The idea of recriminatory conflict between mother and daughter seems fair enough, but Bergman declines to play fair. Whether such privileged moments of acting intensity compensate for the weirdly partisan emphasis of the text is a moot point. Slowly modulating from shy anxiety, she begins to resemble something vaguely subhuman - a stricken, helpless beast of burden. She doesn't overdo it, but her eyes begin to dilate and her mouth to slacken in a way that seems peculiarly terrifying. Ullmann is phenomenal at projecting the stolid ugliness that can deface a personality overcome by feelings of inferiority and self-pity. Since she's fedding her resentment, Eva responds to Charlotte's commentary and playing with an expression of dumbly smoldering hatred. Anyone less vain than Eva might appreciate the demonstration as a privileged moment, revealing how much thought and feeling an artist can devote to her work. Charlotte acquiesces, and the difference is overwhelming. Unreasonably craving praise, Eva sets herself up for a crusher by insisting that Charlotte demonstrate her interpretation of the passage. While Eva plays, her mother's face reflects a complex interplay of emotions, culminating in an impression of sincerely affectionate solicitude. Dowdy, anxious Eva has referred apologetically to her own playing and sits down at the family Steinway to struggle through the opening of a Chopin prelude. A celebrated concert pianist named Charlotte, Ingrid Bergman, arrives for a brieg visit at the home of her daughter Eva, a country parson's wife, played by Ullmann. The movie is arguably worth enduring for the sake of the director's most ingeniously orchestrated sequence. Moreover, Bedgman and cinematogropher Sven Nykvist impose the sort of concentrated, intimate pictorial scheme that inspries rapt attention by relying on the expressivr range of the performances in sustained close-ups. Unlike Ellen Burstyn and Melino Mercouri in 'A Dream of Passion.' Bergman and Ullmann compete on equal terms, drawing on comparable imaginative and technical resources. These high-powered, spell-binding actresses are a pleasure tow atch. Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann invest their roles with undeniable emotional conviction and impact. The first movie to costar Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann, as well as the first occasion on which Bergman has directed Bergman, "Autumn Sonata" enjoys instant status as an acting showcase.īergman's casting coup lives up to expectations. Nevertheless, one can be impressed by Bergman's instrumentalists while rejecting his composition. At its worst this movie sounds like the ideal entertainment for the guy who recently sued his parents on grounds of mental cruetly. If anything, Bergman places an insupportable strain on his customary inconsolable tune by presenting a new note of accusatory self-pity, indulged in by a resentful child at the expense of an allegedly negligent parent. Ingmar Bergman's "Autumn Sonata," opening today at White Flint, is a dubious variation on familiar neurotic themes.
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