JoeKulik Ingmar Bergman's "Autumn Sonata" (1978) is truly one the best dramatic performances that I have ever seen. This is definitely not for those enamoured of typical "brain dead" Hollywood films, but is surely for the viewer who can appreciate much more intelligent fare. It is a "thinking person's" film.Autumn Sonata can surely be compared to the proverbial onion that is peeled back layer by layer until one reaches its essential core. The joyful reunion between mother (Ingrid Bergman) and daughter (Liv Ullman) is gradually revealed to be a very superficial, very polite, and very civilized layer of a bitter, and even desperate core relationship that exists between them. In the course of traversing these existential layers of Social Reality, the writer, through elegant imagery, and philosophical overtones embedded in the dialogue takes the viewer through the essential past events that have transpired to create this most complex of mother-daughter relationships.The role that is given to Ingrid here truly plays, in my opinion, to her greatest strength as an actor, that of being able to deliver a convincing transformation of personality and emotion in the course of a film, and often in the course of a single scene. Her genius for being able to do so shines most brightly in her earliest Swedish films, before she relocated to Hollywood, where the contrived status given to her as a "sex symbol" most often neglected the depths of her acting ability. Now back in her native Scandinavia late in her career, Ingrid is given an opportunity to once again shine forth her brilliance by a writer/director who truly understands the breadth and the depth of what she can do in front of a camera. Liv, an already accomplished actor in her own right before this film, is nonetheless allowing Ingrid, by necessity, to take the lead in successfully passing through the emotional, visceral, and mental gymnastics needed to execute her own role in this film, which she does far more than adequately.The saddest aspect of this film for me is that rarely does an adult child ever reach such a meeting of the mind, and of emotion with a parent over supposedly inflicted childhood traumas. Most people see their parents go to the grave before they can express the honest feelings and thoughts expressed by the adult daughter to her mother in this film. In a very ironic way then, beyond the core "ugliness" in the relationship between the mother and daughter in Autumn Sonata lies a type of idealism, an idealism that we can one day transcend the traumas of our past, and thereby fulfill our full human potential. The daughter's conciliatory letter to her mother at the end of a film is the first step of her now renewed journey to reach that personal fulfillment.20 Stars !!! 20 Stars !!! 20 Stars !!!

Martin Bradley Ingmar Bergman shot "Autumn Sonata" in ravishing color, (Sven Nykvist again was his DoP), and set it in the present but it may as well have been in black and white and set a hundred or so years ago since this is one of his most rigorous films, seen almost entirely in close-up. It's about the relationships between a mother and her daughter, (two daughters if you count the girl in near vegetative state upstairs), and the great and painful chasm that exists between them. The mother is a great concert pianist, poised, self-assured and frostier than any ice maiden and she is played by Ingrid Bergman, working with the director for the first time and giving a magnificent performance. The daughter is the mousy, timorous wife of a vicar until one extraordinary night she roars and pours out all the bile she has inside her and she is played superbly by Liv Ullmann.To say that the characters in Bergman's films don't speak or act the way 'real' people do is like saying Shakespeare's characters don't behave like people do in 'real' situations. It doesn't matter a damn; as with Shakespeare, Bergman's characters bear their souls to us and this greatest of actor's directors draws performances from his players that go beyond mere acting allowing us to get under their skins and inside their heads.There are a number of characters in this piece but most of them are glimpsed only in the background. Fundamentally this is a sonata for two people and both Bergman and Ullmann have seldom been better. It was Bergman who won all the awards and got the Oscar nomination but Ullmann, too, was equally deserving of recognition. If it isn't quite the masterpiece it might have been, (there are times it does feel a bit schematic and even predictable), it is nevertheless a major work of art and an essential work in both Bergman canons.

WNYer Typical introspective Bergman film with exceptional performances by Liv Ullman and Ingrid Bergman.The latter plays a famous concert pianist visiting her daughter after a long absence. Both harbor a mutual hope for reconciliation from their estranged past but the emotional baggage carried by each may be too much to overcome.The film is beautifully photographed and the script is engrossing but it is extremely "wordy" even for a Bergman film. There is lots of voice over narration, lots of flashbacks, lots of static dialogue, and lots of static monologue (sometimes with the character talking directly to the camera.) The on focus mother-daughter relationship is sad in itself but the overall gloom is layered on pretty thick - loss of parent, loss of husband, loss of child, bad parenting, absentee parenting, repressed anger, forced abortion, disabled child, spastic cerebral palsy, disgust, hatred, emotional detachment and so on......This is the perfect movie to watch if you're a psychoanalyst but for the casual viewer it's pretty depressing stuff. A lot of reviews give this film very high marks but this is not grade "A" Bergman. It is superbly crafted and well acted but it comes across more like a filmed stage play than a movie.

TheLittleSongbird Autumn Sonata was a movie that did move me a lot, but I'd hesitate in calling it one of Ingmar Bergman's best. I did find The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander, Cries and Whispers and Persona even better. This said, apart from an occasional over-load of speeches that come across as too theatrical, Autumn Sonata is still a remarkably good film. As ever with Bergman, it is wonderfully photographed(by none other than Sven Nykvist) and directed, and it has some lovely scenery too. The music is beautiful and haunting, I have to say as a life-long fan of classical music that the use of the Chopin prelude is one of the finest uses of classical music in film to me. The script is mostly thought-provoking and the story, which is essentially a study of guarded emotion, resentment and regret, has the Bergman darkness and harrowing moments like with the sister with the horrible degenerative disease and the drowned toddler. Charlotte's selfishness is also very powerfully conveyed as is Eva's sense of resentment, while the scene that moved me most was the two at the piano. Both leading ladies are outstanding, Ingrid Bergman's elegant but somewhat faded beauty is ideal for the selfishness of her character, but I was even more impressed by Liv Ullman, who has such intensity in her eyes and facial expressions. All in all, powerful and moving, and while it is not one of my favourites from Bergman it is still highly recommendable. 9/10 Bethany Cox