Face to Face is an extremely intense experience from start to finish, due in large part to Ullmann's performance as she powerfully expresses a range of emotions seldom seen in American films.
Bergman creates a stunning picture not only of personal anxiety but also of the fury that may exist just below the surface of any perfect state.
80
Time Out
Time Out
The acting is intense, as you would expect from Ullmann and Josephson, working under a director who was coming to terms with his own breakdown in this film; and the nightmare imagery (washed-out backgrounds clashing vividly with stark colours) delivers a strong jolt to the subconscious.
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A confused and sometimes overwrought new treatment of the director's most obsessive theme, suicide.
This is a strange, stormy period for Ingmar Bergman.
50
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Face to Face feels scattershot and incomplete, never adequately establishing connections between characters, motivations for significant actions, or even the simple causalities of time and space.
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Ingmar Bergman at his most painful, pretentious, and empty.