ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

guedesnino "Autumn Sonata" (1978), was the last film made by Ingmar Bergman for the cinema, which happened after this were videos for the TV. However, in the last film is not sketched any nostalgia, on the contrary, it is a reunion there are several characteristics that marked the famous Swedish director.Such as his strong relationship with the theater, with the actors, the use of symbols and metaphors, the simplicity of his locations (which he turns into a great advantage), the psychological character in formation and human relations, striking and challenging women , The expressiveness of a face in its close's and big close's and how much it speaks or even shouts moments of silence, moments when not verbalizing suggests so many things. As in the scene where Eva (Liv Ullman) plays a few notes on the piano for her mother, Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman), a magisterial and anthological moment, in the force and expressiveness of two actresses who say nothing on the scene but suggest a universe Of rivalries, misunderstandings and anguish in a (non) relation of mother and daughter.Autumn Sonata "is a tragic burden of human emotion, and is mostly a drama of confessions between two women, who dialogue with each other, which ends up generating a certain monotonous production noise, especially by the subtle clash of the Seem to dominate much of the film, which may have been elaborated in an attempt to generate a frenzy in the audience for the climax, which is not necessary or even does not work, because in the invitation letter written by Eva and In the opening monologue performed by Eva's husband, it is already clear that there, it will be a place to settle accounts.In addition to its musical allusion, the film's title keeps track of another central point: the idea of ​​ seasons and cycles. It is clear the reference of this change of seasons in the photograph of Sven Nykvist who collaborates with his pale and washed palette and without great dependences of the artificial light, lamps and candles, call attention to the cold of the winter. However, in what seems to be a contradiction, many of Nykvist's scenes are garlands with flowers. They appear in dozens of scenes. Normally associated with spring, the presence of flowers is a clear reminder of the cyclical nature of life and our relationships with others. The cold will pass, suggest the flowers, we only have to endure this during the winter.Filled with distressing emotion and agonizing eyesight, "Autumn Sonata" offers a methodically potent examination of the pain we choose to keep inside, and the scars that remain with us as a result. Like most Bergman films, the image is replete with existential questions and gloomy reflections, deeply investigating the mysteries of the challenges inherent in life, and depending on the interpretation, the ending may offer some level of optimism and catharsis, the film's elegiac mood And almost impossible confessions of hating and indifference remain irrevocably haunting.Another feature that Bergman has always been able to use, was his complete understanding that in the end, a film ends up always being the actors, they are the face and the memory of the film and they have the capacity to generate reciprocities with the public. So, Bergman is undoubtedly the director, but in the end, are Liv Ullman, Ingrid Bergman and Lena Nyman who play the Sonata.

JoeKulik Ingmar Bergman's "Autumn Sonata" (1978) is truly one the best dramatic performances that I have ever seen. This is definitely not for those enamoured of typical "brain dead" Hollywood films, but is surely for the viewer who can appreciate much more intelligent fare. It is a "thinking person's" film.Autumn Sonata can surely be compared to the proverbial onion that is peeled back layer by layer until one reaches its essential core. The joyful reunion between mother (Ingrid Bergman) and daughter (Liv Ullman) is gradually revealed to be a very superficial, very polite, and very civilized layer of a bitter, and even desperate core relationship that exists between them. In the course of traversing these existential layers of Social Reality, the writer, through elegant imagery, and philosophical overtones embedded in the dialogue takes the viewer through the essential past events that have transpired to create this most complex of mother-daughter relationships.The role that is given to Ingrid here truly plays, in my opinion, to her greatest strength as an actor, that of being able to deliver a convincing transformation of personality and emotion in the course of a film, and often in the course of a single scene. Her genius for being able to do so shines most brightly in her earliest Swedish films, before she relocated to Hollywood, where the contrived status given to her as a "sex symbol" most often neglected the depths of her acting ability. Now back in her native Scandinavia late in her career, Ingrid is given an opportunity to once again shine forth her brilliance by a writer/director who truly understands the breadth and the depth of what she can do in front of a camera. Liv, an already accomplished actor in her own right before this film, is nonetheless allowing Ingrid, by necessity, to take the lead in successfully passing through the emotional, visceral, and mental gymnastics needed to execute her own role in this film, which she does far more than adequately.The saddest aspect of this film for me is that rarely does an adult child ever reach such a meeting of the mind, and of emotion with a parent over supposedly inflicted childhood traumas. Most people see their parents go to the grave before they can express the honest feelings and thoughts expressed by the adult daughter to her mother in this film. In a very ironic way then, beyond the core "ugliness" in the relationship between the mother and daughter in Autumn Sonata lies a type of idealism, an idealism that we can one day transcend the traumas of our past, and thereby fulfill our full human potential. The daughter's conciliatory letter to her mother at the end of a film is the first step of her now renewed journey to reach that personal fulfillment.20 Stars !!! 20 Stars !!! 20 Stars !!!

Christopher Culver Ingmar Bergman's 1978 film HÖSTSONATEN (Autumn Sonata) portrays the troubled relationship between a distant mother, Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman) and her wounded daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann). Eva leads a quiet life along a Norwegian fjord with her husband Viktor (Halvar Björk), the village priest, while Charlotte is a famed pianist who travels the world for concerts. When Charlotte comes to visit, Eva is initially joyful, but within just a few hours all of Eva's bottled up emotions spill over. Some remarkable flashbacks reveal the betrayals that Charlotte inflicted on her family while pursuing her career (they feature Erland Josefsson as Eva's father, through in a silent role). As mother and daughter bicker, weep and confess their sins, one might expect a happy resolution. Bergman provides something rather different, however, and it undoubtedly will make some viewers furious. Nonetheless, I enjoy the film's observation that in real life, not all attempts at resolution between two people are straightforward.Bergman was the son of a Swedish Lutheran priest, and he found his father and his faith a very intimidating presence. Priests show up in a number of Bergman films, and he has tended to portray them either as pure evil, or good but very tormented. Here, it's refreshing to see the vicar as a humble, content fellow and a loving husband. Lena Nyman's role as Eva's disabled sister is convincingly played, and the pain Bergman communicates through this part is devastating. A major concern of the script is a sort of psychoanalysis, laying bare some innermost motivations and flaws found in every human being, and Bergman offers many insights in some powerful and memorable, even quotable, lines.There's been a tendency to treat the several films Bergman produced between the mid-1970s and FANNY OCH Alexander as minor, but I would rank HÖSTSONATEN among his best work.

lasttimeisaw It is Ingrid Bergman's big screen swan song and the two renowned Bergman compatriots' one and only collaboration. Charlotte Andergast (Bergman) is a renowned pianist who recently lost her companion Leonardo (Løkkeberg), so she accepts the invitation to stay with her eldest daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann) and her husband Viktor (Björk) for some time, whom she hasn't seen for seven years.This highly nerve-wracking chamber drama begins with Viktor's breaking-the-fourth-wall monologue about him and Eva's temporal life, he is a minister and how they are united under the guidance of the parish work. Then Eva brings him the letter she writes to invite Charlotte, at first impression, Eva is a tender, self-effacing and soft-spoken woman. Only when Charlotte arrives, who is presumably a self-centered artist with elegance, a vivacious but neglectful mother, garrulous about the last days of Leonardo, puts on a strong patina of being high spirited and after the initial and necessary pleasantry, Eva throws the first bomb, she tells her Helena (Nyman), Charlotte's bed-ridden, mentally disabled younger daughter, is also here, whom Charlotte puts in a health institution for years, but now she has been under the attendance of Eva for two years. The mother-daughters reunion proceeds into a rather awkward situation, as Charlotte is more than unwillingly to face her ill daughter, which clearly evokes her guilty conscience for being absent most of the time. After dinner, a turbulent undercurrent is grafted on Charlotte's professional advice on Eva's piano skill, from Eva's angle, she never quite inherit any merits from her mother, neither the look or the talent. This is one of the main reason of their clash, under her vulnerable mien, she is in hopeless anguish. After an interlude about the premature death of Viktor and Eva's four-year- old son and a tête-a-tête between Viktor and Charlotte (during which Viktor refers that Eva is incapable of love), in the still of the night, Charlotte is awaken from a nightmare, Eva hears the noise and they embark on a thorough heart-to-heart two-hander, Eva divulges all her unhappy childhood memories and attributes it to Charlotte's career-first option; while Charlotte tries to justify the story from her side, but in no avail, both actresses' performances are sparklingly galvanizing, Ullmann is fearlessly aggressive, arbitrarily unforgiving, while Bergman refutes with a tour-de-force achievement, unyieldingly emits compassionate remorse and unexpected perplexity. Both actresses competently consummate their characters' emotional arcs, which is undeniably enthralling to watch, even for those who don't feel comfortable in Bergman's school. Personally I will give the edge to Bergman, considering her the harsh similarities between the role and her legendary personal life, and it is a stupendous curtain call for her illustrious career, although I impulsively think this performance is her career-best. The bond between a mother and a daughter often comes off as an amalgam of love and hatred, AUTUMN SONATA is at its best to dissect the relationship in dialectics, there is no right or wrong in the story, firstly, viewers is prone to cold-shoulder Charlotte's self-seeking pretentiousness, her failure in motherhood, but, when Eva's anger is fully emancipated, her one-sided blame- shooting accusation is also defectively biased, Ingmar Bergman is a true maestro in concocting this kind of brutal revelation of human being's deep-rooted character deficiency, it is not a parable, it is just a real life situation may occur to many others, unfortunately this time one might also sense a tint of misogyny. In the end, there is no sign of reconciliation despite Eva writes an apologetic letter, which Charlotte may or may not receive, the whole mess cannot save them from their respective mental condition, leastwise, they know each other better afterward, the scar may never be healed and truth hurts, yet everyone of us is living with both pain and happiness, simultaneously, as long as we come to terms with that, we will be fine.