I love Bergman. In fact, I hate relationship dramas usually, but still I enjoy a lot of Bergman's films in that genre.
I've been trying to see as much of his work over the years as possible, and I recently bought the Criterion box set.
This series has been praised to the heavens since its release, and you can see by all the reviews here that it is greatly loved.
However, despite all the love others have given it, and despite my being a huge fan of Ingmar Bergman, I struggled to get through this. I really only sat through its entirety to say to myself I've experienced the director's (mostly) complete oeuvre.
The production was flat. I know it was a TV show, but I expect from Bergman at least a little bit of cinematography. This series consisted of mostly long, unmoving, direct conversation shots.
The acting was decent but not good.
The story was tired and uninteresting. Despite a few interesting and insightful moments, it was a run of the mill, uninspired, and downright boring failed marriage tale, presented in the form of long, generally vapid conversations in which the cold husband tries to justify himself with junior high level philosophical commentary and the spineless wife placates him with coddling smiles in between badly played crying fits (the most entertainment I found in the series was laughing at Liv Ullman's weird moaning).
I'd looked forward to this after all of the great films by Bergman and all the accolades this series has received, but what a let down.
I've been trying to see as much of his work over the years as possible, and I recently bought the Criterion box set.
This series has been praised to the heavens since its release, and you can see by all the reviews here that it is greatly loved.
However, despite all the love others have given it, and despite my being a huge fan of Ingmar Bergman, I struggled to get through this. I really only sat through its entirety to say to myself I've experienced the director's (mostly) complete oeuvre.
The production was flat. I know it was a TV show, but I expect from Bergman at least a little bit of cinematography. This series consisted of mostly long, unmoving, direct conversation shots.
The acting was decent but not good.
The story was tired and uninteresting. Despite a few interesting and insightful moments, it was a run of the mill, uninspired, and downright boring failed marriage tale, presented in the form of long, generally vapid conversations in which the cold husband tries to justify himself with junior high level philosophical commentary and the spineless wife placates him with coddling smiles in between badly played crying fits (the most entertainment I found in the series was laughing at Liv Ullman's weird moaning).
I'd looked forward to this after all of the great films by Bergman and all the accolades this series has received, but what a let down.