Bergman Island

Bergman Island: The eponymous island (named Fårö ) is where Bergman filmed many of his great works, not least of which was Scenes From A Marriage; you can even rent the house where it was filmed and sleep in the actual bedroom which featured in it. Chris (Vicky Krieps) and Tony (Tim Roth) do just that, both are filmmakers, Tony being the more famous of the two, his films are being screened by the Bergman Foundation and he;s giving Master Classes. He's also working on his new film as is Chris on the script for hers. Their relationship has troubles right out of a Bergman film. The screenplay Chris is working on reflects some of those very problems. The scenario comes to life as a film within a film, Amy (Mia Wasikowska) an American film director arrives on Fårö for the marriage of an old friend, also there is her first love, Joe (Anders Danielsen Lie), an affair starts up again.

Love, relationships and responsibilities are explored in this film as it goes meta, eventually blending fact with fiction. Bergman himself is an inspiration to both Chris and Tony but respect his work ethic is somewhat tempered by an examination of his personal life. Bergman had nine children by six different women but played little part in their upbringing. Chris has problems with this but it is argued by others that he wouldn't have made 60 films, directed numerous plays and become artistic director of five theatres if he had domestic duties. Chris reflects that it would be impossible for her (or any female director) to have nine children and carry on with her career. Not just a homage to Bergman, here he is warts and all but this is a film he might well have been happy to direct. Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. 8/10.

At first a rather boring car journey and a rather uninteresting looking island where Chris and Tony, or Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth are to have a working holiday for their screenplays. Faro was the island where Ingmar Bergman worked and filmed and Roth is especially keen on being there. The couple are not quite as loving as they might have been and Krieps starts to tell her story, although he is not so interested, as he has already planned out his own. Of course the story becomes a film within a film and it is something like her life and there are moments about Bergman. Roth even rented the house that had been filmed with the very bed in Scenes For A Marriage, 'The film that made millions of people divorce'. I understand that in reality the director, Mia Hansen-Love had a long affair with the French director Olivier Assayas who was the senior partner in both age and success.

Could have been a great film, but it cannot decide which way to go. It feels like standing beore a signpost with a dozen possible directions, but the author director could not really make up her mind which one to pursue.

Since the story revolves around Ingmar Bergman, who used to life and film on this island, we get a lot of references, movie clips, talks, sights, and quips about him, his films and his life. Praise and critique about Bergman is woven into the story of a couple of filmmakers, Chris and Tony, coming to Fårö, to write scripts and learn more on Bergman. Their different work styles, subjects and attitude have quite some Bergmanesque quality, though none of the straits are followed to the end. The Bergman worshipping and bashing does not offer any new insights and sounds like remnants from an abandoned documentary project. The film tends to remain on the lighter side until we get to hear and see Chris' script evolve as she tells it to her partner.

Here begins the strongest plot line, blending fiction with the reality. I only wish the director had focussed more on this development. It would have been an ultimately more compelling film.

Bergman Island is a beautiful story about the creativity and strong inner life of artists.

My review is likey biased towards favorable one because most clever and abundant references were so familiar to me, not only Ingmar Bergman's films and his biography (recommend Laterna magica to everybody), but also the soundtrack including the hymns of Lutheran church, the recurring theme of Vem kan segla förutan vind and naturally one of the key songs Abba's Winner takes it all. All these elements strongly resonated within me together with the beautiful but a bit harsh island of Fårö connected with a ferry to the outer world.

This was an extremely beautiful film about the creative process and strong inner life of artists. Its focus was what is lurking under the surface which may be only expressed in the art. Here, the theme is the severe longing of fulfillment, in love but also in the film making. The longing of complete connection, warmth and acceptance.

I loved the choice of using a triple-layer structure, the meta-layers were convincing and emotional. Mia Wasikowska's performance was perfect as always. I also admired Tim Roth's subtle performance which created the needed background for the inner struggle of the main protagonist and the artist in the film, played by Vicky Krieps.

The paradox is that the lack of absolute love and connection often drives the artistic process and you need to embrace it while writing and directing. Yet, you need to come back to the imperfect but real world after the process. This may be exhausting. This films describes this perfectly.

I would recommend this film to all cinemaphiles, in particular to those with an earlier interest in Ingmar Bergman's work and life. The movies's tempo is rather slow and the layered structure may be a bit demanding for a wider film audience. This film also gives a valuable view on the women in the film industry as creative artists themselves and not only as muses and lovers of famous directors.

There's an island where a maestro spent his days, Chris and Tony take some time and go and stay, it's not the most magnetic marriage, a slightly disaffected carriage, but they're there to draft stories, for their screenplays. As the days pass they absorb the auteur's land, while Tony forges on with all he's planned, but Chris struggles with her craft, until she outlines her first draft, that recalibrates into, a future land.

A thoughtful piece of cinema, as stories entwine and timelines are confused, on an island where many of the greatest were formulated and filmed. Brilliant if you're a Bergman fan, perhaps a bit too obscure if you're not.