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Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve, Gunn Wållgren, Börje Ahlstedt, Allan Edwall ... see more see more... , Ewa Fröling , Christina Schollin , Jarl Kulle , Mona Malm , Gunnar Bjornstrand , Jan Malmsjö , Marianne Aminoff , Erland Josephson , Stina Ekblad , Mats Bergman , Kristina Adolphson , Kristian Almgren , Harriet Andersson , Pernilla August , Anna Bergman , Nils Brandt , Siv Ericks , Majlis Granlund , Maria Granlund , Sonya Hedenbratt , Svea Holst , Heinz Hopf , Maud Hyttenberg , Kerstin Karte , Tore Karte , Ake Lagergren , Sune Mangs , Per Mattson , Lena Olin , Lickå Sjöman , Eva von Hanno , Angelica Wallgren , Inga ??lenius , Per Mattsson , Kerstin Tidelius

In 1982, Ingmar Bergman emerged with one of his most singularly acclaimed films - a work that dramatically broke away from much of the moody psychodrama that characterized such earlier motion pictures... read more read more... as Cries & Whispers and Hour of the Wolf. Entitled Fanny and Alexander, and originally intended as the director's "swan song," this epic plunges into the life of a theatrical family named the Ekdahls, in turn-of-the-century Sweden. Bergman filters life through the eyes of the two titular Ekdahl children (Pernilla Alwin and Bertil Guve), as they come of age, lose their father unexpectedly, and must contend with their mother's remarriage to an uncaring, dictatorial clergyman from whom there seems to be no escape. Instantly hailed as a masterpiece, Fanny won a slew of international awards, including four Oscars. Yet curiously, the three-hour theatrical version seen in the U.S. did not represent the full depth and breadth of Bergman's vision. He also prepared a five-hour version for Swedish television, one that ran locally as a miniseries in 1984, in four separate installments. The extended running time gives the director to further develop and flesh out his characters, substories and themes, and will thus strike many fans of the original film as a remarkable discovery. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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R, 5 hr. 12 min.

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Release Date: December 17, 1982

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DVD Release Date: November 16, 2004

Stats: 1,087 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,087)

  • brooklynspo
    July 30, 2007
    brooklynspo
    Finally got to see the full length five hour television version.

    My hands are tied. Until the judging committee agrees on a new scoring system, I am compelled to give this a perfect score - five stars.
  • fb1341085175
    October 4, 2011
    fb1341085175
    A primeira cena de Fanny e Alexander introduz o menino do título (Bertil Guve) a contemplar um palco em miniatura vazio. Nós, no papel de espectadores, nos encontramos em uma espécie de ponto subjetivo, observando o personagem atrás das cortinas. Com este plano, Bergman estabelec... read moree um paradoxo que percorre ao longo do filme: seria o que se desenrola na tela fruto da imaginação supressa do protagonista ou realmente parte do universo real da narrativa?


    Ao início do filme, contemplamos a vida feliz levada por Alexander e sua irmã mais nova Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) em meio a sua excêntrica família burguesa. Quando o pai das crianças morre inesperadamente, sua mãe se casa com o bispo de bom nome Edvard Vergerus (Jan Malmsjö), que leva a viúva e filhos para viverem em sua isolada residência. É amplamente conhecido o fato de Fanny e Alexander ser um reflexo da própria vida do diretor sueco, e estes elementos autobiográficos se fazem acentuados a partir do momento em que o padrasto começa a mostrar suas verdadeiras cores (o pai de Bergman era um clérigo estrito). No entanto, o filme também é uma fábula a certo ponto, com Bergman trazendo a tona os aspectos mais sombrios dos contos de fadas - e, de certa forma, a sua verdadeira cerne. A trajetória de Fanny e Alexander traz reflexos de João e Maria, desde sua sedução pela bruxa malvada em pele de cordeiro até sua épica fuga e libertação (neste caso, tanto de corpo quanto mente). Enquanto Alexander atravessa o processo catártico da narrativa, Fanny atua como observadora dos atos de selvageria sofridos pelo irmão - de fato, uma continuação poderia ser produzida apenas explorando os efeitos psicológicos sofridos pela menina.


    Não apenas um pastiche de estilos, Fanny e Alexander também é uma alegoria de amadurecimento através do sofrimento, da libertação dos desejos mais profundos (não importando o quão impuro eles sejam) e também uma fábula de moral. Tudo isso suportado pelo costumeiro panache visual de seu diretor.
  • fb619846742
    July 22, 2011
    fb619846742
    A scrumptious, intricately plotted drama concerning a family in early 1900's Sweden, and how the mother struggles to find a male figure after her husband dies suddenly of a stroke. While the film definitely takes its time and Bergman could definitely be accused of self-indulgence... read more, the movie is always outstandingly constructed and unmistakably haunting given Bergman's obligatory use of religion and question of God's existence. The movie is not perfect like many critics claim, as it fails to get inside the head of the Fanny character as much as it does the Alexander one, and as a result it feels sort off off-kilter from time-to-time, but that doesn't keep it from being a very good film, and one that forcefully demonstrates Bergman's control off his lens and story-telling ability.
  • hunterjt13
    January 6, 2011
    hunterjt13
    At the end of Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, I wondered if I was missing something. A director of Bergman's caliber doesn't include superfluous characters and events without a reason, yet I can't discern how the film's early scenes and many of the uncles and aunts are con... read morenected to the central conflict, which doesn't really begin until an hour and half into the film. It is then that Alexander and the Bishop begin their feud, which provides the most compelling moments of the film, and Bergman elevates this conflict to reflections about God, faith, death, and justice. When he's this specific, this focused, and this ambitious, Bergman's work is astounding, intelligent entertainment.
    Also, while some have argued that the film is anti-semetic, I wouldn't go that far. Though it is certainly true that Bergman does nothing to disspell stereotypes about Jews, the character in question does end up assisting our heroes and looking benevolent in the process. Rather than condemning the film outright, I would temper that statement by saying that the film is certainly problematic in its portrayal.
    Overall, this probably isn't the best introduction to Bergman, but critics claim that it is essential to understanding his oeuvre. I'm glad I saw it for that reason, but I don't think I'd watch it again.
  • dreamfaeries
    May 5, 2010
    dreamfaeries
    I liked it though it seemed to have a slow pace to me.
  • matertenebraum
    December 13, 2009
    matertenebraum
    Perhaps the most impressive feature of this wonderful film is the humility with which its creator presents it to the world, as if it were no grander than the old-fashioned Nativity-play shown in the early scenes at the Theatre.

    At the end of this experience - to term it with any... read more mere technical tag, like 'movie', would be inadequate - Bergman's profoundly grown-up disillusionment has transformed into the pure spirituality of abnegation and acceptance. His intellectual pilgrimage, through possibly the greatest career in films, finds the director arriving back where he began, with the great simplicities of life. But there is a difference with his return, which is that his prodigality over the years has burnt the rage out of him, and finally allowed him to 'enjoy what may be enjoyed' (as one of the Ekdahls says), without further fretting over the puzzle of human existence. From all this human folly (he clearly feels) comes the only wisdom, which is - simply - to be human.

    It is, indeed, a film like no other for allowing the pieces of experience to settle into their appointed places. There is a beautiful quality of selfless resignation, in this last of his works for cinema, which finally and forever excels the sadistic disciplines of The Bishop.

    This perverted creature confesses, to the new wife whom he has lost, how it is impossible to 'tear off the mask' as it is 'burned into my face': He is become an authoritarian '... a rite, a law, a custom - not a man'. [Shelley] Having put the notional love of God before that of humankind, there is nowhere for his personality to be re-enacted in the bosom of any kindly recollections that will survive him. Except in that of Alexander/Bergman, where his two, each-in-their-own-way terrifying, fathers, both the White and the Black opposites of an imagination flickering with the director's haunted vision, will project forever onto his Cinematic arena of stark absolutes the inner strife where each of us is locked away, struggling to endure the turmoil of these eternally irreconcilable truths.

    The White Knight and The Black Bishop: These are phantom moves in our great game with Death, and pieces that will be returned into play for as long as humanity continues. How like Chess Life is: Just a game we play, with arbitrary rules, and yet whose progress is of supreme and abiding concern to each and every one of us.

    This great work is a monument to play, in all its senses, not least the play of light and the play of ideas, both equally insubstantial and yet the essence of reality, eloquent as the silence of a great, roofless Cathedral. Out of the Ruin of Faith, Bergman has wrought a Peace that passeth understanding. And it is in this ultimate by-passing of the relentless structures of intellect that Bergman finally achieves the resolution of his productive neuroses, in a truly magical film whose every phase is as inevitable as breathing, or the changeable and unimpeded weather.

    As the grandmother reflects. at last, 'I don't want to put Life together anymore. I just leave it broken. Strangely, it seems better that way.'

    Death, in the end, is not a calamity, but the choice of all who have truly known Life. In other words, to choose Life is to accept its Dark partner, Death. And to accept each as part of the family group, even though they seem complete misfits there.

    The old lady, with Strindberg's Dream-play in her lap, knows at last that the whole history of her family is only a personal reverie. And yet how much more real it seems than her son Carl's immature and somewhat absurd, angst-ridden railings against 'cruel Fate'!

    Had he only accepted his patient wife's gently sympathetic injunction to 'Never mind' the Professor would have been both wiser and happier, enduring with patient fortitude the oceanic inconsequentialities of life's real Mystery, and attending far less to the trivial pseudo-mysteries of his solipsistic men's club. All his morbid rationalising is precisely as much use in real life as the usual state of alcoholic befuddlement which is the only serious pursuit of this club.

    Reason as befuddlement; The sleep of reason as deliverance. With saint-like humility, Bergman gives us back our ordinary human life, as he surrenders his exceptional life in films. But he knows that the ghost of this life will always be with us. His anguished worldliness will haunt us - as the Ghost of Hamlet's father must haunt Alexander - forever.
  • Saxia
    July 19, 2009
    Saxia
    It took me at least a half hour to get into it, I guess it was when everybody got drunk enough to care about appearances. After that the characters got more depth.

    Sat through the entire five hours in one session, all I can say is that it didn't take any effort at all. Amazing m... read moreovie, really got to me. Never failed to surprise, right up till the end.
  • flixsterman
    June 14, 2009
    flixsterman
    Fanny and Aleander has:

    A nursemaid with cleavage
    A pillow fight
    An uncle who farts out candles
    Randy old men
    Promiscuous young ladies
    A Christmas party
    A death
    A ghost
    A wicked stepfather
    An enormous aunt
    Bars on the windows
    A clever escape
    Another death
    Another ghost
    Puppets
    A... read moren androgynous, psychic brother
    Laughter
    Love
    And an intermission

    Five stars for content, minus one half star for its THREE HOUR running time (watch from a VERY comfortable chair!)
  • jennifxu
    April 7, 2009
    jennifxu
    I feel terrible for saying this, but I literally wanted to kill myself from the boredom. Bergman has never impressed me and this just seals the deal. I wish I could detect the intellectual fulfillment so many seem to derive from his works, but I can't get past the boredom. Alexan... read moreder is a boring kid who never seems to do anything but experience things and look depressed, and Fanny barely even appears in the movie. Maybe these things are culturally significant to the movie, but honestly, it's so boring I don't even care.
  • sanjurosamurai
    January 14, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    although considered by many to be a masterpiece, this is my least favorite of bergmans films. it is well directed and well crafted for sure, but the goodness ends there. at three hours it is overlong, needing as much as an hour of this slow paced film to be left on the cutting ... read moreroom floor. the characters are dry, although bergman did a decent job about making me feel slightly emotionally attached to a few of them. fanny doesnt say more than 10 words the entire film and alexander has no real charisma. the bishop does a good job of making the audience hate him, but there were endless amounts of storyline outside of his that were pointless. the film also introduces a character in carl who seems important and he dissapears an hour into the film, which is poor story telling. overall, the story just didnt matter much. it also felt normal through most of the film, but delved into the supernatural at inopportune and confusing times. overall, not worth much.

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Critic Reviews

Lance Goldenberg
December 3, 2008
Lance Goldenberg, Village Voice

A sprawling, ornately constructed entertainment. Full Review

Logan Hill
December 1, 2008
Logan Hill, New York Magazine

This premiere of the original cut, running at 312 minutes, leaves room for more than a story of one life. Full Review

Aaron Hillis
January 8, 2008
Aaron Hillis, Village Voice

Sumptuous, haunting, and unusually tender... a nakedly psychological 'in' to [Bergman's] earliest artistic impulses; nothing else in his oeuvre addresses so directly his childhood escapes into fantasy... Full Review

Dave Kehr
August 1, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

The result is one of Bergman's most haunting and suggestive films. Full Review

Variety Staff
August 1, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

A sumptuously produced period piece that is also a rich tapestry of childhood memoirs and moods, fear and fancy, employing all the manners and means of the best of cinematic theatrical from high and l... Full Review

Douglas Pratt
January 15, 2005
Douglas Pratt, Hollywood Reporter

Utterly enthralling.

Damon Smith
November 5, 2004
Damon Smith, Boston Globe

A fitting introduction to the very personal cinema of this master craftsman, not only because it exhibits Bergman's signature themes and stylistic devices, but also because it is one of his most life-... Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

[Bergman] glides beyond the mere telling of his story into a kind of hypnotic series of events that have the clarity and fascination of dreams. Rarely have I felt so strongly during a movie that my mi... Full Review

Mick LaSalle
August 27, 2004
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

It is very much, and in the best way, an old man's movie, the work of an artist resigned to life's mystery, full of wonder at the passage of time, full of forgiveness for past wrongs, and full of unde... Full Review

Michael Atkinson
May 18, 2004
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

Bergman's 1982 career summation and the kind of rich, timeless, cautionless magnum opus we can only receive, like benedictions, from artists who've paid their generation's dues of sweat, risk, tears, ... Full Review

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