Autumn Sonata

Just watched Autumn Sonata on DVD. What a gem of a movie! Seriously. It's like chamber music transferred to the big screen. In fact, music plays a critical role in the movie.

The movie was made in the late 70's, directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Ingrid Bergman (the only time she appeared in one of Ingmar's films) and Liv Ullman. Both actresses give fascinating performances. Most of the movie is one long scene of an argument between mother (Bergman) and daughter (Ullman). The emotional impact of this scene hit me with a wallop. The argument ranges over accusations of neglect and narcissism (the daughter's issues with her mother) versus explanations of brutal honesty on the mother's part about her own feelings of inadequacy as a mother, guilt at ruining her daughters' lives (there is another daughter with a crippling, unnamed illness), and frustration over an artistic career that seemed to go downhill into mediocrity once the mother reached her mid 20's. Anyway, the details aren't important. What is important is the depth and range of emotion these characters explore. At one point, Ullman even seems to comment on this saying that feelings have no limits.

The way the movie is constructed and filmed, too, is just fantastic. Almost the entire movie takes place in one room in a small house, but the movie never feels constrained. Somehow, the light, colors (yellows and oranges mainly), and the film shots, often extreme closeups on the faces of the women, makes this all this work.

Such a gem. So lovely to have stumbled upon it through my Netflix queue.

Oh, and this is how I've been spending my time the last couple of months. Films and books. Since December, my stomach has been in all sorts of trouble. Pain, nausea. I finally see a gastroenterologist this week so I'm hopeful we will get this resolved soon. I've been home bound practically this entire time. Sigh.