Saraband

After about 30 years since "Scenes from a Marriage", Ingmar Bergman made "Saraband" , a TV movie then re-edited for the big screen. It loosely follows the "after-lives" of the protagonists, re-casting a very old Liv Ullman and Erland Josephson, who played the original couple, struggling with old age and the emotional hang-ups of their children and grandchildren. The film was stunning. Typically Bergman in its use of close-ups and intense personal exchanges (there are never more than two characters in each scene ...) the film deals with the accumulated effects of experience and the emotional baggage acquired after years of living. I guess Bergman's sense of his own mortality comes across very strongly, as does his sense that the accretions of living never fully prepare one for death or loss. Anyway, one of the most evocative scenes has Erland Josephson alone in his book lined study. It took me a while to figure out a way around my Mac's refusal to allow screen captures but here it is: