Saraband

The films of Ingmar Bergman represent the high point of cinema as an artform. Now, at 87 years of age, the great Swedish filmmaker (who is one of the few in the medium's history that deserves the description of genius) has officially retired and bidden farewell to the screen. He technically retired after his 1982 masterpiece, Fanny and Alexander but continued directing on the stage and for televison, which is where this, his final film comes from. Made for Swedish television as an unoffical sequel to his great 1973 miniseries, Scenes From a Marriage, Bergman reunites stars Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson as only he can. The two of them have been acting for Bergman and with each other for 45 years, and their is certainly an unspoken language between the three that is almost profound in and of itself. His characters are probing and frank about their lives, though emotional invalid's even in their old age. Bergman has a unique insight into human behavior, perhaps because he understands people and inner turmoil so well, or rather he understands himself (which is more than most people can say), which is to say he understands a certain part of humanity that is universal. Many of the director's trademark themes including, love, misunderstanding, pain, sufferring, and the desire for redemption can be found within this films hauntingly genle frames, and he directs with the wisdom of a man who has experienced life and now realizes that he has nothing left to prove. This film will not be remembered as one of Bergman's paramount achievements, but it is the right film with the right cast and the right title for him to end his distinguished career on. But the ending has a poignancy that rivals the best of them.