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Saraband (2005)
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Movie Review by Corey 
July 8th, 2005
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Cinephiles are a lucky lot. Due to it's relative youth at a sexy 100 years, compared to its artistic medium brethren, we are still able to enjoy new cinematic works from the first waves of modern virtuosos to whom all who follow pay their debt. After all, it's not like we can go see a new Shakespeare play on Broadway, or go to Lincoln Center and hear a new symphony written by Beethoven or Mozart. While a few hundred years will have to pass before we can determine which directors can ascend to such lofty status, one can still attain a similar, inner cine-geeky thrill at going to see a new Ingmar Bergman (THE SEVENTH SEAL, WILD STRAWBERRIES, CRIES & WHISPERS) film. It's quite an even greater sensation, in watching SARABAND, to feel that thrill grow while submitting oneself to the grasp of the still vital storytelling fingers of the 86 year-old Swedish master.
SARABAND updates two characters, Marianne (the still striking Liv Ullman) and Johan (Erland Josephson), from Bergman's noted 1973 film SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. Like that film, SARABAND was shot and initially aired as a Swedish television movie. This film opens with Marianne struck by a rare impulse to visit Johan, her philandering ex-husband, whom she has not seen in thirty years, in his remote villa in the wilderness. Unexpectedly, she stumbles upon a volatile family triangle involving Johan, his son, Henrik (Borje Ahlstedt) and Henrik's musically gifted nineteen year-old daughter Karin (Julia Dufvenius) both of whom live in the villa's guest house. Marianne's impulsion and adventure illustrate the ironic fate of how people who are so important to you at one point in your life can slip away just as easy as any passing acquaintance; yet it provides hope that the bond might never be totally broken.
The structure of the film is creatively and wonderfully divided into ten individual movements each featuring a duet between two of the four main characters, bracketed by Marianne's prologue and epilogue. The musical analogies are a propos because the characters are consumed by classical music, most notably Bach, while the movie itself can be considered a similarly like-minded work of art. A Saraband was an 18th century forbidden erotic dance and it serves as a just literal and figurative title for the complexities of the personal and familial connections displayed in the film. The wilderness, with its tangled mess of vines and trees serves as the perfect back drop for the interpersonal action contained herein. The characters' costume colors often blend into the colors of the surroundings, further binding them to this setting. All of these designs and more are surefire marks that cinematic craftsmanship of the highest order is at work.
Older people are rarely treated very kindly on film. It's easy to get caught up in the contemporary youth-oriented fervor of modern American cinema where the elderly are often marginalized, forgotten about or portrayed as one-sided geriatric paperweights. But in SARABAND, Bergman strikes a chord for an affecting portrayal of age while still making the emotions universal enough for all to truly feel the weight of. Walking out, you cannot help but feel you have been privy to a sage man's insight into the deeper meanings of real relationships. He has journeyed down all those roads and will grace us in sharing his experiences through his art, whispering gently into your ear.
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 | Zara
Apr 12, 2007 4:34 PM
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| Nice review... |
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