The first thing you notice is the look of
the picture. Bergman chose to film "The Passion of Anna" in colour and
again his DoP was Sven Nykvist. There's nothing as innovative here as
in, say, "Cries and Whispers" but the use of colour alleviates the
bleakness, both of the landscape and of the emotions on display, (this
is certainly not one of Bergman's 'lighter' films). Then there's the
style; early in the picture Bergman inserts a cutaway to actor Max Von
Sydow talking about his character and later, other actors follow suit.
It's only a film, you see.
The setting is yet another island in
winter and no-one is happy, particularly Von Sydow's Andreas, living
alone with his books and getting drunk until he meets Anna, (Liv
Ullmann), who moves in with him. He's superb, of course, but then so is
everyone and yet we never feel any emotional engagement with any of the
characters. Do we need these explanations by the actors? Personally I
found these Brechtian devices nothing more than a distraction in a film
singularly lacking in passion of any kind, (a subplot involving the
killing of animals is more interesting than the relationships on show).
For some reason I imagine this is just the kind of Bergman film Woody Allen would worship.
The first thing you notice is the look of
the picture. Bergman chose to film "The Passion of Anna" in colour and
again his DoP was Sven Nykvist. There's nothing as innovative here as
in, say, "Cries and Whispers" but the use of colour alleviates the
bleakness, both of the landscape and of the emotions on display, (this
is certainly not one of Bergman's 'lighter' films). Then there's the
style; early in the picture Bergman inserts a cutaway to actor Max Von
Sydow talking about his character and later, other actors follow suit.
It's only a film, you see.
The setting is yet another island in
winter and no-one is happy, particularly Von Sydow's Andreas, living
alone with his books and getting drunk until he meets Anna, (Liv
Ullmann), who moves in with him. He's superb, of course, but then so is
everyone and yet we never feel any emotional engagement with any of the
characters. Do we need these explanations by the actors? Personally I
found these Brechtian devices nothing more than a distraction in a film
singularly lacking in passion of any kind, (a subplot involving the
killing of animals is more interesting than the relationships on show).
For some reason I imagine this is just the kind of Bergman film Woody Allen would worship.
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