Scenes From a Marriage
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Year Released: 1974
Rating: 2.0
Probably Bergman's most masturbatory effort: in the very first scene Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann are given instructions from someone off screen (Bergman himself?) to sit and pose and turn their heads as the camera adjusts itself for them - it's the ultimate autopsy of a relationship in its decline. The problem is that it's too studied and calculated to feel impulsive or startling - it settles into a groove about half-way through (or much earlier for non-Bergman fans) where the structure of the film (originally a made-for-TV production) becomes apparent, and the 'stages' of their marriage are shown in carefully selected segments. The result is a bloated and ultimately tiresome experience, and the endless gabbing makes the two main characters - and there are only two (built in irony: Ullmann's a marriage therapist) - seem irritating and solipsistic as they both refuse to budge on personal matters.
