A WOMAN’S MOST INTIMATE ENCOUNTER WITH THE ONE PERSON SHE DIDN’T KNOW. HERSELF.
Psychiatrist Jenny Isaksson (Liv Ullmann), who’s temporarily living with the grandparents who raised her, and also dating a divorced man (Erland Josephson), is headed for a breakdown.
Ingmar Bergman signed a contract with producer Dino de Laurentiis and came up with this drama where dreams play a huge part. Those scenes are the highlight of the film, a walk near death into the lead character’s psyche and anxiety, connected to her parents’ death and inability to experience physical pleasure.
A very dark film, with eerie and uncomfortable moments. Ullmann is very good, even if she and Bergman turn up the volume a little too much at times.
1976-Sweden. 114 min. Color. Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Cast: Liv Ullmann (Jenny Isaksson), Erland Josephson (Tomas Jacobi), Aino Taube (The Grandmother), Gunnar Björnstrand (The Grandfather), Kristina Adolphson, Marianne Aminoff… Gösta Ekman, Sven Lindberg, Birger Malmsten, Sif Ruud, Göran Stangertz, Lena Olin, Gösta Prüzelius.
Trivia: Original title: Ansikte mot ansikte. Also released as a 176-min. miniseries. Olin’s film debut.
Golden Globe: Best Foreign Language Film.
Last word: “Two short dream sequences strike me as acceptable. One is when the lady with one eye comes over to Jenny and strokes her hair. The other one, which at least is honestly thought out, is Jenny’s brief encounter with her parents after the automobile accident. From the viewpoint of direction, it’s a rather good scene. They crawl behind the Duch-tiled stove and start to cry when Jenny hits them. But in one way the scene is poorly directed: Jenny should have remained completely calm rather than acting in the same way as her parents do. I did not understand that at the time. Still, a concrete dream atmosphere does exist at this point.” (Bergman, “Images”)
