Efter repetitionen

`After the Rehearsal', a film by Ingmar Bergman, is a reflective look at the art of theater and its practical implications in our lives. Bergman keeps to a relatively tight plot and cast - there are a total of three characters and one setting that endure over the course of 79 minutes. More than anything, `After the Rehearsal' is a study of our actions: their sincerity, what drives us to them, and how they are mirrored in the theater. It attempts to define human relationships and their high level of self-interest, at times appearing quite existentialistic. `After the Rehearsal' brazenly takes a look into social psychology, aging and theater. The story in `After the Rehearsal' focuses on playwright and director Henrik Vogler, his current star actress, Anna Eggerman, and her mother and Henrik's former lover - Rakel Eggerman. It all occurs after a rehearsal for Henrik's latest `Dream Play' when he is awoken by Anna Eggerman who is looking for her bracelet - a mere pretension to spend time with Henrik. While her desire for Henrik is obvious - he continuously refuses to yield to her flirtations. In the middle of the film, there is a long flashback where we witness Anna's alcoholic mother Rakel arguing with Henrik on the same backstage. Towards the end of the film, Henrik and Anna frenziedly create a romantic story of their future together, passionately delving deeper into their improvised story until Henrik stops it - he will never be able to carry out his desires in person at his age. Bergman's `After the Rehearsal' is not about a plotline, but rather, about unearthing the truth of our actions. During the course of the film, Henrik, while in conversation, will have a voice over which lays bare his thoughts and feelings towards who he is currently addressing. His dialogue is always an act - trying to make his words match his thoughts and thereby amassing a waste of energy. His words betray his thoughts and we learn how truly detached and distant he is from his surroundings. His words become no more than lines in a play; trying to express a thought in the most pleasing and successful way. Anna Eggerman is no better off than Henrik - she purposely lies to him so as to manipulate him and witness his various emotional responses. Rakel also epitomizes this separation from society by her professed desire for affection and company but consistent alcoholism and belligerent actions aimed towards Henrik - she is a mourner who has damned herself to wallow in her own pity. It would be accurate to dub `After the Rehearsal' as an existentialist work. Not only does it focus on man's separation from one another and the pointlessness of his actions, but it attempts to define why man acts as he does. In a self-revelation, Anna Eggerman supposes that she is acting only to please others - and that since childhood she has merely put on a stage face to get her own way. She is so absorbed by her subconscious actions that she does not realize she has become an actress offstage. Furthermore, it describes the plight of Henrik. In addition to the isolation Henrik suffers from the world, he is also plagued by his old age. As age has taken its toll, he no longer has the energy to have a relationship with Anna and can merely imagine it. His (and the film's) final words most exemplify his incapacity and detachment from the world, occurring when Anna tells him she can hear the church bells tolling as he says `I only wish that I was able to hear the bells'. `After the Rehearsal' is a meditative film that is not afraid to ask questions and propose answers. It eloquently expresses its views through a tightly-woven story that does not fail to hold its audiences attention. It dissects why man functions as he does through intense confrontations, philosophical ponderings and quiet revelations. Bergman unmasks the existential themes of distance and cold self-interest that lurk underneath our every word. `After the Rehearsal' is a complex and vital look at humanity that everyone should sit through at least once.

Essentially a playwright, adapted for the cinema, first as a screenwriter and then combining this role with that of director, Ingmar Bergman left an impressive cinematographic work but even more extensive in the theater, whether writing, adapting and directing other people's plays.

In the final phase of his career, he dedicated himself mainly to the theater and the few films he made, after the biopic that was Fanny & Alexander in 1982, were mere adaptations for the cinema or television of theater plays.

This is undoubtedly the case of this "After the Rehearsal" from 1984, which has only three characters and was filmed entirely on a stage, with a single set.

In retrospect, and considering everything that has been written and debated about Bergman since his death, particularly with regard to his relationship with the many actresses he worked with, one would say that this film is clearly autobiographical and reveals the author's sadness in dealing with old age, particularly with regard to his relationship with actresses, who continue to tempt him and seduce him, but to whom he no longer has anything to offer, other than his experience and his ability to make them blossom on stage or on screen.

A feeling shared by most men over fifty, especially those accustomed to a hectic love life, like Bergman, who was married five times and had nine children from five different women, including wives and more informal relationships.

The work is insightful and intelligent, as it could not be otherwise, with Bergman as the author, and the actors are the usual Erland Josephson and Ingrid Thulin, always magnificent, joined by a younger Lena Olin, who had already played supporting roles with Bergman since 1976, but makes her debut here, with a leading role, which would open doors for her future international career.

This is Bergman at his best, but in a static, theatrical, not very cinematic format. It is worth it for the script and performances, but as a film, it feels like too little. After all, is cinema just filmed theater, as Manoel de Oliveira believed?

Here's a bit of an odd confession. I'm starting to like this Ingmar Bergman guy. Mind you, I've only seen two of his films (the other being Cries and Whispers) but he knows how to make a film, let me tell ya! After the Rehearsal is a great movie that makes you think, while marveling how clever the whole thing is. A theater director (played by Erland Josephson) is putting together a production called "The Dream Play". One of his actresses (Lena Olin) stays behind to talk to him about past experiences, his life and hers, and other existential topics. He does the same. A little while later an older actress comes on the scene, and essentially talks the same talk, only a little older but definitely not wiser. The interesting thing about this is, is that both women don't acknowledge the other.. So what's that about? Was this the same woman, only years later? Did these women exist at all, or are we indeed watching a "dream play" already? So many fascinating theories, I love it when a movie does that to me. The movie somewhat lags during the third act, but let me tell you, Bergman KNOWS how to end movies, like in Cries and Whispers and this one, it leaves some questions unanswered for us to figure out by ourselves, and Bergman seems to rejoice yanking us away from the story to go to the credits, which is great.

I want to see more! I will see more! Yay!

This is only my second Ingmar Bergman viewing, the first being the magnificent "Seventh Seal", which left me with a long lasting impression. Perhaps it is not fair to compare this little ditty to the impressive, thoughtful epic that was the former film, but it was with such unrealistic expectations that I started watching "After the Rehearsal".

Unfortunately, I left the film disappointed and indifferent. The plot revolves around an aging play director's relation to his young lead actress, and concerns itself with acting, the personal relations of people in the profession, parenthood and estrangement. Alas, I'm afraid even my simplistic presentation makes the film sound far more interesting than it really is. In the end, "After the Rehearsal" only amounts to a monotonous (if articulate) study of romantic and interpersonal manipulation. I suppose viewers interested in acting and the theater might find something of interest in this movie, especially concerning the issues of what it means to act and direct, and how it affects persons of the field.

Personally, however, I was not engaged at all to the characters' petty personal issues, nor could I project parallels to issues larger than their own particular microcosm from their mundane -if eloquent- verbal sparring. If the "Sevent Seal"'s characters could be likened to those of Dostoyevsky's literature, "After the Rehearsal"'s protagonists would be more similar to Oscar Wilde's aestheticists and their monologues. Who do you prefer?

This is a brilliant work of art - it manages to be both an outstanding piece of theatre captured on film and an equally engaging film about theatre. There is no plot in a conventional sense, and absolutely no action. Instead, Erland Josephson, utterly convincing in his role as an aging theatre director, quietly and with ruthless honesty interacts with both his current new star and an actress from his personal and professional past. During this interplay, the director on the screen (speaking for the director behind the camera?) explains his love for actors and the theatre, while simultaneously modeling and undermining the sense of alienation that he feels he needs to have in order to get his job done in this world that he loves. At the same time, his young star examines her reasons for acting, and the woman from his past presents yet another take on the function of theatricality.

The dialogue is, as always with Bergman, perfect; the film is saturated with ideas; and the simple stage where every moment of the film takes place works in two directions at once, reminding us that we are watching a performance even while it insists we are also seeing "real" people at work.

Bergman is always amazing in his ability to express, in films that are set in singular specific locations, deep emotions and concepts that are nonetheless universal - in this film he gives us a little bonus, an insight into the motives behind manufacture of representation itself.