I will start by saying that this is what I have always needed and I don’t believe has ever been accomplished before or since. What Bergman is doing here is absolutely mind-boggling. Not only is it realism in a moment-to-moment dialogue sense, but realism in the structure. When you think realistic structure, Linklater may come to mind. Something like Before Sunrise or Boyhood. These are examples of realism, for sure, but Bergman takes the term and runs with it in brand new territory. Not to shit on Linklater by any means, but his techniques seem almost like gimmicks in comparison to the way Bergman approaches realism. To Bergman, realism is using film techniques to service only what is happening between the characters on screen. It certainly has a vérité style but it does not want to bring attention to the fact that it does. Each scene is structured in such a way that they could operate as their own film. It’s so constantly entertaining and worth absorbing every second. There is, in every single conversation, a very clear arc. A beginning, middle, climax, and end. The camera does nothing to try and distract you from these conversations but also does nothing to try and draw your attention to the fact that it is not distracting you. Bergman wants you to watch every detail present in the actors. I began to think about the way he was choosing takes from these scenes and it became clear to me that he was choosing takes solely based on performance. If there was an issue with the camera movement, that did not matter at all. This kind of technique is incredibly inspiring and makes a lot of sense coming from a director who got his start in theatre.
Of course, a style like this could not be pulled off without excellent actors and holy shit, I can not believe Liv Ullman here. This is possibly the first time I’ve been so able to sink my teeth into a performance in such an intimate way even though the actor is not speaking a language that I understand. She’s just so subtle and I know I’m over using the word “real” but her performance feels so incredibly real which adds to the vérité feel I mentioned earlier without the content being in-your-face vérité.
I long for a world where this kind of media was widely regarded as a regular thing to watch. Where a studio would give me millions of dollars to make a touching 5-hour character piece if I just promised it would be consistently entertaining and well-executed. That may sound snobby of me, but I don’t even care.
If you’re looking for something that accurately portrays relationships, the bottom line is that Scenes From a Marriage is the only one I’ve seen that feels like real life. The petty arguments that blow out of proportion in such a way that never fully feels like a huge emotional blowup, but rather a conversation that plays out with an arc. This is what the peaks and valleys of a relationship truly feel like and no one has ever quite captured it in this way.

Prior to this, I was writing after having only seen the first two episodes. Now, after having finished all 5 hours, I still feel the exact same way about it but something else that’s brought up in the later episodes that I think is pretty amazing is the way things happen on such a whim. It is never necessarily explained what drives these two people back together again and again, despite it all, but it doesn’t need to. All it aims to do is show how vastly different two people in love can interact in different contexts. Part of what makes this movie so powerful is how simple it is in its goal of realistic representation of a marriage. It’s something that so, so many movies have tried to do again and again, but no one has gotten it exactly right except for Bergman in 73. My friend Ingmar.
It can be pretty grading to sit through at times, which I think goes without saying for something that is 5 hours long and comprised almost entirely of conversations between two people. But it is so so worth it. The way that this relationship worms its way into your brain is invasive and you need to completely welcome it and try to understand both sides of it in order to have the true Scenes From a Marriage experience.