Alex in Movieland

Ingrid Bergman, in Autumn Sonata

approximately 52 minutes and 51 seconds***
58.4% of the film

The film

After having neglected her children for many years, world famous pianist Charlotte visits her daughter Eva in her home.

You can read my short review of the film just by clicking HERE.

Even with the long dialogue scenes and the camera work focused mostly on the faces, Autumn Sonata still is one of the most accessible Ingmar Bergman films. The film’s two strong elements are the dialogue (deep and effective) and the acting: a very good performance from Liv and a career best from Ingrid.

Ingrid Bergman as Charlotte

Doesn’t it make you feel good? To see a famous actress, from another movie era taking a role towards the end of her career that suddenly puts her back on the map, for a creating a fabulous performance? You really DON’T see that many good roles for women over 60 (even less nowadays), not to mention leading ones. After an infamous Oscar win 4 years earlier, Ingrid finally got the attention she deserved. It was Casablanca that made her famous and a superstar, but I think it was Autumn Sonata that actually reconfirmed the respect critics and audiences had for this screen legend.

Ingrid plays Charlotte, a famous internationally acclaimed pianist, who comes to visit her eldest daughter Eva (great Liv Ullmann) after many years. In an unexpected turn, she is suddenly confronted with Eva’s repressed feelings towards her mother and the women finally have a real conversation that opens up a lot of trauma from the past. The characters are written to perfection, so all Ingrid has to do is act, and boy does she go there.

Charlotte is a cold, distant woman, but so good at hiding and pretending. Actually, there are more than two layers to this character and it all feels so believable. While Eva seems shy and frail, Charlotte is more of a diva. We can sense her superiority even from the start of the film. Even though I immediately realized she is a cold selfish person (she abandoned her other crippled daughter), Ingrid brings some kind of likeability to Charlotte.

Her monologues are long and difficult, even from the first half of the film and Ingrid understands them and reads them so perfectly (challenging with this complex dialogue), making them her own. I understand where she is going with Charlotte; without saying so, we instantly notice she is not someone who accepts the presence of the weak, not because she is overly cruel, but because she’s so emotionally crippled and self-conscious that she instantly gets disgusted and afraid: just like her attitude towards her sick daughter.

It’s the second part that brings the best acting, just at topics go a bit deeper. Ingrid manages in a fantastic way to slowly peel off Charlotte’s vanity layers, as she is being confronted with the emotional harm she had caused her daughter. Under the mask of a nice person and under the mask of the cold brilliant pianist we discover the empty Charlotte, incapable of loving, scared of losing her talent and fame, guilty for the damage she had caused.

With the help of the fabulous camera work, Ingrid expresses all we need to know about Charlotte, she feels comfortable with the dialogue and you can tell those 40 years of acting experience: when to look, when to react and her ability to create the impression, even if for a short time, of a heartbroken sympathetic Charlotte.

It means a lot to also have a great screenplay. Even if this is an emotional journey for Charlotte, the character is so well built, that in the end I was not sure if she’s changed at all. Both Ingrid and Ingmar go for a very believable take. I myself agree: it’s more believable that she hasn’t evolved and that the whole emotional episode might’ve been exactly that: an episode that came and went, as Charlotte is too incapable of feeling to be able to change. Ingrid easily gives one of the top 5-10 performances this category has even seen. So easy to rate: .


P.S.: There is a scene with Eva playing the piano and Charlotte watching her and listening. She is the genius, her daughter is the clumsy. But Charlotte suddenly gets teary. Do you think she got emotional and proud of Eva or did Chopin remember her of her youth? What do you think? Do you remember the moment?





*** reportedly, the hands playing in the piano scene belonged to Ingmar Bergman’s wife, so in a way it’s a body double; I didn’t count it as screentime if it wasn’t Ingrid’s body part in an obvious way. :)