Review of Saraband (2003) by Kyle M — 12 Jul 2008

One of the things that truly impressed me with this film is the meticulous attention that Bergman paid to small details. His selection of music is a case in point.

The second movement of Bach's Fifth Cello Suite (Sarabande), whose excerpts we hear in this film, is intimate and very sorrowful (almost like a piece of funeral music), as if to signal the end of the road. The non-chordal nature of this movement (it consists of a single melodic line) was a great way to subtly remind us of the existential loneliness of the four main characters, as well as our own.

Or, take for example Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, which Johan (one of the four main characters) was listening to very loudly in one scene. Bruckner spent the last nine years of his life composing this symphony (and actually never finishing it). Its Adagio is contended, at least by some Brucknerites, to be a farewell to life.

This very last of Bergman's films feels like his own requiem. It can make us sad, that's for sure. But the music of his cinematography is still heavenly beautiful.