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Autumn Sonata

Rating

Director

Ingmar Bergman

Screenplay

Ingmar Bergman

Length

1h 39m

Starring

Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman, Halvar Bjork, Marianne Aminoff, Arne Bang-Hansen, Gunnar Björnstrand, Erland Josephson, Georg Løkkeberg, Mimi Pollak, Linn Ullmann

MPAA Rating

PG

Basic Plot

A woman invites her mother to visit and they explore their true feelings about their lives together.

Parents have their ways of making us unhappy. They know more about us than anyone else, but when we don’t feel that our parents were there for us, it affects the way we live the rest of our lives.

Eva (Liv Ullmann), a self-conscious young woman, decides to invite her mother for a visit. She writes her letter and her husband, Viktor (Halvar Bjork) delivers it. Her mother is Charlotte, a world-renowned pianist who has spent most of her life performing at concert after concert spending little time at home.

Charlotte arrives and everything is wonderful and cheery. Eva greets her and shows her to her room, where they discuss their lives. We hear about Charlotte’s recent loss of her lover’s death. We then find out that Eva has been taking care of Charlotte’s other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), who is unable to speak or take care of herself.

Charlotte was unaware that Helena was staying there and thus feels even more uncomfortable about the arrangements. After a rather tense dinner, Charlotte asks Eva to play the piano for her. Eva selects one of Chopin’s preludes. Charlotte instantly finds something bad in it and then Eva convinces her to show her how it should be done. Charlotte first describes the piece and how Chopin felt about it. Then plays it with all the uncertainty the piece requires. Eva feels nothing more than ashamed that her mother cannot even be supportive.

Later that evening, Charlotte has a nightmare and goes downstairs for a drink. Eva discovers that she is awake and comes down to talk to her. She insists on talking to her mother about her childhood. She complains that no matter what she did, Charlotte never paid attention to her or showed her the love she should have.

Charlotte counteracts by asking why she should have sacrificed everything just to raise her child. This is just the start of an extremely emotional scene where the two women share their deepest thoughts.

Bergman gives the performance of her career in this startlingly realistic motion picture. Bergman flows through every scene with every emotion that can possibly be imagined and does it so well that you can’t help but believe she had gone through the same thing herself. Bergman proves that she is one of history’s greatest actresses and gives one of the best female performances of all time.

Ullmann also gives a fantastic performance. Her emotions are so prevalent that she easily holds her own against Bergman. They play off each other like true family would. Ullmann is one of Ingmar Bergman’s favorite actresses and we can see why.

“Autumn Sonata” is a brilliant film that explores the deepest emotions behind the family system. Ingmar Bergman’s realistic approach to this film gives it an added dose of power. The film is a bit slow at times, but never loses any of its emotional impact.

“Autumn Sonata” is a Swedish foreign language film, but the emotions are as American as apple pie.

Review

Review Written

February 12, 1999