A friend told me about him last year and soon after that I read of his demise in the papers. It made front page news in India. I was expecting a great movie. Let's look at what I got;
1. The title for this movie is very apt. This film is a series of scenes put together. But the scenes are not just randomly picked up. They do take the story forward. Essentially, this is the first time I have seen a movie with this concept. Scenes are introduced with titles and play for around a half-hour and then we move to another scene. The scenes independently make intriguing viewing and as a whole form a part of a greater story.
2. I was talking about close-ups of facial expressions in the film 'Blue' and how I was not able to understand what the character was feeling on many occasions. It is very similar in this film where almost every scene is indoors and all dialog happens with close-up shots of the actors. In this film there is a lot of dialog which works well with me. This helps me understand the character and gauge the acting.
3. If there ever is a brilliant pair on screen portraying a couple it has to be these two. Now I use superlatives very often but I mean it from my heart this time. Very rarely will we see performances as real as this. Erland Josephson and Lic Ullman are so believable. I don't want to elaborate on this because the only point I want to highlight is the reality of their acting.
4. One point I have to state about this story. I truly loved this aspect of the film. After Johan leaves for Paris I could not imagine he'd actually get closer to Mariane than he ever was before. Stereotypes often portray hatred, or at least lost warmth, among a couple who have had to face the consequences of a broken marriage. But through this film I realize that adults can't obviously act like kids and not speak at all. That's why when Johan comes home after a few years I was not surprised by their behaviour. They are trying to break the ice and see how it goes from there. That's how adults would probably tackle the situation.
5. I will not forget the scene where Johan tells his wife that he is leaving. I truly don't have words to describe this scene so I won't even try. But the credit has to be shared between the acting, the dialog and the direction. The only point I must add is a repetition, the scene is handled with total originality and not like other commercial ventures.
6. The last two scenes are the only ones where the dialog got very heavy for me. There seemed to be deeper meanings which I didn't decipher.
Surprisingly, this is the freshest film on marital life that I have seen. Although it was made 34 years ago it does not seem dated.
RATING: 4/5
1. The title for this movie is very apt. This film is a series of scenes put together. But the scenes are not just randomly picked up. They do take the story forward. Essentially, this is the first time I have seen a movie with this concept. Scenes are introduced with titles and play for around a half-hour and then we move to another scene. The scenes independently make intriguing viewing and as a whole form a part of a greater story.
2. I was talking about close-ups of facial expressions in the film 'Blue' and how I was not able to understand what the character was feeling on many occasions. It is very similar in this film where almost every scene is indoors and all dialog happens with close-up shots of the actors. In this film there is a lot of dialog which works well with me. This helps me understand the character and gauge the acting.
3. If there ever is a brilliant pair on screen portraying a couple it has to be these two. Now I use superlatives very often but I mean it from my heart this time. Very rarely will we see performances as real as this. Erland Josephson and Lic Ullman are so believable. I don't want to elaborate on this because the only point I want to highlight is the reality of their acting.
4. One point I have to state about this story. I truly loved this aspect of the film. After Johan leaves for Paris I could not imagine he'd actually get closer to Mariane than he ever was before. Stereotypes often portray hatred, or at least lost warmth, among a couple who have had to face the consequences of a broken marriage. But through this film I realize that adults can't obviously act like kids and not speak at all. That's why when Johan comes home after a few years I was not surprised by their behaviour. They are trying to break the ice and see how it goes from there. That's how adults would probably tackle the situation.
5. I will not forget the scene where Johan tells his wife that he is leaving. I truly don't have words to describe this scene so I won't even try. But the credit has to be shared between the acting, the dialog and the direction. The only point I must add is a repetition, the scene is handled with total originality and not like other commercial ventures.
6. The last two scenes are the only ones where the dialog got very heavy for me. There seemed to be deeper meanings which I didn't decipher.
Surprisingly, this is the freshest film on marital life that I have seen. Although it was made 34 years ago it does not seem dated.
RATING: 4/5
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