Nicole and I recently watched Scenes From a Marriage, our first Ingmar Bergman film. Netflix sent us the two-and-a-half hour “shorter” film version, instead of the five-hour miniseries version. I did not feel that we “missed” anything, since the version we saw was so wrenchingly observed.
A lot has already been written about what a masterpiece this film is, and I wouldn’t contradict any of that—it was very good, and Nicole and I had several conversations about it later.
I like how there’s no musical soundtrack. You know, the swell of violins to tell you someone is in pain, the crash of cymbals to signify an epiphany. I’m tired of the way so many modern films rely on musical scores to do the emotional work of the actors. Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson are perfect in this.
We’re going to rent another Bergman film soon.
