Review of Autumn Sonata (1978) by Christopher C — 12 Apr 2011

Ingmar Bergman's 1978 film HOSTSONATEN (Autumn Sonata) portrays the troubled relationship between a distant mother, Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman) and her wounded daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann). Eva leads a quiet life along a Norwegian fjord with her priest husband Viktor (Halvar Björk), while Charlotte is a famed pianist who travels the world for concerts. When Charlotte comes to visit, Eva is initially joyful, but within just a few hours all of Eva's bottled up emotions spill over. Some remarkable flashbacks reveal the betrayals that Charlotte inflicted on her family while pursuing her career (they feature Erland Josefsson as Eva's father, through in a silent role). As mother and daughter bicker, weep and confess their sins, one might expect a happy ending. Bergman provides something rather different, however, and it undoubtedly will make some viewers furious. Nonetheless, I enjoy the film's observation that in real life, not all attempts at resolution between two people are successful.

Bergman has tended to portray priests either as pure evil (FANNY OCH ALEXANDER, DET SJUNDE INSEGLET), or good but very tormented (NATTVARDSGAESTERNA). Here, it's refreshing to see the vicar as a humble, content fellow and a loving husband. Lena Nyman's role as Eva's disabled sister is convincingly played, and the pain Bergman communicates through this part is devastating. The script includes a number of very quotable lines. There's been a tendency to treat the several film Bergman produced between the mid-1970s and FANNY OCH ALEXANDER as minor, but I would rank HOSTSONATEN among his best work.