BERGMAN ISLAND

France/Sweden, 2021, 107 minutes, Colour.

Vicki Krieps, Tim Roth, Mia Wasikowska, Anders Danielson Lie.

Directed by Mia Hansen-Love.

This is a drama made for devotees of master filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman. Faro, off the coast of the Swedish mainland, is his island.

The screenplay contains many references to particular Bergman films, to their making, to their themes and characters, to locations, and the revelation that Through a Glass Darkly was made in a studio. The island provides a Bergman safari and the audience is treated to some aspects of this tour.

However, the rest of the Bergman connections take place in the context of a married couple, screenwriters, coming to the island for their work. They are played by Vicki Krieps and Tim Roth. He is the more laid-back are the characters, involved in production, more in mainstream and horror films than arthouse fare. She, on the other hand, is quite tense, often moving out of the house to a separate tower to continue her writing. The film dramatises the tensions between the two, the husband leaving her alone on the island, but returning with their daughter and with some sense of realism to their life.

As the wife continues with her writing, touring the island, visiting the Bergman memorials, discussions with some of the locals as well as the experts, she begins to shape her screenplay.

This then is dramatised as a film within a film, with Mia Wasikowska and Anders Danielson Lie as the protagonists, a complex Bergman-esque story of relationships, moods, betrayals, suspicions…

Ultimately, there is a blend of the film within the film and the actual film narrative, the production, scenes being shot, socialising and parties, the actors leaving.

Which means then the audience is treated by the writer-director, Mia Hansen-Love (Goodbye First Love, Things to Come), to reflections on Bergman and his cinematic achievement, technical and themes, and to the kinds of screenplay and tangled relationships that Bergman himself was interested in.

1. The title, Sweden, the island of Faro, the home of Ingmar Bergman?
2. The Swedish landscapes, the ferry across the sea, the island, landscapes, seascapes, the countryside, the homes, the meal, the wedding? The locations associated with Bergman? The musical score?
3. The film depending on audience knowledge of Ingmar Bergman, is films, his themes, his reputation, is personality, religious background, Lutheran, issues of faith and not, ghost presences, personal relationships, his wives, his children, his long life?
4. Audiences not knowing anything about Bergman, the film raising interest, curiosity? Or not? Too esoteric for those who do not know Bergman?
5. The bus, the Bergman Safari, the various locations, the film itself is a Bergman Safari, his home, the interiors, the room and bed four Scenes from a marriage, the references to Bergman films? Tony and Chris watching Cries and Whispers? The references to other films? Posters, portraits, photos of actors?
6. The audience journeying with Chris and Tony, age, relationships, screenwriters, welcome to the island, the committee, the discussions, Tony and his horror films screening, the response of the audience? His writing another screenplay, the close-ups of his notes, Chris turning the pages, the themes, the erotic drawings? The contrast with Chris, writing notes, blockage, emotional?
7. The relationship between the two, love, taken for granted, the flight, Chris upset with the flight, the drive, the ferry, hiring the car, the bikes, the house, settling in, her going to the mill, writing their, the windows looking across?
8. The Bergman experts on the island, the Festival, the discussions? The 35mm prints? The Safari, Tony going, Chris not going, meeting the student, his taking her to the church, Bergman’s grave?
9. Chris, the difficulty in writing, the discussions with Tony, going for the walk, the film within the film? How Bergman-esque? The crosscutting from their conversation to the sequences of the film?
10. The theme of the film, Amy and joseph, the teenage relationship, breaking up, separation, taking the relationship up again, coming to the wedding, Joseph and his relationship with his girlfriend, Amy and her having a child? The arrival, the meetings, pretending not to know each other? The preparations for the wedding, the issue of Amy’s white dress and wearing it or not? The discussions with Nicolette? Accommodation?
11. The taking up of the relationship, the various meetings, the sexual encounters, the consequences? For Joseph, conscious of his girlfriend? For Amy, able to cope with different relationships? The attention to detail, the time together, at the water, swimming, the sauna, with their friends, into the ocean?
12. The dramatising of Amy, her age, personality, vivacious, entering into the life of the party, singing, yet missing joseph? The contrast with Joseph, and ring the relationship, the resumption, then his moods, in and out? The final conversations? His leaving?
13. Tony, going back home, meetings with the producers, getting his daughter, coming back to the island, the daughter rushing to Chris, Chris happy with her daughter?
14. And the interconnection of the film within the film and the film itself, Chris and her work on the film, the real Anders and Mia, the discussions, Anders and his leaving?
15. The film highlighting Bergman as the great director of the 20^th century, is themes? How relevant to the pace and life of the 21^st-century?