FROM SWEDEN : AUTUMN SONATA

OK, as I said, the festival gives one the chance not only to ogle at new productions but catch up on classics one may have missed in ones past. Now as you know, I am studying for a new career as a post-grad student in film studies and there is nothing more ample in my past that “missed classics”. The entire works of Ingmar Bergman, I am ashamed to say, feature prominently in this category. Thus, right at the beginning of the festival, I decided to set this right and took myself to Autumn Sonata by Bergman, among other classics you will find here this week. I usually like all art Scandinavian (a trait that gets me deemed “mad” by many friends and acquaintances) so I wasn’t nervous, merely curious. Bergman didn’t disappoint me. Turned out to be the little Scandinavian gem I always suspected it would be. I am on the hunt for the rest of his filmography as we speak.
So, what’s the story? Eva is the seemingly content wife of a vicar in a remote parish out on the Norwegian fiords. After hearing of the death of her mother’s “friend” (you can guess the reason for the inverted commas, right? Good.) she invites her mother (a celebrated concert pianist by the way) to stay with her and her husband for a couple of days. The mother and daughter will see each other for the first time in seven years, so there is much excitement on both sides. First there seems to be much rejoicing on both sides as caresses and questions are exchanged but before the first night is up the truth behind the veneer begins to raise its ugly head. There truly is nothing as complicated as “family ties”.
I don’t want to give too much of the “issues” (let’s go American) between the mother and daughter, simply because their slow unfurling is the backbone of the film. And I do not want to send you to a backboneless film – like a jellyfish, ugh… Anyway, so I will talk about the emotions the film left me with, or rather the impressions. Now, you may or indeed may not know that Scandinavian countries have a long (read ancient) custom of “story telling”. It survives today – if only barely – I was lucky enough to meet a Norwegian guy who was kinda training himself to become one a couple of years back but that’s a different story. Anyhow, the point is, this tradition makes a lot of their works of art like theatre (thing Ibsen’s plays for example) and film based heavily on dialogue. Take this film. I mean, there are “actions”, re-enactments and the conversation is broken from time to time, but the main part, the heart of the film is Eva and Charlotte’s (the mother) argument that goes on throughout the night and during which we see very little except the two speakers. The conversation takes place at night as I said so it makes the whole affair “dark” in more senses than one. And the content, well, it just gets heavier and heavier as it goes along. Plus it’s in Swedish in case, like my own beloved mother, you are “sensitive” about that. The whole thing is very tricky style to master and pull off that is unless your name is Ingmar Bergman. But even if you get it just right (which Bergman does, being Bergman) it’s definitely not for everyone. You will leave the film either feeling as if you’ve been hit by a freight train (as I did) or refreshed, because you fell asleep halfway (as did quite a few people in the theatre with me. Well, it was an evening séance) But I would take the gamble if I were you…