As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.
Pernilla Allwin Bertil Guve Jan Malmsjö Börje Ahlstedt Anna Bergman Gunn Wållgren Kristina Adolphson Erland Josephson Mats Bergman Jarl Kulle Allan Edwall Ewa Fröling Harriet Andersson Gunnar Björnstrand Stina Ekblad Pernilla August Mona Malm Christina Schollin Kerstin Tidelius Inga Ålenius Hugo Hasslo Kristian Almgren Carl Billquist Axel Düberg Siv Ericks Patricia Gélin Majlis Granlund Maria Granlund Eva von Hanno Show All…
Fanny e Alexander, Fanny & Alexander, Fanny y Alexander, 芬妮和亚力山大, Fanny og Alexander, 화니와 알렉산더, Fanny et Alexandre, Fanny und Alexander, Φάννυ και Αλέξανδρος, ファニーとアレクサンデル, Фани и Александар, 芬妮與亞歷山大, Fanny ja Alexander, Фанни и Александр, 芬妮与亚历山大, Fanny e Alexandre, Fanny és Alexander, פאני ואלכסנדר, Fanny ve Alexandre, Fanny in Alexander, Фани и Александър, Fanny i Aleksander, Фанні й Олександер, Fanny a Alexander, Fanny Và Alexander, Fanny a Alexandr, Fanija un Aleksandrs, فانی و الکساندر, Fanny i Alexander
USAR
Czechia15+
Greece
UK15
Sweden11
Denmark15
FinlandK-16
UK15
Netherlands12
France12
PortugalM/12
Italy14+
Germany16
Sweden11
AustraliaM
Spain12
South Korea15
Netherlands12
PortugalM/12
Netherlands12
Australia
Czechia
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
UK
USA
I'm still not exactly sure each time I see an Ingmar Bergman film whether I should rush myself to the nearest church or continue going nowhere near one.
I don't think he was sure either.
''Therefore let us be happy while we are happy. Let us be kind, generous, affectionate and good. It is necessary and not at all shameful to take pleasure in the little world.''
Where does one even begin to describe the majesty of Ingmar Bergman's 312 minute Magnum opus that was to be his swansong to cinema (although he continued working in TV until his death) without falling prey to superlatives and gushing praise. I spent two evenings in the sometimes warm and inviting, sometimes colourless and cruel world of Fanny och Alexander, unaware that a spell was being cast over me.
Through the eyes of a child I was taken by the hand and led through the fantastical, the supernatural,…
83
One of my very favorite Bergman films, particularly in its Television Cut, which spans over 5 hours and weaves and mirrors the likes of Charles Dickens and Luchino Visconti in its novelistic approach. It's deceptively complex, often finding the lens of childhood to be insufficient in capturing the totality of what's unfolding, but not necessarily in a negative sense. It's that limited experience that defines Bergman's theatricality and ghostly nostalgia, and the extended run-time allows for complete immersion in its exploration of family, heritage, the shifting tide of imagination, and of course (it's a Bergman movie), religion. The episodic structure really accentuates the dynamics of each character, as well as the big-picture descent into reality. A child's eagerness at the world around them slowly being soured by grief and pain, and the ebb and flow of life taking its toll.
You know that feeling when you're a boy in 1910 in Sweden and your mom marries a weirdo priest but you want to live with your cognac-loving grandma?
Fanny & Alexander is a journey. I watched the TV version and spread it out over a week or so because parts of it are very heavy. While I struggled engaging with the first chapter, the story drew me in the more it went along. Ingmar Bergman seemed to have the unique ability to see life from so many perspectives, but here you are experiencing the story mostly through the eyes of Alexander.
What I love the most about the movie is the balance between suffering and pain, which is best exhibited in…
Bergman’s magnum opus. This is everything. This is art. A family chronicle that showcases everything that Bergman excelled at. In some ways, it's the ultimate Bergman film, containing a small portion of everything he accomplished in prior work. Admittedly, my disc for the TV version didn’t work, so I had to settle for the theatrical as I couldn’t wait any longer. I’ll definitely be revisiting this once I get my hands on what he considered to be the superior cut.
At the Christmas party that more or less opens this film, there is a feeling of almost infinite sprawl as the camera wanders the home of the matriarch of the Ekdahl family. You get glimpses of many of the characters that will compose this film, you get glimpses of the massive manor the first part of this film takes place in, and you get glimpses of the intricacies of the emotional connections that abide in this place. Because it is Christmas, you also have a vague sense of joy and wonder, of possibility, that the film will later warp beyond belief eventually. It sets a tone of serious delight, of the strange warmth that is only possible on the coldest…
I watched the 5 hour TV version of Fanny and Alexander.
Fanny and Alexander is visually sumptuous, capturing a long lost time, and yet beneath its beautiful veneer is something complicated and unclear. Fanny and Alexander begins with no indication of where it's going to go, but it slowly becomes masterful and revelatory. It starts off strong and continually manages to get better. The final hour is just perfect, a strange, beautiful, creepy, and transcendent experience.
Family, and its problems and its joys, is the driving force in Fannr and Alexander and the film is a turbulent showcase of family life. In parts, the film is funny and light. At other points, it's nasty and ugly. There's things which can connect and…
amazing how the same director can axplore the same themes with the same tone and yet create starkly different films.
bergman the master that you are !
Ingmar Bergman’s semi-autobiographical Fanny and Alexander is a historical drama stacked with ghosts and dreams, which he originally intended to be his final picture before retiring. It’s a fairy tale inhabited with some terrific characters in a manner that challenges Charles Dickens and is grounded in a boy's imagination, anxieties and expectations.
It’s an absorbing story, which is unconditionally gorgeous and provokes a clash between atheism and godliness, between intermittent enchantment and bleak daily existence. The movie comprises some fabulous sets together with a wardrobe of spectacular costumes and the lighting to the shot compositions elevates this to a legitimate masterpiece, It’s both representative of Bergman yet distant from anything else he had attempted before.
