#0000A/#262: BERGMAN, Ingmar: Fanny And Alexander -- The Television Version (1982)
FANNY AND ALEXANDER BOX SET {Spine #261}
Fanny And Alexander -- The Television Version [1982]
Spine #0000A/Spine #262
Blu-ray/DVD
Ingmar Bergman has described Fanny and Alexander as "the sum total of my life as a filmmaker." And in this, the full-length (312-minute) version of his triumphant valediction, his vision is expressed at its fullest. Originally broadcast on Swedish television in 1984, Bergman's preferred rendition of Fanny and Alexander contains two hours' worth of material trimmed for the theatrical release. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the complete, uncut Fanny and Alexander for the first time on home video in the U.S..
312 minutes
Color
Color
Monaural
in Swedish
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2004/2018
Director/Writer
Ingmar Bergman was 64 when he wrote and directed Fanny and Alexander -- the Television Version.
Other Bergman films in the Collection:
The Film
Bergman considered this 312-minute version to be his true and complete vision. The 188-minute theatrical cut (Spine #0000A/#263} is a major compromise. Huge chunks of the story are either horribly foreshortened, or cut altogether. The richly developed nuances of character are completely lost.
For example:
Börje Ahlstedt (Carl Ekdahl) is a tragic man. His marriage to Lydia (Christina Schollin) is a disaster. However, we see another side to Carl in two scenes which were cut from the theatrical release:
- After the Christmas dinner, farting for the amusement of the children; and
- With Gustav, confronting the Bishop about Emilie and the children.
Pernilla Allwin (Fanny Ekdahl)
A startling moment for the character occurs late in the film when the Bishop tries to gently stroke her face. Fanny — who has previously meekly succumbed to similar gestures — violently recoils from his touch. Missing from the theatrical cut.
Allan Edwall (Oscar Ekdahl)
Oscar appears as a ghost six times:
- Shortly after his death;
- During the funeral procession, walking alongside his coffin;
- After they move into the Bishop's house — Fanny also sees him!;
- After Alexander is punished for telling stores about the dead daughters;
- Isak's house, in the puppet room;
- In the bright, airy summer house, after the family has returned.
Not included in the theatrical cut: 4 and 5.
Ewa Fröling (Emilie Ekdahl)
- Emilie's long confession to Helena is cut almost entirely.
- Courtship scenes with the Bishop — The cuts make Emilie's decision to marry feel sudden and irrational.
- The Bishop's slow-building tyranny is drastically cut.
Bertil Guve (Alexander Ekdahl)
We lose many important moments which exhibit Alexander's character:
- Christmas dinner;
- Hamlet rehearsal and Oscar's collapse;
- Oscar's death and ghost appearance;
- Funeral procession;
- After Oscar's death;
- Reactions to his mother's courtship with the Bishop;
- Moving into the Bishop's house;
- Several ghost appearances;
- Punishment;
- Puppet room sequence;
- Scene with Ismael.
Jarl Kulle (Gustav Adolf Ekdahl)
Kulle is so good that the loss of any scene is tragic:
- The Christmas dinner toast;
- Affair with Maj;
- Managing the restaurant and theatre;
- Relationships with his children;
- Reaction to Emilie's marriage to the Bishop;
- Confrontation with the Bishop;
- Final speech. This is a tour-de-force performance that is severely missed in the shortened cut.
Mona Malm (Alma Ekdahl)
All the subtleties Bergman wrote for this important character are lost:
- Conversations with Maj;
- Scenes with her children;
- Reaction to her husband's affair;
- Her reactions to Emilie's marriage;
- Her involvement with the rescue;
- Final dinner.
Gun Wållgren (Helena Ekdahl)
- Her long scene with Isak is nearly eight minutes; brutally cut to two in the shorter version;
- Comforting Emilie, almost completely cut;
- Comforting the kids, completely cut;
- Managing Carl's meltdown; almost completely cut;
- Warning Emilie about marrying the Bishop; almost completely cut;
- Conversations with family and Isak re: Emilie; completely cut;
- Summer dinner monologue; almost completely cut.
Jan Malmsjö (Bishop Edvard Vergérus)
Malmsjö's slow-burning portrayal of the Bishop is ruthlessly excised in the theatrical version.
Erland Josephson (Isak Jacobi)
Josephson's portrayal of this character perhaps suffers the most from being so severely shortened.
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
#0000A:
59
The ExtrasThe Booklet
#0000A:
250-page book featuring an essay by Molly Haskell.
"It is no surprise that Bergman should give these two women (Emilie and Helena) the triumphant last word in Fanny and Alexander, a multigenerational drama that leaps lightly over barriers of age, gender, and class. Throughout his career, with his characteristic spare-nothing close-ups, he has followed the emotional logic in his actresses' faces, adjusted his cinematic vocabulary to their moods, dug deeper into their psyches than any other director ... the merging of the two women speaks to that terror, that sense of sameness that contains both voluptuous yearning and fear. In Fanny and Alexander, terrors, fears, and ghosts rise up ... and are laid to rest. Or almost."
#262:
Thirty-six page booklet featuring essays by Stig Björkman, and Rick Moody.
Björkman:
"With the very first shots of Fanny and Alexander, director Ingmar Bergman announces his perspective and signals his intentions. Here we find the ten-year-old Alexander gazing into a puppet theater, lifting layer after layer of the skillfully painted backdrop sections of the décor. We have entered the world of a child, one who sees through and penetrates the protective props of the adult world."
"Fanny and Alexander in the twenty-first century looks like what it was meant to be, a big, omnivorous bildungsroman about youthful imagination at the moment of modernism's inception. Imagination is at the core of the film, central to both its story (in Alexander's coming of age) and its method, in its opulent design and languid confident pacing."
Commentary
None.
A Bergman Tapestry
Documentary featuring exclusive interviews with cast and crew.
The only extra, but note that the "making of" doc is a separate release (Spine #0000A/#264).
Extras Rating (0-40):
Extras Rating (0-40):
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