Amazon.com video review:
Ingmar Bergman achieved international stardom with this classic
melancholy comedy about the romantic entanglements of three 19th-century couples
during a weekend at a country estate. It's exactly what you'd expect from a
bedroom farce filtered through the ideas and eyes of Bergman: sharp,
serious, pensive, austerely sexy, and ultimately sobering. Still, anyone
who thought the Swedish filmmaker was incapable of a little fun has only to
watch Bergman's orchestrations of these dangerous liaisons. Prosperous
lawyer Fredrik (Gunnar Björnstrand) is married to the comely young Anne
(Ulla Jacobsson), who (despite his best efforts) remains a virgin.
Henrik (Björn Bjelfvenstam), Fredrik's grown son from a previous marriage,
is desperately in love with Anne--and having an affair with the maid
(Harriet Andersson)--despite the torturings of his pious soul. When
actress Desiree (Eva Dahlbeck), Fredrik's former mistress, breezes into
town, Fredrick pays her a visit, only to find himself jealous of her
relationship with the piggish Count Malcolm (Jarl Kulle), who just happens
to be married to Anne's best friend, the depressed and suicidal Charlotte
(Margit Carlqvist); both women have a decided bone to pick with Desiree.
All convene at the estate of Desiree's mother for a weekend of
confrontations, illicit romance, dinner, dueling, and eventual pairing with
the right romantic partner. Bergman winningly conveys the aspects of love
among both the young and the old--those who feel they'll live forever and
those whose impending mortality colors their actions. Absolutely brilliant
and heartfelt, a true cinematic masterpiece. The basis for Stephen
Sondheim's A Little Night Music, of "Send in the Clowns" fame. --Mark
Englehart
