Saraband 2003

Marta Barber, Miami Herald: For those inclined to search for psychological twists, the film offers plenty of Freudian situations capable of provoking lengthy discussions. For the film buff, the discussions will turn to a Bergman still at the peak of his craft. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: Performed in a series of devastating duets, it's so mature and authentic that it feels like an alien presence in the current (i.e. shallow) movie landscape. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: While bringing an abundance of inspiration to this world, Bergman unapologetically refused to ignore the pain and darkness that infects mankind. There will never be another filmmaker like him. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Like watching four people take turns trying to swim with one of the others clinging to an ankle. It's grim and gripping. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: What remain intact are the filmmaker's unbreakable heart, lyrical soul and sublime art. So why should we say goodbye? Instead: Bravo. Encore. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: This is just great filmmaking, great storytelling, and just stays with you for so long afterwards. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A stunning and complex final bow from a stunning and complex artist. Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: Saraband shows absolutely no sign that Bergman has run out of things to say or ways to say them -- it is as fresh and direct as any he's made. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Think of Saraband ... as an after-dinner mint: a film that looks in on the same characters three decades later and finds their rage both cooled and passed down to the next generation. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Bergman has never been an ordinary filmmaker, and what he's given us is no genial last hurrah but rather an intensely dramatic, at times lacerating examination of life's conundrums that is exhilarating in its fearlessness and its command. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The performances are perfectly distilled, but the traits I dislike in Bergman are all here -- self-pity, brutality, spiritual constipation, and an unwillingness to try to overcome these difficulties. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: As Marianne becomes a bystander to his cruelty, you feel the pull of Bergman's craft, but also the sting of his sourness. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: An emotionally searing look at the ways we hurt the ones we love and the ones we have come to hate. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: The movie's title -- a lovely word that describes a sexy dance for two -- is either mordantly ironic or another instance of Bergman doffing his cap to the eros that courses through the most baleful of human relations. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: The performances are -- no surprise -- subtly spectacular. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: With Saraband, the great writer-director has stepped back into the ring for one last epic wrestle with his demons. There is, as always, no easy outcome. But no one ever fought for higher emotional and spiritual stakes. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: This is as bitter and despairing an exploration of the human spirit as any of [Bergman's] films, and it is just as vibrantly written and directed. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Ingmar Bergman has said that Saraband, his bleak made-for- television epilogue to Scenes From a Marriage, will be his final statement on film. For the great Swedish writer and director, final turns out to mean unbendingly severe. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: If Saraband should indeed turn out to be [Bergman's] final film, he has concluded his career triumphantly with a work of genius. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Powerfully, painfully honest. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: If Saraband is not one of the best Bergman films, it's a very good one and a valuable statement from a great artist in old age. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Ullmann, in her mid-60s, and Josephson, in his early 80s, still know how to build fascinating characters. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Reminds us again that Bergman, in his camera choices and blocking of characters, remains unrivalled in revealing the sea of emotions between two people face-to-face. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The compositions are stark, the tone wintry and the conversations bleak. Yet there's a flicker of something affirmative in this darkness. Read more

Time Out: A parlour-room theatre of emotional cruelty, with all exits barred by the past. Read more

Gunnar Rehlin, Variety: Makes for fascinating viewing, with Bergman regulars Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann encoring their roles and in top form. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Like a wedge of low-grade Stravinsky, revived and performed, the movie could be considered an addendum to a looming and unique catalog, in which no work is insignificant. Read more

Tim Page, Washington Post: The performances -- welling, unified and multidimensional -- are beyond praise, as are Bergman's visual images. Read more