1983 Winner, Fanny and Alexander

Fanny and Alexander

Directed by:  Ingmar Bergman

Distributor:  Sandrew Film & Teater

Released:  December 1982

Country:  Sweden

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.  Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Fanny and Alexander is a family movie.  And by that, I don’t mean Fanny and Alexander are dogs that talk or anything like that.  No, this is a movie about families, or rather, one big multi-part Swedish family.  Fanny and Alexander are the young kids, and really the movie is told from Alexander’s point of view—Fanny is just there for show.  By the way, this really isn’t a Rated-G family movie, as there is serious sexual shenanigans afoot; in fact, some bare breasts and a fanny or two are prominently displayed.  But not Fanny’s fanny—she’s just a kid!

The family at Christmas; Fanny & Alexander, first row right

This extended family, whom we find in early twentieth century Sweden, is full of character and characters.  There’s lecherous but jovial Uncle Gustav, whose wife Alma knows about his appetites, but she turns a blind eye because she is one of them.  There’s intelligent Uncle Carl, who doesn’t seem to know how to manage his money.  Helena is the kids' grandmother, fun-loving and wise, the glue that holds the family together.  And then there is Fanny and Alexander’s father Oscar, who runs a theater that really doesn’t make much money but whose players and crew are like a family unto themselves.  The story begins pleasantly on Christmas Eve, a time when they will all get together, sing and dance, drink like crazy, and possibly hook up with a maid (that’s mostly just Gustav).

 

The fun ends early on, though, when Emilie, Oscar’s pretty wife with blonde hair and impossibly dark eyebrows, loses her husband to a stroke.  Big changes are in store for the kids, whether they like it or not.  Helene wants to take care of them, and so she takes up with the seemingly caring Lutheran bishop who counsels her through this tough time.  Once they are married, the bishop wants only what's best for the kids, and so naturally he thinks things like chores and gruel and no wire hangers are exactly what they’ll need to grow up to be good God-fearing Christians.

Emilie

Ingmar Bergman knew his way around the back of a camera and it shows it this expansive and engaging film.  This was the last major work of this giant of not only Swedish, but all, cinema.  It is said this is his most autobiographical film, and many details of his early life find their way into this story.  Most particularly, Bergman is represented by Alexander, a bright and headstrong boy raised by this strict Lutheran minister.  Bergman must have really hated his old man, because there little sympathy in the portrayal of Alexander’s step-father in Fanny and Alexander.

This is a marathon of a movie, but the version I watched was shortened from the original, over five hours long, made for Swedish television.  The DVD set I loaned from the library had both versions, but I, wisely I think, stuck to the three hours rendering.  Maybe someday when I have time to burn I will go back and check out the longer film, because for the entire three hours I found myself plenty entertained.

Step-father and son bonding

The Title:  Fanny och Alexander.  Honestly, Fanny doesn’t do much in this film; perhaps Bergman felt the title ”Alexander” would have been a bit dull, and would have been too great a tip off that the movie’s title character was so closely related to the director.

The Culture:  Swedish families in the 1900’s, at least this family, seem like a blast.  The early scene of Christmas Eve is especially fun and instructive—the family dances to the tune of "Nu är det jul igen" ("Now It is Christmas Again"), also portrayed, of all places, in the children’s Christmas special, Arthur’s Perfect Christmas.  These kinds of details are great in adding to the flavor of a film, and in giving you a taste of the culture it portrays.

Agenda danger:  No politics in this one—this is all about family.

Best Picture that year:  Terms of Endearment.  A very different film about family.  Interestingly, Fanny and Alexander won four Oscars that year, for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and for Costume Design.  This is a very well-made film.

Rating:  This film has all the things a regular family has:  fun, laughter, sorrow, anger, sexual encounters with maids, and maybe most subtly, spirituality.  Film enthusiasts will appreciate the skill and visceral emotion Ingmar Bergman brings to the screen; regular folks who like to watch a movie every once in a while will find themselves connecting with this unusual and vibrant family.

1961 Winner, Through a Glass Darkly

Through a Glass Darkly

Director:        Ingmar Bergman

Distributed by:  Janus Films

Released:  October 1961

Country:  Sweden

The idea of a family vacation can often be far superior to an actual family vacation.  Someone gets the idea that it will be great to spend days together in a little cottage near the water somewhere to get away from the pressures and boredom of regular life at home.  A lot of the time, the vacation is just what was needed, but going home to sleep in one’s own bed is a concept that should not be underestimated.  There is something confining about spending time in a little house with people who don’t have jobs to go to or errands to run.  A week in a cabin isolated from the rest of the world might just lead to a bit of craziness.

In Through a Glass Darkly, 1961’s Best Foreign Film by legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, we have a family of four off on a getaway to remote island to spend some quality time together.  There indeed is craziness, but the kind that existed before this get-together and goes deeper than a few days of isolation. 

Martin (Max von Sydow) and Karin (Harriet Andersson)

The family consists of four:  There is the father, David, who is a novelist and an absentee dad always away working.  There is his son, Minus, who has an inferiority complex that reflects his unfortunate name.  David’s friend Martin is with them, a man roughly David’s age but married to David’s daughter, Karin, who initially seems like the stabilizer in the family, but in reality is certainly not. 

The four of them joke around and make conversation like any family would at the start of spending time together.  Things get a little dicey when Minus, who is an aspiring writer, and Karin put on a play for the other two.  It's something Minus wrote with the thinly-veiled message that Minus thinks Dad is a bigtime jerk.  David has a hard time relating to his kids and only shares his deepest feelings with his friend Martin, played by Max von Sydow (who also stars in 1983’s Pelle the Conqueror, and the soon to be reviewed The Virgin Spring).  Cryptically, they discuss Karin’s previous illness. 

The Exorcist:  Max von Sydow has had to deal with worse

And Karin’s illness is the center of the film.  It seems she is having difficulty keeping a grip on reality, and things don’t look promising that she will get better.  And perhaps because she is a key relationship for each of the three men around her, things don’t really look promising for this family.  Even though Karin’s mental illness is the subject, to me the real story is how it affects the other family members, both tragically and with an ounce of hope.

Through a Glass Darkly is a talky film, centering on the individual relationships within the family and how the family exists as a unit.  But this is an Ingmar Bergen movie, so the subject matter is much broader than a summary of the film would provide—like in Fanny and Alexander, Bergman's 1983 Best Foreign Film winner (released in 1982), religious themes abound, carefully woven into the story and into the characters.   In the end, though this family endures the tragedy that mental illness can bring, since a God exists, there is always hope that will endure.

The Title:  Såsom i en spegel, which literally means, “as in a mirror.”  The title is a reference to 1Corinthians 13, “At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.”  This is from the “love” epistle of Paul, frequently used at weddings, with the chapter ending with: “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Things often go wrong on a family vacation

The culture:  The movie is set on Fårö, a Swedish island popular to vacationers and a location to a number of Bergman films.  The island may be quite beautiful, but the black and white photography makes it appear stark and devoid of warmth, reflective of the family and of the mental illness that isolates Karin.

Agenda danger:  The movie is grim, but the message is less so.  In some ways, mental illness is not only confined to the daughter, but to the entire family, both individually and as a group.  But the relationships survive, and especially redeeming is the final conversation between Minus and his father.

Best Picture that year:  West Side Story

Rating:  The film is essentially a three-act play with lots of dialogue and little action, and if you go into this understanding that, I think it is quite good and thought-provoking.  A nice short little film by a master director.