Fanny and Alexander (1983)

Too much of everything

Must See Movie...

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Ingmar Bergman's farewell to cinema, being his last feature film. Or rather it got torn down into one as it was originally an over 5 hour TV mini series. The film depicts the lives of its title characters, Fanny and Alexander, and their extended family, the Ekdahls, a wealthy aristocratic family living in the early 20th century Uppsala, Sweden.I've personally only seen the mini series, so I'm a bit unclear as to what was taken out for the 3 hour feature version, but let's talk about the story as a whole. The film is a pretty straightforward period drama, which is a bit surprising, given that Bergman has a reputation for the artistic side of film making. And yes, there are hints of that in this film, but not all that many. It's mainly at the very beginning, and then during the fifth act. I'd even go so far as to say that the second and third acts are downright clichéd and dull. That's how formulaic they are.That being said, the acting is really good, the sets and costumes are gorgeous, there are some truly touching scenes even in the dullest acts, and the characters, the Ekdahls especially, are remarkably likable. The first act might be some of the finest character and world building I've seen in years. There's a metric ton of characters to introduce, all with their quirks and motivations, yet the film pulls it off flawlessly. Well, at least the mini series.Does the rest of the film meet the expectations laid out by this marvelous first act? Yes and no. As I've said, the second and third act are kind of clichéd, and the final act gets really bizarre, but I'll give it this: It's memorable. I'll remember this film. I enjoyed watching it, and while it might not be the finest drama I've ever seen, at least I got something out of it. Which is not as common as you'd think.

I just recently watched this movie. It was filmed in 1982. I normally don't like old movies like Fellini etc. but this one is okay. It's quite slow however it's quite nicely done. I like that the movie effortlessly blend in supernatural and reality.Give it a try. It's a little dated but you can see that's very well directed and written.

Scenes from the Ekdahl Saga. The last time I tried this epic I must have abandoned it after the prologue, because all I remember was the off- putting flatulence, which had stayed with me ever since. This time I made it through the full five hours, spread over two evenings, and I'm sad to say the result is an unsatisfied sense of emptiness.This is a very peculiar, confessional sort of performance, and I wish I could compare it with the three hour version. I should like to know what was cut out. It gives an impression of having been put together in a haphazard, arbitrary manner, as if the auteur couldn't decide what he wanted to say. A collection of family photographs dis-arranged in half a dozen old albums.The unfolding events are loaned some significance by the marked Shakespearian backbone. In what is evidently a semi-autobiographical account, Bergman/Alexander is given two, if not three, fathers: his actor-manager Hamlet-type ghost father, and his odious Claudius-type ersatz father, presumably modelled on his real, Puritanical father. This person's malignant ghost was also still around after his convenient demise by fire, plot-wise, apparently arranged by witchcraft. An Oedipal twist. The faded pageant of the Ekdahl theatrical family is definitely insubstantial, occasionally full of sound and fury, but basically of negligible meaning in the wider world. Could that be the film's message ? Its nearest Bergman relative is The Face (aka the Magician), a mysteriously underrated effort which was rejected for its Oscar nomination, but is one of the Swede's best, at least as good as The Seventh Seal. There is a lot of talk about masks in Fanny and Alexander, reminiscent of William's opinion that all the world is a stage. But Greek to many of us. After Shakespeare come Ibsen and Strindberg. Another kettle of fish.Two episodes puzzled me more than the rest, and I wonder if they were cut out of the three-hour version, or at least cut down. One is that in the Epilogue we are shown two babies, looking as if they were identical twins, side by side in closely juxtaposed cots, and identical baby trappings. Looked at from the other side, however, the cots are shown as distinctly separated, and Jarl Kulle, in his barmy emotional speech, only addresses his by-blow with his lame maid, whom for some reason he wants to set up in a coffee-shop, whereas she wants to run a milliner's of sorts. The other baby, nameless, must be Emilie's, by the bishop. Query ? It's a complete riddle to me why we are told any of this.The second peculiar event is the hysterical anti-semitic spasm, and most of the fifth act, which affects the repellent bishop, who parades as Fanny and Alexander's uncle/father, and then gets his just deserts. We learn that time and space do not exist, the universe is expanding, and there is obviously no method in the madness of the gloomy Scandinavian, in spite of the usurper's death.I can't say it was tedious, since I watched it all the way through, wondering what was going to happen next, but just felt disappointed at the end. The answer was that there was no answer to any of the mysteries. Why did Alexander have such unusually large ears ? How does a bishop accumulate debts great enough to bring him to bankruptcy ? Why was Ismael a woman ?

I've watched this movie many years ago when I was still a teen or maybe in my early twenties. It was horrible. It was so depressing that I decided never to watch an Ingmar Bergman film again. It was my first and only one. Yes, I know that Bergman is considered a great artist. And yes, maybe this film is a piece of art. But even now after so many years, having forgotten about all the details of the story, I still feel the depression. I will not rate the movie because I don't want to be unfair. But I really wish I hadn't watched this.So be warned. If you think you have to watch this because it's movie history, go ahead. But if you are a sensitive person you might be tortured by the hopelessness.