User Reviews

This is one of the very best Ingmar Bergman films I have seen, and therefore one of the very best films.

Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullman are simply amazing together as a mother and daughter combination from hell. Ingrid Bergman is terrific, despite a deliberately naff hairdo which makes her look like Queen Elizabeth II of the UK rather than the faded beauty she is. Liv Ullman also has visual nuances to enhance her character - the glasses, platted hair and jumpers enabling this beautiful woman to look frumpy.

The acting is simply amazing, even through the subtitles you can tell. Fortunately Scandinavian vocal nuance is similar enough to English to enable us non-Swedish speakers to appreciate the acting.

Of course, it has the Ingmar Bergman darkness to it. The sister with the horrible degenerative disease, the drowned toddler, the selfishness of the Ingrid Bergman character. If you get depressed along with the characters in films like this, you might be better off giving this one a miss.

But for those with a taste for this type of claustrophobic drama, this is one of the most powerful films you will ever see.

ingrid berman was diagnosed with terminal cancer shortly before she agreed to star in this film. due to the fact that insurance companies in hollywood rarely secure contracts with ill actors, ingrid had to take what she could while she was still alive. i don't know what her financial situation was at the time, but i do know that her fee for starring in this film was much less than she was used to. yet, despite her condition, this became, to me at least, her swan-song performance.

during ingrid's prime, she had considerable control of her image in hollywood. she was portrayed, more often than not, as a strong and goddess-like character (casablanca, anyone?). in this film, however, all control of imaging was in the hands of her swedish counterparts ingmar bergman and sven nykvist, and the image they created of her was deconstructive of her screen persona, yet not in her brilliance and ability as an actress.

ingrid hated working with them, though. ingmar would command long takes, and sven would put the camera inches from her face. yet this technique showed a side of ingrid the world has never seen before.

ingrid's character,charlotte, is a successful concert pianist yet unsuccessful mother who returns to see her two daughters and a son-in-law. one daughter is married, yet is incapable of feeling love. and the other (helena, played by 60's swedish film star lena nyman) is left virtually paralyzed. she returns to visit after 7 years, and that's when the sparks fly.

liv ullman, who plays eva, (the married daughter), has usually been portayed as a non-confrontational person in her collaborations with ingmar, yet her persona in this film is slightly reserved in the beginning, but all her inhibitions are unleashed upon charlotte. i've always remembered ingrid as a beautiful painted rose on the screen (for whom the bell tolls, anyone?), but when this film ends, all we see is ingrid's tear-stained face. this may be ingmar's own reaction to his own short-comings as a husband and father (7 kids/4 marriages). in an effort to deconstruct himself, he looked at another icon to drive home his point of childhood pain and adult insecurities.

at this films end, the most punishing scenes occur. i'm not going to spoil it for you, but it's the scene when eva walks amongst cemetery headstones while charlotte takes the train out of town. i hate to admit it, but there was a lump in my throat at this point in the film.

although i praise this film, i wouldn't give this movie a 10 because of nyman's character. although her scene in the beginning is powerful, her other two appearances,(although brief) are way over-the-top, almost as bad as jar-jar binks in phantom menace.

i could write more, but i want everyone who reads this to go see this movie without my crappy opinions ruining it. it's not often that people see a film with such realistic portrrait of the human condition. and as i said earlier, ingrid and ignmar have rarely (maybe never)been better.

9 out of 10 (***1/2 out of ****)

Autumn Sonata was a movie that did move me a lot, but I'd hesitate in calling it one of Ingmar Bergman's best. I did find The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander, Cries and Whispers and Persona even better. This said, apart from an occasional over-load of speeches that come across as too theatrical, Autumn Sonata is still a remarkably good film. As ever with Bergman, it is wonderfully photographed(by none other than Sven Nykvist) and directed, and it has some lovely scenery too. The music is beautiful and haunting, I have to say as a life-long fan of classical music that the use of the Chopin prelude is one of the finest uses of classical music in film to me. The script is mostly thought-provoking and the story, which is essentially a study of guarded emotion, resentment and regret, has the Bergman darkness and harrowing moments like with the sister with the horrible degenerative disease and the drowned toddler. Charlotte's selfishness is also very powerfully conveyed as is Eva's sense of resentment, while the scene that moved me most was the two at the piano. Both leading ladies are outstanding, Ingrid Bergman's elegant but somewhat faded beauty is ideal for the selfishness of her character, but I was even more impressed by Liv Ullman, who has such intensity in her eyes and facial expressions. All in all, powerful and moving, and while it is not one of my favourites from Bergman it is still highly recommendable. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Writer/director Ingmar Bergman examines the strained relationship between a mother and daughter in `Autumn Sonata,' starring Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann. Eva (Ullmann) has not seen her mother, Charlotte (Bergman) in seven years; a successful concert pianist, Charlotte has spent a good portion of her life on the road, but after losing her long-time companion, Leonardo, Eva invites her to come to the parsonage where she and her minister husband, Viktor (Halvar Bjork), live, for an extended visit. Charlotte accepts, but soon after her arrival, old wounds and feelings begin to surface, and the film becomes an intimate character study of the life-long dysfunctional relationship between Charlotte and Eva, during which director Bergman intricately examines the causes and effects of all that has passed between them during their lives. It's an in-depth look at the emotional damage human beings are capable of inflicting upon one another, and how fragile the line between love and hate becomes when subjected to incessant neglect by even one of the parties involved. As the story unfolds and the principals bare their souls-- at last revealing a lifetime's worth of repressed feelings-- it becomes an emotionally devastating experience for the audience, as well, for there is much contained within the dynamics of this situation that most viewers will be able to identify with and relate to within their own lives. Ingmar Bergman is a Master of presenting life as it truly is; reality-- and portraying it on the screen-- is his domain, and throughout his career he has veritably created almost a genre of his own in doing so. With a microscope of his own design, he scrutinizes the basic instincts of the human condition, what makes people tick and how and why they relate to one another as they do. Much of what he presents is startling, and always emotionally involving, because he penetrates so deeply and succinctly into the heart of the matter, as he demonstrates so superlatively with this film. His methods and style are unique, his talent unequivocal; many others have attempted to capture the essence of that which Bergman has perfected, but few have succeeded. Interestingly enough, Liv Ullmann is one who, as a director, has probably come the closest to achieving that classic `sense' of Bergman, with her films `Private Confessions,' and `Faithless,' both of which were written by Bergman. In her role as Eva, Ullmann gives one of the best performances of her career, for which she should have at least been nominated for an Oscar; that she was not is nothing less than a gross injustice. She so skillfully conveys the depth and complexities of her character, and the differing emotional levels to which Eva is subjected, that it creates a lasting impression and makes her someone with whom it is easy for the audience to sympathize. It makes you realize, upon reflection, what a truly gifted actress Ullmann is. And, as good as Ullmann's performance here is, it is equaled-- though not, I would say-- surpassed, by Ingrid Bergman's portrayal (in her final theatrical appearance) of Charlotte; and in a renewal of faith that there is some justice in the world after all, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for it. In retrospect, it seems somehow inevitable that the two Bergmans came together at last, though it's somewhat lamentable that their career paths did not cross sooner. There is some consolation, however, in the fact that when they did finally join forces the result was such a powerful, memorable film. The supporting cast includes Lena Nyman (Helena), Gunnar Bjornstrand (Paul), Erland Josephson (Josef) and Linn Ullmann (Eva as a child). An intelligent, thought provoking and emotionally wrenching film, highlighted by outstanding performances and beautifully photographed by Sven Nykvist, `Autumn Sonata' is an example of filmmaking at it's best; it's a lasting tribute, not only to the immense talents of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, but to Ingrid Bergman, one of the most beautiful and gifted actresses ever to grace the silver screen. I rate this one 10/10.

Generally, either "Seventh Seal" or "Persona" is the film that a critic will name if s/he is stuck with the task of naming Ingmar Bergman's greatest achievement. A couple others might be named, but rarely do you hear a critic espouse the brilliance of "Autumn Sonata."

The first thing I noticed about this film is that it is, like "Cries and Whispers," nothing less than a painting. The textures, the warm reds and the close-ups of the faces of wounded souls, all combine to make the viewer realize that s/he is witnessing High Art.

Then there's the shot of Liv Ullman's wounded profile as she stares at her mother, Ingrid Bergman, while mother shows Liv how the Chopin piece should be played. It is an eloquent scene. Truly heartbreaking and unforgettable. One can feel Liv's pain begin to show itself: it is the painful shame of inadequacy and mediocrity made all the more shameful because it is mother inspiring these feelings in her.

Later, it's Liv's cruelty toward her mother in that unforgettable late night diatribe.

And finally, it's Liv's crippled sister and Ingrid's disgust at the thought that not only did mediocrity crawl out of her womb, but so did deformity and suffering.

The film is bleak (obviously) and the resolution is only slightly hopeful. It is however a masterpiece -- a film that reveals that what the world needs now is not Love, as the song proclaims, but Compassion and Grace. Liv Ullman is the only actress who can say these things without opening her mouth. Ingmar Bergman is the only filmmaker who can make a seemingly banal story into an eloquent prayer for redemption and reconciliation.

(CAUTION: Dont take mom to see it on mother's day ... unless...)

The acting of Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ulmann is absolutely spell binding and while Katherine Hepburn may have been accused of portraying the emotions for A to B there is no doubt that these two actors can portray the emotions from A to Z and beyond. When I watch a film in a foreign language I find myself studying facial expressions and body language very closely, not surprisingly as, with the lack of understanding I am more dependant of visual cues. However such scrutiny often uncovers failings and weaknesses – not here.

The cinematography id also first class, the colours, tones and lighting are all superb and enhance, never detract.

This is only the second of Bergman's films I have seen (the first being Fanny and Alexander) and what I have noticed is that while many films give to the viewer and I feel as if the emotions are a natural response, I felt with the Bergman films, particularly this one, as if the films have taken something out of me, as if the emotions have been extracted against my will. This may sound over the top and rather florid but is a genuine statement. I also have to say that what the two films have in common is that they were both spellbinding and like a good book that just can't be put down, the films gripped me and wouldn't let go even for a minute.

This is a beautiful and devastating film that I admire, love and am connected to. This was the first Liv Ullmann's film I've seen and the first Bergman's color film. It is considered to be Ingrid Bergman's film and she is phenomenal as a talented and world renowned pianist who had never been a good mother to her two daughters. It is much easier to make the whole world happy then your own child. One can be a brilliant artist and read the minds of the other great minds easily but the hearts and souls of one's own blood and flesh would be the unsolved mystery. I think the film was very personal for both Bergmans in their only work together. It is amazing how bravely they explore the themes and events that could've (and did) occurred in their own lives. For me, though, the film belongs to Liv Ullmann, the greatest actress I've seen, the best Ingmar Bergman's actress.

I was riveted to Liv's face; I'd never seen the face like hers. She played a plain daughter to the brilliant mother and she was supposed to look and feel awkward and gawky comparing to her mother but her face was like a magnet, her eyes - like two deep blue lakes. If ever the saying, the eyes are the soul's mirror, is true, it is about Liv's eyes. There are kindness, tenderness, strength, and something even more attractive than beauty itself in them - the goodness of her soul. Dostoyevsky said once that human face has to mean something - I always think of his words when I see performance of my favorite actress ever -Liv Ullmann.

What makes a movie perfect is not only the intensity of emotion you feel when seeing it, and it's not only the seamless matching of technique and artistry, it is the truth of feeling conveyed and the unrelenting attention to the details of the crafts of writing, acting, and directing, making certain that those details work together to create meaning - a view of life, and whatever forces are behind life, that are as varied, contradictory, and complete as a living being. It is this that Bergman managed to accomplish with AUTUMN SONATA. The hyperbolic use of the word 'perfect', too often spontaneously tossed out as a result of confused and mawkish sentimentality (just as one Liv Ulmann's interpretation of a Chopin prelude is described as mawkish in the film) has a right to be used in the case of this work. There are no demons or angels in this movie. There are a collection of remarkably real characters whose actions and their motivations are fully explained by themselves, in dialog that is explicit and direct but not delivered as an artificial way of getting across the creator's judgment on his characters. Ingrid Bergman, in what is doubtlessly the finest performance of her career, portrays a mother who has neglected her children all her life and is confronted by this fact by her grown daughter whose adoration as a child has turned into an apparently irreversible hatred. "There is no forgiveness" is a line uttered by Liv Ulmann after summarizing the crimes of her mother's neglect and the results of that neglect. And yet, the character's contradictory feelings are clearly seen in the moments when her need for vengeful expression of her pain has faded away. The daughter who has condemned her mother, quite honestly, wants to keep trying to resolve the conflict, to heal the gaping wounds in her heart and in her sister's heart - a sister who, arguably, has been physically crippled by the cold withdrawl of her mother's feelings and her mother's competitive need to be the leading female character in everyone's life. Ingrid Bergman's character, though seen as a villain in the emotional eyes of her daughter, comes across as complex as Ulmann's. She has an awareness of her crimes of neglect but remains helpless, by choice and by need, to confront them within herself and make amends to resolve them. Her own childhood is the reason. The isolation that she felt, instead of inspiring her to not repeat the mistake with her own children, took the course of isolation, of seeking praise from the outside, of being the central character in the lives of people around her. Her insatiable hunger for love from others, though, remains forever unsatisfied. Her selfishness, even though she is painfully aware of it, is something which she has learned how to hide from herself. Her methods, of physical distance or the perfection of her work as a pianist has, for all her adult life, successfully obfuscated her pain - until an all-night exposing of the naked truths of hurt and distrust that are thrust upon her by her daughter.

Anyone with a mother or father can find identification with the characters in AUTUMN SONATA, as long as they can tolerate the pain of the truth that lies at the center of their all-too-human needs and the hurtful action that those needs have caused.

Ingmar Bergman claimed, in the DVD-introduction, that Ingrid Bergman told him that she wanted to make a film with him. The result was, and still is, a cinematographic masterpiece that compromises neither with style or emotion to get the message out. Ingrid Bergman is simply astonishing in the role as the world famous singer that after years of neglecting her children returns to find her oldest daughter full of hatred towards her. A hatred she doesn't understand, somewhere inside being a child needing attention herself. The tension between mother and daughter is building up, at first it is jolly but soon we see cracks in the surface of both Ingrid Bergman's glamorous Charlotte and Liv Ullman's quiet and suppressed Eva.

"Höstsonaten" is beautiful, but it takes its toll on the viewer. If you aren't prepared for it, it can be an emotional roller coaster ride that leaves you chocked when its over. The beauty and the ugliness of the human soul, ripped apart by anger, disease and sadness, is clear in this work of art.

A daughter and her mother reacquaint, it's been some time and there's a picture one will paint, of neglect and disaffection, absence, disdain and rejection, of connection that was nothing more than faint.

The dialogue and discourse are as real as if you were a fly on the wall listening to the words exchanged between Eva and Charlotte as a genuine mother and daughter. The emotions and the tension, as one reveals to the other the torment and torture endured through childhood and beyond as believable as any captured through film. The spectacular performance of Ingrid Bergman only partially eclipsed by the phenomenal talents of Liv Ullmann. The whole encapsulated through one of the greatest interpreters of the human condition that has ever set foot behind a camera. A truly magnificent piece of film making.

Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman strikes such a deep, tragic chord with movie-fans that he's impossible to dismiss, though not always easy to like. "Autumn Sonata" is admirable and emotional, and the characters aren't so far removed from most of us that we can't relate to them, but it's a lugubrious piece with heavy, thudding sequences. I recognized many of the tumultuous emotions in the two women at the heart of this story; one particular scene, where Liv Ullmann stares off into space as domineering mother Ingrid Bergman plays the piano, is shiveringly real. It's the director's gift to bring out the cold loneliness of living, and yet keep it structured in an intimate setting between lovers or family members. It isn't the tour-de-force many professional critics hailed it as, however the performances are terrific and the central relationship between mother and daughter is tremulous and fascinating. **1/2 from ****

Before she was an international star of incomparable charisma and beauty, and even before Ingmar Bergman became a legendary director of films bleak and intense, Ingrid Bergman played in the Swedish cinema. So it is entirely apropos that someday Bergman might direct Bergman.

Ingrid plays Charlotte, a concert pianist who has, upon the recent death of her longtime lover, Leonardo, returned to her native land to visit her daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann), whom she hasn't seen for seven years, and her husband Viktor (Halvar Bjork), who is a minister. Ullmann is frumpish in specs with her hair up and her dress loose and ill-fitting. She is Ingrid's nerdish daughter who has been throughout her life entirely overshadowed by her glamorous mother. Eva has an unpleasant surprise for mom. Her other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), who suffers from a crippling disease, perhaps muscular dystrophy, is on hand. Eva didn't tell her mother that Helena was now living with them. She says she didn't tell her because she knew that, if she had, Charlotte would not have come. And so we can guess that there are issues that will come out, issues between mother and daughter that have been festering for decades.

I got goose bumps seeing Ingrid Bergman as an elderly woman, and seeing the smooth, graceful style again, the elegant presence, a hint of the old gestures, the sly glances, the tentative smiles... It was really wonderful and at the same time disconcerting to examine her face (Sven Nykvist's intense close ups expose every inch of skin) and sigh and remember and understand the effect of the passing years. Ingrid is elegant but she has been robbed of her beauty so now we are able to see her character; unfortunately Ingmar's script allows little of the real Ingrid Bergman to appear. Hers is not a pleasant part to play. She is an entirely selfish and self-centered woman who has put her career before her family, but is unaware of what she has done. Eva seizes this opportunity to punish her mother by dredging up the neglect of her childhood to throw it in her mother's face (which perhaps explains why Charlotte hasn't been home in seven years). The sheer cold hatred that Eva expresses is enough to make the devil himself cringe. After a bit one begins to feel sorry for Charlotte, despite her failures as a mother, to have a daughter so unforgiving and so hateful.

Liv Ullmann is rather startling in this portrayal, with her penetrating eyes, her hard, Neandethalish forehead, the severe specs, and the uncompromising tone of her voice. Charlotte is ashamed and begs for forgiveness and tries to defend herself, but it is no use. Eva is too strong for her. This is one of the more intense scenes in cinema, and one not easily watched. Meanwhile in the upstairs bedroom and then in the hallway and down the staircase, Helena has heard them arguing and is pulling her crippled body over the floor, desperately trying to reach them. She cries out, "Mama! Mama!" but is not heard.

Viewers might want to pick sides between mother and daughter to say which is the more at fault. Indeed, it is hard to say who Bergman himself found more at fault. Perhaps there is no fault, only human weakness and stupidity. Such scenes are usually followed by a greater understanding, forgiveness and a willingness to start anew. However, although Charlotte wants that, it is not clear in Bergman's script that anything good will come of what has happened. Charlotte leaves, the minister returns to looking at his wife, (having overheard the argument, about which he has said nothing) and Eva writes a letter to her mother. It is not clear whether she wants to patch things up or to gain another opportunity to pick her mother to pieces. The viewer is left to decide.

Perhaps the best scene in the film is the one that follows dinner the night of Charlotte's arrival in which Eva plays the piano, a Chopin prelude. She has worked hard on it and hopes to please her mother. Alas, her play is not so good. After all, the mother is a genius, the daughter only the daughter of a genius. Charlotte sits down next to Eva and takes the keys to gently demonstrate how the piece should be played. We see and feel at once the inadequacy of the daughter in her mother's eyes. It is a great scene filmed with a tight focus on the faces of the two women. When Eva turns to stare at her mother, who is, of course, playing brilliantly with great finesse and touch, the expression on Eva's face, held for many long seconds, is unforgettable.

Not to second guess the master, but I would have liked to have seen the entire movie played in this, a more subtle key than that which followed. However when it comes to dysfunction and disease, Ingmar Bergman is unrestrained.

Ingrid Bergman was nominated for an academy award for best actress in this, her last feature film (she had already been diagnosed with cancer), but lost out to Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978).

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Watching this for the first time in 2015 (37 years after its release), Autumn Sonata does not really pass the test of time. Despite fine acting by all the four principal actors and an appropriately emotive 'autumny' look and feel to the cinematography, the scripting is very dated in a bad way - labored and patronizing to the viewer.

It's supposedly believable and relatively straight-forward absent-parent-isolated-child-now-both-adults premise has been very heavy-handedly weighted down by an unnecessarily overwrought script filled with dialogue that borders on the paranoid - an unintended outcome from an over earnestness on the writer-director's part, who doesn't seem to believe subtlety is a virtue in the effective conveyance of a family drama.

As it is, the movie has unfortunately caricatured and locked itself into a time-style warp that doesn't lend it the relevance and timelessness of better constructed movies. As it is, the proceedings is much like an overly exaggerated stage-play where the audience is plied with layers of thick emotions of 'hidden' pain and guilt and near-hysteria, just so their minds wouldn't think and the eyes wouldn't stray from the sheer heftiness of things. Audience introspection is minimized and deemed unnecessary. And many of the revelations are closer to the rantings of spoilt children and adults, throwing the proceedings between Eva and her mother into the ilks of rich-spoilt-brats who have the luxury of indulging each other in their own self-loathing.

The result is, while you admire the actors performance, the viewer is kept distant from the 'staged' characters these actors are directed to play. It is akin to watching an indulgent family quarreling amongst themselves but feeling neither sympathy nor empathy, but merely curious at the childishly 'dramatic' behavior of these players.

The sometimes disjointed flow subtracts rather than add. The most obvious 'subtraction' is near the end where the matriarch (played by a wonderful Ingrid Bergman in her swan song) 'leaves suddenly'. We are told this, but we do not witness this very important departure. Given the overwrought interactions between mother and daughter(s) and the situation that was set up just prior to this 'leaving', there would have been very telling interactions amongst them during the 'leaving'. The matriarch certainly did not disappear quietly into the morning light.

In the relatively short 95 mins or so, I felt I have just watched a stage play, where the focus is on highlighting the skills of the stage (and 'staged') actors, rather than on the collective strength of a well-scripted and well-directed play. It rarely felt like a movie. I would hesitate to call it 'pretentious' mainly because of the fine acting. In the hands of less able actors, such a staged script would fall square into pretentiousness.

I am not familiar with Ingmar Bergman's movies - perhaps this is his 'style'. Would recommend Autumn Sonata as a 'study' of dated scripting and movie/play making, but not as an engaging movie. Maybe it once was engaging, but not today, nor likely in the future.

With all the reviews proclaiming this to be a masterpiece, I guess I must be the contrarian. I agree that the acting and dialogue are great. The distraught expressions of the daughter and mother reveal a haunted past that yearns for belated compassion. These scenes were tinged with realistic pathos and were hard to watch. However, the film's reliance on dialogue and a lack of skilled music, cinematography and mise-en-scene made it seem like a verbal medium than a visual one, i.e. A stage-play rather than a film.

Ingrid Bergman as Charlotte, is a concert pianist visiting her daughter Eva, played by Liv Ullmann. They have not seen each other for 7 years. Charlotte's other daughter, Helena, is also living with Eva. Helena has a crippling disease, and at one time was living in some type of institution.

At first, everything is fine, as mother and daughter do their best to make each other as comfortable as possible. When left alone, they wonder about each other's expectations, but continue on.

Charlotte is a very talented, but completely self-absorbed woman. Eva is a frump. A sweet frump, but a frump nonetheless. At first, there are a few catty remarks exchanged, but the turning point is when Eva offers to play the piano for her mother. She works as hard as she can, but the music sounds contrived and unmusical. When she asks her mother to play the piece for her, Charlotte does the one thing that signaled to me that "the war was on". She laid down the music rack on the piano. (When pianists have a piece memorized, they do that to show the audience that they have no need for the printed music.) Charlotte, of course, plays beautifully (she could play no other way). However, the damage is done. Mother is successful, and daughter is a failure. Although the scene is dramatically pivotal, it did produce one of the few really funny lines in the movie. After Charlotte finishes playing, she says, "Well, I HAVE been playing these Chopin pieces for 37 years."

Charlotte's self-absorption is pretty amazing when you realize that her ill daughter was in an institution, then moved to Eva's house, and she had no idea that it happened. There are some other clues in the early part of the story that indicate she probably wished that her daughter Helena would have died long ago. Charlotte can be totally charming to her public, her agents, her fans... but has very little to offer her own children.

Eva is so desperate for love and affection from her mother that she seemingly misses the fact that her husband loves her very much. When Charlotte is awakened by a nightmare, she and Eva begin a late-night talk. And that is when the real nightmare begins.

At times this film is painful to watch, and at times is emotionally draining. Sven Nykvyst's cinematography is stunning. I thought this especially so in the flashback sequences, and in the scene close to the end of the film when Eva is in the cemetery.

Although not as perfect as The Seventh Seal, or Wild Strawberries, Autumn Sonata still has much to say, whether we feel comfortable listening to it or not.

Autumn Sonata is more transparent and direct than his other films. It deals with the tension between a neglected daughter and self-centred mother with his poetic style, but also with a personal familiarity that makes the whole film hit a slightly different nerve. I know people who've had to cope with similar circumstances, and their experiences were represented boldly, without the watering down or trivialisation that you'd expect from something from the past 15 years.

There is one quite brief scene in this film that makes the whole thing worth watching multiple times. I count it as some of Ingmar Bergman's best writing.

Eva plays for her professional pianist mother Charlotte one of Chopin's preludes she had been practicing for some time. Whilst playing her mistakes and stiffness sets a tense tone, as Charlotte is a critical and inconsiderate nightmare of a mother, who at any minute would burst out with a cutting criticism. She instead begins a monologue about Chopin's music, blending together her experiences of playing his piano music, as well as the emotions he evokes. Chopin's emotional strength is not sentimental, she says. It's far more credibly affecting than music designed to be manipulative.

This begins the downward spiral of the two characters' immediate relationship. It speaks to each of the characters, their style of playing representative of their emotional makeup. Charlotte's aversion or ignorance towards affection is displayed clearly.

It also plays on another level, which I found the most resounding. Bergman's films always deal with heavy emotions, but they are never sentimental. They never dress emotions up to be more affecting for the audience than they are for the characters. This honesty in the way he makes films is explored in Charlotte's speech, I see him speaking to us, saying that he tries hard not to be fake. Not to manipulate us in cheap ways that don't exist in the real world.

Bergman is a great director. Autumn Sonata reminded me that at the heart of his talent is his powerful writing. I don't think we'll see a finer writer and director for actresses for a long time to come.

Cross Ingmar Bergman, (undoubtedly known to most as Sweden's greatest film director), with a performance as great as any from Ingrid Bergman's career,(most critics call her the greatest Actress to come from Sweden); and what does one get, MAGIC on screen. A fantastic movie full of underlying subtleties by Ingmar which is one of his trademarks, to push audiences to look beyond deeper into his script, full of symbolism which reveals a deeper story than what appears on the surface. Ingrid provides one of the best performances of her acting career, one of her last performances on film. Her skills reveal a classic touch proof undoubtedly, she was one of the greatest actresses to ever perform to an international audience. A Hall of Fame directorial and acting performance, with a storyline containing all the emotions known to humans, the movie makes one laugh, cry, angry, sad, happy, etc. and is rich and deep with exposing morales and ethical values of life both on the surface in the script, with underlying almost hidden nature of Ingmars work. The viewer has to think, not just listen to the script, often revealing a world of underlying subtle suggestions to morality, ethics, family values. For a movie with English sub-titles, the audience soon forgets they are reading the sub-titles as the movie draws on in so deep, one feels as if they know and comprehend the native foreign language of the film, not realizing they are reading the dialogue. (Note: this movie is now available in English and titled Autumn Sonata). One of the latter movies made by both Bergman's; befitting performances by both writer director and leading actress, a shining star of a movie appearing as a beacon to end very succesful careers upon. Both Bergman's give the performances of their careers. Nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Lead role, and Best Writer, Screenplay. Won several film awards internationally for Best European Film, Director and Actress, including the Golden Globe the National Film Critics Award, National Board of Review (USA), New York Film Critics award, Italian National Syndicate award and Bodil awards. As a side mention Liv Ullman put forth a great performance, also worthy of mention for talent above and beyond the norm. This movie contains that little bit of something extra, which make great films into all time Classics.

I rented this movie and watched it last night and I think this is my new favorite Ingmar Bergman film!

This movie was engrossing from the very beginning. I sat silent through the whole film and I was crying by about the middle of it because it was so moving(and I don't cry during a movie unless it really touches me). Ingrid Bergman is truly a great actress! Infact, the entire cast was incredible! The scenes between the mother and daughter absolutely blew me away I've never seen that kind of emotion acted out to such perfection.

This is one of the few PERFECT movies I have ever seen. I recommend this film whole-heartedly!

Typical introspective Bergman film with exceptional performances by Liv Ullman and Ingrid Bergman.

The latter plays a famous concert pianist visiting her daughter after a long absence. Both harbor a mutual hope for reconciliation from their estranged past but the emotional baggage carried by each may be too much to overcome.

The film is beautifully photographed and the script is engrossing but it is extremely "wordy" even for a Bergman film. There is lots of voice over narration, lots of flashbacks, lots of static dialogue, and lots of static monologue (sometimes with the character talking directly to the camera.) The on focus mother-daughter relationship is sad in itself but the overall gloom is layered on pretty thick - loss of parent, loss of husband, loss of child, bad parenting, absentee parenting, repressed anger, forced abortion, disabled child, spastic cerebral palsy, disgust, hatred, emotional detachment and so on......

This is the perfect movie to watch if you're a psychoanalyst but for the casual viewer it's pretty depressing stuff. A lot of reviews give this film very high marks but this is not grade "A" Bergman. It is superbly crafted and well acted but it comes across more like a filmed stage play than a movie.

Autumn Sonata, as it is stated on the commentary on the DVD, plays like a real sonata where it starts slow, builds to a high peak, and then descends in its finale. If the film might not be one of Bergman's most striking or overwhelming feats visually his script provides for its stars some of their best work. In some circles the combination of Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann might be comparable to the incredible stature of Pacino and De Niro in Heat; you almost might think who will top who in their given role going into it. While some have put more credit to the late Ingrid for her role as Charlotte the absentee piano master mother, and she does deserve as much credit here as she does for her more well-known work from the 40s, Ullmann as usual connects so strongly and passionately with the material that it could rank as one of her very best in her collaboration with Mr. Bergman. And there is, per usual with the director's work, this need to tell this story of these characters who are damaged and in a disconnected pain with one another that is hidden until it finally has to come pouring out with an everlasting effect on both sides. If Strindberg did Lifetime, this would be it.

But what's interesting, as well as comparatively with the bulk of the film slightly underwhelming, are a couple of the early scenes as the mother talks to herself (of course, as in theater, for the audience's benefit) and the subtle touches of the already felt strain in the mother/daughter relationship. There are some words from Ullmann's husband as well, but his function in the film is more as sorrowful observer. Also there is the most devastating character of the ill girl Lena who has become worse over the years. Then, in the middle of the night, the confrontation- and really confessional- from daughter to mother comes out, and it is really the kind of despairingly, bitter but completely honest drama that could only be palatable from this director, from these actors who believe in the characters this much.

While there are many a sad, crushing moment in these twenty to thirty minutes of this hidden, terrible lot of anguish from the daughter to the stunned and crushed mother, maybe my favorite scene of the film is also one of the subtler ones and tells a great deal about their relationship. Bergman shows her daughter how to play a Chopin piece after she plays it in a way that isn't totally emotionally correct for her. Both times the piece is played the camera stays totally on the one listening to the other playing, and each actress says so much without saying anything at all- Bergman with disconcerting, judging eyes and minor expressions, and then Ullmann who looks on complacently, still, almost numb to what is going on. And the musical piece itself has a level of significance (considering its maybe one of the only pieces of music heard in an otherwise dialog-centric picture) that adds some weight to the material.

If it might not be as exceptional as, for example, Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage, it may be because Bergman is aiming a little smaller and with a more concentrated, shorter view of these people in 90 minutes. But even if it isn't one of his very best films, it is one of his more memorable ones at sticking a totally theatrical tone with the script while also keeping tight, enclosing close-ups on his actors. And probably a few of the points must go to the players themselves, whom have a challenge in the way of their characters not having at all a simple 'hear-to-heart', and without an ending that makes everything clear. Autumn Sonata shows heartbroken characters, and it's not as easy to take as a run-of-the-mill drama or play.

A married daughter who longs for her mother's love gets visited by the latter, a successful concert pianist.

I hate to say it, but as cool as it is to have Bergman and Bergman working together, I just did not think this was as great as it should have been. At least part of that is because it is in color, and I think Ingmar Bergman's finest work was done in black and white.

This was Ingrid Bergman's last performance in a major theatrical feature film, and it is great to see her under such strong direction, even if this is not regarded as her best role. Sure, it won a Golden Globe, but I am not at all convinced it should have. And Ingrid's Oscar nomination for best actress? That is a tough sell.