Scarecrow-88 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.

burrresear The performance by Lena Endre was the best I have seen this decade. And the facial nuances of Erland Josephson were superior as well. All in all, the acting surpassed the totality of the movie per se; but, still this is a movie well worth seeing. I wish the US would produce films like this.

LeJoe Not to be an elitist, but no one I know is more familiar with the work and life of Ingmar Bergman than yours truly, so when his latest and long-awaited film, Faithless, was recently released, I was immediately eager to see it. And staying true to his promise never to direct another film after Fanny and Alexander, he couldn't have picked a better director for his script than his protege and long-time colleague Liv Ullman. So, what we end up with in Faithless, is a true-to-form Bergmanesque tale that runs a bit too long and has one too many tragedies.For the most part, the film is pretty much saved by excellent performances, especially the portrayal of Marianne by Lena Endre. The plot is a tangled web of infidelity and its consequences, punctuated with as much heartbreak, pain and suffering as any Bergman opus, and certainly as much as the average viewer can imagine or tolerate. To be sure, Bergman isn't for everyone. But if you enjoy an occasional catharsis, immobilizing intensity and walking out of the theater thinking your life isn't as bad as you thought it was, this film's for you. For those of you familiar with and amenable to Bergman trademarks, you won't be disappointed. There are plenty of long facial close-ups, monologues, ghosts as figurative demons, and a character that represents Bergman himself. This last feature is one of the machinations I feel we could have done without. It adds a character who is not really part of the plot and does little more than listen. There's also a heaviness to the plot that kind of hits you over the head. Major drama is all right with me, and Bergman is one of the best in that genre, but it was dangerously close to the saturation point of redundance and pretension. Nevertheless, for all you Bergman fans, foreign film lovers and wanna-be celluloid asthetes, you really should add this title to your repetoire. Bergman is truly one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and considering his very advanced age, this could be his last outing. Then again...

nunculus On his remote Swedish island, Ingmar Bergman (Erland Josephsson) conjures a character who's a present-tense, fictionalized version of a woman from his past (Lena Endre). It seems that long ago, in Bergman's youth (replayed here in the present day), he stole the wife of a friend--a conductor who ran the orchestras of the operas Bergman directed. That wife, played by Endre, confronts her real-life ex and fictional-life author: "You want what all directors want," she tells him, "A dynamic actor who'll bring life and make sense out of your mishmash." FAITHLESS was written by an 84-year-old Ingmar Bergman--the same age as Saul Bellow writing the not-nearly-as-crusty RAVELSTEIN--and it is his best screenplay since SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE a quarter century ago. The events of the movie's adulterous encounter and its aftermath are far from novel, but the intensity of Bergman's gaze--even as "just" a writer--makes them spellbinding. Anatomizing the cruelties inflicted in the name of love, Bergman swaddles you in that familiar rhetoric that, quite frankly, it is a joy to behold in this debased era: a character actually says, delightfully characteristically, "Loneliness. Alien. Alienation." Wise and fully-grown, FAITHLESS is directed by Liv Ullmann, who has a sure, steady hand with the actors (if not the animals and children). The performances are not great, but what does it matter? This, Bergman's apologia pro vita mia, reveals the author to be, in his own head, unforgiven. I find there to be something deeply comforting in the notion that Bergman, like his colleague John Huston before him, is in no way spiritually prepared for death. Both fellas have scores to settle, reputations to shred.Bergman is as colicky and spoiled as he ever was.