A SERIOUS GAME
Sweden, 2016, 115 minutes, Colour.
Sverrir Gudnason, Karin Franz Korlof, Liv Mjones, Michael Nyqvist, Mike' Boe Folsgaard.
Directed by Pernilla August.
The original novel on which this film is based came from 1912, written by Hjalmar Soderberg, very much in the vein of sumptuous 19th-century storytelling. It has been adapted for the screen by the director Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners, An Education, Their Finest) and it has been directed by actress, Pernilla August (Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, and, in 1999, playing the title role in Mary, Mother of Jesus, as well as the mother of Annakin in The Phantom Menace).
This is a story of two people who fall in love, but live in their own worlds and ambitions, marry other people. After 10 years, and some disillusionment, they encounter one another and begin an affair – which might be fulfilling of love but also has its destructive dimensions.
1. The title? Love, relationships, infidelity? Perceiving this as a “game�?
2. Stockholm, 1901, the city settings and views, costumes and decor, the style, manner? The newspaper office, homes, the countryside in the Lake, the theatre, hotels, stations and trains? The atmosphere? The score?
3. The reference to an Ibsen play? The characters and situations resembling Ibsen?
4. Arvid, his story, ordinary, getting up, going to work, audiences liking or disliking him? His travel, clothes, the background of his father, going to study, teacher, going to the newspaper, proofreading, favoured by the editor? The trip to the Stiller family, the encounter with Lydia, the attraction, thinking about her? His being sent to the opera, his inexperience, the review? His steady life? The death of the artist, Lydia and his love for her, the prospect of a marriage, his not being able to support her? The meetings, the effect, her marrying the older man? His going to the theatre, Dagmar and her parents, the champagne? The courtship, the marriage? The years passing, his daughter, working for the paper, news, protests, reports?
5. Lydia, her ambitions, with her father, the art, wanting to get away, his death, marrying the older man, wealth, the daughter?
6. Work at the office, the character of Merkel, genial, supporting Arvid, his character, working with his staff, surprise of the older man marrying Lydia? His own hopes?
7. Linda, writer of stories, working at the paper, the past with Lydia, friendship with Arvid, Arvid using him as teaching him Russian to get away from home? Lydia is busy to him, his disillusionment, in this train, his death?
8. Arvid and Lydia meeting, the past love, its continuing despite the marriages? The beginning of the affair, the effect on each of them, the lies, Lydia and her husband, asking for the divorce, the financial support, his wanting custody, her being turned away from visit? Arvid and his lies, with his wife, declarations of love, his daughter? Yet the betrayal? The two going away on the summer holiday?
9. Arvid’s father and his death, sitting by the bedside, his father knowing the truth?
10. Arvid telling his wife the truth, the divorce, Lydia writing the letter, the wife’s reaction?
11. Arvid leaving, the burden, the encounter with Lydia and her daughter? His leaving – for what?
