Saraband

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Year Released: 2003
Rating: 3.0

Continuation of Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage that reunites Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson - long divorced - but really focuses on Josephson's unbalanced son and his perverse relationship with his daughter, a budding cellist. Age - and decreased activity over the years - haven't harmed Bergman's filmmaking skill one bit (Kurosawa, too, continued to make movies late into life) and his ability to develop very real characters and riveting dialogue is still formidable - true, this is a little stagy and closer to theatre than cinema, but so was Autumn Sonata, so why quibble? It's the performances that really propel this, and the four characters are all, in their own ways, flawed but sympathetic. Maybe my hunger for a new Bergman (or a desire to see Woody Allen return to form) is getting the best of me, but seeing Freud used intelligently once more is inspiring. Dear sweet Neurosis, we missed you.