Review of Fanny and Alexander (1982) by Mikael K — 07 Apr 2009

A very broad story for Bergman, â??Fanny & Alexanderâ?? contains a load of interesting themes and ideas, ranging from religion to sexuality to aging and the difficulty of growing up. Itâ??s visual style glows in warm tones of red, and the cavalcade of characters is diverse, with some nicely applied magical realism to spice things up even further.

I did feel that the film kept the viewer at a too great a distance to its characters, which are left a bit shallow and vague for my taste. Could this be due to the alleged autobiographical components? Furthermore, I felt that the storytelling wasnâ??t as tight or sharply directed as in Bergmanâ??s best movies.