Fanny and Alexander

 

27-fanny-and-alexander

Saturday, 22 February 2014: Fanny and Alexander

Saturday, 22 February 2014, 15:00

Venue: (see Locations and Tickets for further details)

Programme category: Forest Row Film Society


Director: Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 1983, 300 mins, 15

“‘A declaration of love for life.’ Fanny and Alexander, Ingmar Bergman’s new film, is that and more. Bergman adds that it is ‘the sum total of my life as a filmmaker’ …. A charming, expansive, exhilarating film, it is a masterpiece. … Now Bergman has turned to his personal and professional past to provide a glorious, glowing celebration of human beings and of the sweet things in life….This is a film to revel in for its joy, its warmth, its breadth of mind, and its depth of feeling. Like Fellini’s Amarcord, Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander is not only the sum total of a career; it encompasses and refreshes our lives.” – Judith Crist, Saturday Review

A lovely child’s eye view of the Ekdahl family, in early twentieth-century Sweden. Bergman’s self-styled farewell to cinema is the director’s warmest and most autobiographical film. Winner of four Academy Awards, Fanny and Alexander combines emotional intensity with immense joy and sensuality. A special screening with dinner.

Tickets must be booked in advance: £17/£15 (concs), and discounts for members. Includes dinner. Bookings have now closed.

“This is a virtuoso piece of film-making in which many of the director’s most persistent obsessions are drawn together. It’s at once a meditation on childhood, a celebration of theatrical life, a nostalgic evocation of turn-of-the-century Sweden, a portrait of a family, and a film about a boy (Alexander) coming to terms with the death of his father. Moments of high comedy (the uncle farting on the stairs) are interspersed with vicious, Strindberg-like rows between couples and scenes of grief. No character is one-dimensional.” – Geoff Milne, Sight and Sound

Further reading

Many of these reviews are of the shorter, theatrical version (which Bergman hated).

  1. Time Out New York
  2. New York Times
  3. The Village Voice
  4. Slant
  5. Essay: Fanny and Alexander: Bergman’s Bildungsroman
  6. Interview with Bergman, including a discussion of the relative merits of the long and short versions
  7. Essay: Ingmar Bergman: Summing up a life in film
  8. Bergman obituary: Telegraph
  9. Bergman obituary: Guardian
  10. Roger Ebert: Ingmar Bergman: In Memory
  11. Senses of Cinema
  12. Classic Art Films [detailed synopsis]

Trailer

4 Responses

  1. Terry Cooper / 1-13-2014 / ·

    Could you please advise if Fanny and Alexander on 22nd February is in Swedish with sub-titles? Thank you.

  2. Judith Brookes / 1-25-2014 / ·

    Can you advise what is the food as husband is vegetarian and I don’t want to eat wheat. Can we book, otherwise, just for the film?
    Jude

Comments are closed.