Faithless (2001)

Better Late Then Never

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Absolutely the worst movie.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

An excellent film. It gives you the experience through the characters of infidelity, the glee of romance, and the inevitably carnage it creates. Lena Endre is perfect. The enigmatic Swede that happily orchestrates an affair with one of her good friends, a friend of the family, and her husbands best friend. She thinks it will be fun without any consequences. It's like a willingness to suspend disbelief, or just plain denial that anything could go wrong, or that anyone could be hurt. I must admit, that is the point I simply don't go for. Apart from that, Liv Ullmann does a brilliant job of directing. She has a master's touch for giving the audience enough, but not too much, just enough to keep you absolutely fascinated. The script is obviously very good, by Ingmar Bergman, but Ullmann has improved it dramatically with her alterations and additions. She takes a woman, who has everything and shows what happens when you take it all for granted and greedily take more. Henricksson's character is at least honest about his ability to destroy everything he touches. His character remains the same throughout and loses nothing. It is Marianne who loses the lot, and sorry to say, rightly so. This is a beautifully done morality tale that does not leave out the inevitable damage the children are forced to endure at the hands of their selfish, stupid, lustful parents.

Erland Josephson stars as a screenwriter who, through a muse(Lena Endre, who also portrays the main female character of Marianne as well), summons an extremely depressing tale of the passion and tragic consequences of infidelity. David(Krister Henriksson)is the job-less love-partner for Marianne whose husband, Markus((Thomas Hanzon), travels with his successful orchestra. David is a sad case because he's deep in debt through constant failure--a direct opposite of Markus. Anyone can see Marianne's setting herself up for a harsh existence she just can not pull away from. Marianne's passion for David overwhelms her to the point where she's willing to sacrifice the marriage to a success for a certain failure. David's jealousy doesn't help matters(not to mention he has two children he barely visits at all from a previous relationship)considering his bad debts and mood swings.The truly tragic victim, and the film definitely points this out, is young Isabelle(Michelle Gylemo)who is Markus and Marianne's daughter. She sees the crumbling around her as three people fight, bicker, or do not associate at all. The film's main conflict, besides the adultery and it's effects, is the supposed court case and how Markus wants full custody of Marianne. He doesn't contact Marianne for a long period while also sending social service to check out the living conditions of David and Marianne. Then, after a certain disturbing sexual agreement, Markus allows Marianne to have full custody of Isabelle ending in further tragic consequences. We see that the once joyous relationship of David and Marianne is starting to topple as well.The film's theme isn't fresh, but the performances from the three main actors are. Endre is quite expressive and mesmerizing in the lead female role as she speaks through the varying degree of emotional ups and downs her Marianne continues through because of her decisions. We rarely see Markus, but Henriksson is certainly convincing as David, a man caught in an emotional quagmire often behaving irrationally and emoting certain feelings haphazardly. I feel we should be able to see quite early that this relationship, despite it's passionate, loving moments was never gonna last.

An old alienated writer, in an empty house, on a barren seashore, is kept company by characters of his own making. A profound and poignant statement. This is one of the last scripts Bergman ever wrote.Heartrending. In the end, these fantasms finish telling him their tale and they leave him. When it's over, he is utterly alone. But, at the end, the camera drifts over and reveals the pages of his now finished book. One is left with the impression that though this is a bleak life, it is not one without meaning or value.Beautiful performances.

Faithless is a decent film. It is far too bad that I was expecting something more. As it stands, its acting is first-rate, the direction is fine, if unflourished (for some reason, audiences now frown upon any direction with flair), and the script is fine, although certainly it has been done before. The issues of infidelity in a marriage have been explored countless times in all media. This is not bad, and I definitely think it is not something that has been overdone by any means, but Faithless offers just a couple of really interesting moments in its 2.5 hour running time. Really, only Bergman fans should (and would, anyway) see it. And those fans should at least be familiar with Liv Ullmann's place in his films. Unfortunately, I have only seen three movies that she did with him, Persona being the best. I think I understood most of the subtext having seen Persona. 7/10