So, another lesson learned tonight, but moreso for the ladies: if you ever happen to be in the company of a gentleman caller and you suddenly give in to the burning passions of ronance that have been going on between you two for some time (to the point where he has a hand near your crotch and it's not unwanted)... Then it's also probably not a good idea to have the painting that he made for you that also happens to be of a portrait of your parents - with mother's sad/disapproving profile - staring rught back at you. I don't blame Sofie, Id have bolted and moved to another state!
Sofie, a seemingly underseen film directed by the (practically) perfect actor Liv Ullmann, which got sone accolades at the time but has slipped into semi obscurity (I'm only the second review on Letterboxd), is a tale of heartache and what it means to (forgive me quoting Kramer from Seinfeld here a second) yearn for something more in one's life and it just is not there.
At the same time, the title character (as played by a tender, full-hearted and intensely expressive performer in Karen-Lyse Mynster) is not an entirely miserable person from her circumstances, those being that she falls for the painter (who, gasp, is a blond haired Goy, who initially thinks Jews are kind of as he says "strange but alluring" and that is problematic until he comes to realize "oh wait, my bad, you Jews got some soul and heart") who she cannot be with (or rather her family doesn't approve and that's all that counts in 1890 Denmark), and so she is wed to her... Cousin Jonas, they gave a kid, and she has to in all intents and purposes run the shmuck's fledgling business for him. So it goes.
She is more complex than that, and the master-stroke for Ullmann isn't the casting of Josephsson, who as a given is great as Sofie's high spirited and kind but pragmatic father (he's the one who most pushes for the cousin marriage), but of Mynster. A brilliant actress, she shows so much of what is in her heart, and Sofie having a son is what gives her life some semblance of joy and meaning, even if it is with a man she can just tolerate and has little love for.
There's little moments in particular, like when she takes a moment for herself to ruminate on her memories of that enticing painter (and she breaks from her narration in her letter writing, a device that works best when it isn't in hushed whispers, which happens from time to time), and the editing of those flashes and how she just sits and goes through a full range of feelings is exquisite acting and direction. On the opposite end, when she has a moment of (near) lust committed with a family friend, and happens to be standing stark naked in her room as Jonas comes in and tries to force himself on her (and she refuses) is the kind of volcanic acting that I assume can only come from direction of a Doctorate in the school of Ingmar Bergman.
I've hesitated to bring him up because it's the easy reference to jump to: a "period" drama flush with intense emotions and a family that, through misguided ideas of tradition and emotional constipation, and with Josephsson who has been in a dozen or more of Bergman's films (some with Ullmann), not to mention one where religion and faith casts a stark pall over the lives of the characters, even if there are glimpses of grace and joy. There is that there, and the narration can't help but also remind one of when old Ingmar did the same in his scripts (oh and by the by, when rhe painter tells Sofie he and her are "painfully connected" that is a line Ullmann said IB threw her way just before they got together romantically in real life, silver tongued devil he was).
But this is at the same time a fully realized work by an artist who has her own voice and point of view, and if anything she has much more of a tender and (dare I say) sharp empathy for Sofie and her journey of not so much self discovery but understanding what the world she's in has done to the connections shes had with others. This is also to say as a director she is not quite up to a level ot God Tier Dramaturgist that Bergman got to relatively quickly, and then again who could? What draws the film out a little too long are some less involving scenes dealing with the family's unfortunate state of finances (albeit it leads to a great auction scene that reunites the painter and Sofie), and it feels like it's about to end but goes on for ten minutes too long. I also wish they had given Sofie's mother slightly more of a character so that when daughter confronts mother finally there would be more meat on the tragic bones
Sofie is a very good movie, and one I wish was more widely available (or at least given an HD remaster somewhere, on VHS it's fine but those can only last for so long). I think fans of Ullmann as the gisnt talent she is in front of the camera would do well to see what she can do as a filmmaker bringing together a story of tender, broken hearted people and faith that gets tested in a way that isnt ever cheapened by conventional turns (Private Confessions is another).
