Ingmar Bergman directed this for Swedish TV, later editing it for theatrical release. I watched the full five-plus-hour version, which I wouldn't be surprised to find out was the leading cause of divorce in mid-70s Sweden. "Reason for divorce, irreconcilable differences?" "No, no we just watched Scenes From a Marriage." Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson play a couple ten years into a content but loveless marriage, forced to explore the depths beneath their seemingly happy surface when the husband suddenly announces he's fallen in love with another woman. Unlike Woody Allen's attempts to assail the same emotional landscape (Husbands and Wives owes everything to Bergman), these characters are not at all special. They're not artists or creative types burning to pursue their selfish paths, but rather two very normal, educated, sensible people whose marriage is, like a lot of 'em, mostly an act of settling. The brilliance of the film lies in the wisdom and insight revealed in the smallest of events: eyes darting away, arms crossing, a self-deprecating laugh in the middle of a half-honest statement. Bergman's dialogue (amazingly, not at all improvised, despite the verité feel of the film) gets at so many beautiful, ugly, joyful, and painful truths about coupledom that anyone in a relationship is bound to recognize a thousand little things that are wrong with their situation, and to question whether they should get out while they still have some years left. Anyone not in a relationship is bound to ask themselves whether they should even try. It's bleak stuff, surely, but probably the most mature and emotional film I've seen—and it's a grounded emotionality, with not very much in the way of big breakdowns or fights. Though there are plenty of tears and plenty of dramatic moments, the intensity is quite quiet, full of secrets but not the need to share them all. Ullman and Josephson are stunning to behold—the performances are so dead-on I'm sure many folks assumed they were watching a documentary. Criterion's DVD includes a new video interview with both, and I was surprised at how relieved I was to see the two actors 30 years on, talking about this project as actors instead of as people who lived through this painful relationship. It reminded me that while Scenes From a Marriage is as honest as film gets, it's still a statement, and not necessarily an indictment of the human need for companionship. Yet undoubtedly what allowed Ullman and Josephson to play these characters so deeply was that they did live through it, in one way or another, with one lover or another. As have we all. The film resolves in a very bittersweet tone of hope tempered by the inescapable unchangeability of the past. It's probably all any of us can hope for, sadly enough.
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