I translated a Roger Ebert’s film review, the original article was published in the Chicago Sun Times
Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander" (1982) is the last film in his plan. In this film, he tries to explore issues about youth, middle age, old age, men, women, Christians, Themes of Jews, reason, madness, wealth, poverty, religion and blasphemy. He created a world where the most real life and ghost magic coexist, as well as a series of unforgettable different characters. No wonder that one of his sources of inspiration was Dickens.
The story begins in an unnamed Swedish town in 1907. The film cuts in from a Christmas Eve celebration of a big family, quickly eliciting characters as they talk, drink, flirt and plot. Their lives are full of enjoyment; the Ikeda family is very wealthy, and the matriarch Helena lives in a large ornately decorated house full of antique furniture, paintings, sculptures, tapestries, blankets, flowers, plants and Clocks and watches-There are always clocks in Bergman's movies, which tell the time in an ominous way. When we saw half-drunk guests sing together in a parade at home, our perspective poured in from one room to another.
The secrets of the family are unfolding before us: Helena’s third son, Gustav Adolf is a pervert, his happy and plump wife Alma turns a blind eye to his romantic affairs, because she likes Gusta Husband like this. The second son, Karl, was a failed professor. He married a German wife that nobody liked (though they should like her) and owed his mother a large debt. The eldest son, Oscar, runs the family theater. Before joining the party, he was moved to tears during the Christmas Eve speech of the crew. Oscar married Emily, a solemn beauty. They have two children, Fanny and Alexander. Many parts of the film are seen through their eyes, especially Alexander's, but other moments happen entirely in the imagination of the characters.
Gustav’s marriage is weird, Carl’s marriage is sad, Oscar’s marriage is full of love-both to his family and to the drama. We soon learned that Gustav and Maggie had a leg, and this plump, lame maid belonged to Oscar and Emily. Alma knew this; in fact, everyone in the family had discussed this issue publicly. We also learned that the widow Helena was previously the lover of the Jewish Isaac Jacobs, and Isaac is still her best friend. Isaac is both an art dealer and a money lender. (Bergman said that all male characters bear a little shadow of themselves.)
During a rehearsal in the theater a day or two later, Oscar suddenly broke off when he played the ghost of Hamlet's father and forgot his lines. In almost a day, he died. All this was seen by the serious Alexander, and he was also awakened by his mother's animal-like sad howling in the middle of the night.
Then in the summer, everything changed. His mother was already engaged to Lutheran Bishop Edward Wigrus. He was a tall and handsome man. Everyone agreed to the marriage, but after the wedding, Helen When Na watched them leave, she said, "I think Ai Meili will be back soon."
The first third of this story takes place in winter, full of color and vitality, and there is life even in death. Now Fanny and Alexander are taken into a new world. This is the bishop’s house. The bishop lives with his mother, his sister and his aunt. The decoration here is dilapidated, everything is completely white, and there are only a few houses in the house. A necessary piece of furniture, every door is locked, and windows are sealed.
The maid told the children that the bishop’s first wife and two daughters had drowned in the river; Alexander said that their ghosts had visited him, and they said they had drowned to escape, and they had no food before. He was locked up for five days without water. The perfidious maid reported the story to the bishop. Before the bishop whipped Alexander, Alexander expressed his resentment towards the bishop with stubborn resistance.
In the movie, we have seen Oscar's soul more than once, he is gloomy, sad, and always worried about his children. A moving scene took place in Oscar’s mother’s summer cabin, when she woke up on the balcony and had a affectionate conversation with Oscar. (Even though the elements of "Hamlet" exist-based on Alexander's father's soul and his mother's hasty remarriage as a carrier-Bergman did not emphasize them, but simply placed them under the narrative surface at will.)
Now we see another miracle. At the request of his friend Helena, Isaac Jacobs walked into the bishop’s house and offered to buy the bishop’s wooden box, and then used the wooden box to secretly take the two children out of the bishop’s house-when the bishop ran When they went upstairs to look for them, the two children were obviously still in the room. How could this be possible?
Perhaps all of this is related to the magical skills of the Jacob family. Isaac has two nephews, Allen and Isabel. Allen helps the family, and Isabel is "sick". He was locked in a room and he could be heard singing at night. Alexander was taken to Isaac's large house, and the treasures used for trading in the room were piled up to the ceiling. He got up in the bathroom in the middle of the night, but got lost because of this. He fell into a conversation with God in horror, and then he realized that it was just a prank, and God was just a puppet manipulated at will by Allen's hands. Then he was taken to see Ismail (played by a girl with no explanation). It seems that Ismail could "see" what happened in the bishop’s house and manipulate the reality there. The bishop died as a result Fire.
There are indeed fairy tale elements in "Fanny and Alexander", but first of all, the center of the film is that the world that Alexander understands becomes a reality. If the magic is real, if the ghost can walk, so be it. Bergman often puts supernatural elements into his movies. In another sense, everything that happened in "Fanny and Alexander" is presented through the prism of children's memory, so those memories that half of them cannot remember and the other half do not understand are reconstructed into an explanation A new fable of their lives.
To be sure, Bergman has transcended his dry narrative and cast into a series of half-dream and half-awake stories, which also carry the clarity and charm of dreams. I rarely feel so strongly in watching movies that my thoughts are transferred to another reality. The night scene at Jacob's house is peaceful and dreamy. This is the most fascinating and mysterious of all the movies I have ever seen. Then when the crazy Isabel calmly and kindly showed Alexander the solution to everything, I felt uneasy.
This movie is amazingly beautiful. The photographer is Sven Nick West, who has been cooperating with Bergman for a long time. He surrounds the Akda family with color and warmth, and sucks all the vitality from the bishop's home.
Grandmother Helena is an important role played by Gunn Walgren (this role was originally prepared for Ingrid Bergman). Walgren has full lips, passion and sexy, and she has a love for Isaac. Bergman believes that she is the best part of this movie.
Emily (played by Ava Froling) is the most contradictory character in the story. She married the bishop for love, but tragically miscalculated the bishop's personality. She thought she could protect her child, but she couldn't. Her visit to Helena was heartbreaking. The marriage of Gustav (played by Gil Kuhl) and Alma (played by Mona Mam) was so open that they even allowed this to happen: Gustav discussed him with his wife and Amy Li's affair, and then they both try to make the best decision for the maid. The bishop (played by Jane Malmes) is a sad and evil person. He is harsh because he is afraid and insecure; he is cruel because he cannot stop himself; he suffers because he admits to Emily ——He thought everyone admired him, but he found that everyone hated him.
This is a feature film, plus an intermission for a total of 188 minutes. But Bergman's favorite version is longer, and that is the 312-minute TV version he made for Sweden. Both can be found on discs in the standard collection, including a documentary of Bergman's process of making the feature film. Watching in the theater is the best way to watch the film, because the color and shadows of the film are very rich, and the surround sound effect is also outstanding.
In the end, I was conquered by the film and felt excited. What happened to me was beyond words. It was at the soul level and incorporated Bergman’s mysticism. One of his characters pointed out that our lives will permeate each other, even a stone is God’s vision, and everything will happen at a certain level beyond the horizon.
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