the title says, this is scenes from various stages of a relationship (pre- and post-divorce), and it boils a decade down to a few hours, sometimes years pass in between scenes and it's not always clear to the viewer that this is happening unless you're really paying close attention to what they're saying.

Anyway, this is a fantastic, emotionally gripping film, absolutely worth putting aside time to watch.