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| FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982) | |
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The
upper-class Ekdahl family is a warm and vibrant family and this shines
through in their extravagantly decorated home in which they are about to
celebrate Christmas Eve. They have the Christmas feast in the
kitchen with the servants, and this is something some servants find
inappropriate. However, the family is very close to everyone who is
a part of the family or friends of the family. The mother Helena (Gunn
Wållgren), who is on the later part of her life, has three mature and
married sons, Gustav Adolf, Carl, and Oscar. Gustaf Adolf (Jarl
Kulle) is a funny and happy fellow who is constantly cheating on his wife,
who is aware of his cheating, but maintains a civil manner and still loves
her husband. The family smarts went to Carl, (Börje Ahlstedt) who
is a scientist with nihilistic life philosophy. Carl suffers from
depression which is frequently expressed toward his loving wife in an
emotionally abusive manner. Oscar (Allan Edwall) is the theater
director full of love, which he shares as often as he can with his dear
children, Fanny and Alexander. However, Oscar does not feel well,
and he hides his poor health from the family as he believes that life must
go on. Oscar passes out when he is rehearsing Shakespeare's Hamlet
and dies a short time after. Fanny deals much better with the
death of her father than Alexander, who does not know how to deal with the
pain and anguish from his father's death. The warmth and love that
the family has keeps the family together, despite many family issues,
which all surfaces as the audience is brought to the issues through
Bergman's story telling. A year after Oscar's death Emilie (Ewa Fröling),
Oscar's wife, is remarrying the Bishop Edvard Vergerus (Jan Malmsjö).
The Bishop who asks Emilie to leave all her past, issues, and belongings
at home when they move into the Bishop's rustic home. However, Fanny
and Alexander cannot leave their past behind them and they often end up
being punished by the callous Bishop, who proclaims that his strictness is
an act of love from God.
Fanny and Alexander is a film that dissects socially learned morals and values in the shadow of family secrets and issues. These secrets and issues are often the emotional engine behind the human motivation which produces certain manners and behaviors from the Ekdahl family members and those around them. For example, Carl's depression is partially inherited from his financial difficulty that is hampered by his mothers reluctance to give him money, which enhances his nihilistic self-perspective and deepens his negative self-worth. Bergman displays his vast insights into psychology and the human psyche in Fanny and Alexander as he displays the production of numerous emotional states such as happiness, anger, desire, anguish, and many more. These emotional states are clearly acted out by a terrific cast as they face several hurdles throughout the film. In addition, the misé-en-scene is outstanding, since it elevates the understanding for the different emotional states provided in the different homes. A great example is the comparison between the Ekdahl's home which has several strong colors and the art that awakens different emotions, which brings life to the home and the Bishop Vergerus' home that is very sparingly furnished with thick white prison-like walls, which almost suffocates any expression of feelings. The cinematography maximizes the use of the camera in order to enhance the emotional states of each scene. When all aspects of film making are put together in Fanny and Alexander it leaves the audeince with a brilliant cinematic experience. |
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DIRECTED BY |
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COUNTRY |
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Sweden / France |
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| REVIEWED | |
| 2/14/2004 | |
| GRADE | |
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The Internet Movie Database. |
