AUTUMN SONATA/Hostsonaten (1979)

Ever since I saw my first Bergman film back in the early 60's I've known that his films are not an easy ride. They are challenging and shocking, both in content and form. AUTUMN SONATA is one of Bergman's "chamber" pieces. Ingrid Bergman (in her last film performance) plays a famous concert pianist who goes to visit her daughter (Liv Ullman) who is married to a clergyman and who looks after her handicapped sister. Most of the film takes the form of a conversation between mother and daughter during one night. The film is, despite the visual limitations of the setting, always highly cinematic. Bergman is on record as being an admirer of the old Universal horror films and, while AUTUMN SONATA, cannot be regarded as a near genre piece (as, for instance, HOUR OF THE WOLF and THE MAGICIAN can) the film is a horror film of sorts (Bergman includes one of his nightmare sequences) but this is the true horror of the soul rather than a flight of gothic fantasy. The scene when Ullman (surely among the greatest actresses of all time) finally unleashes her tirade of hatred, hurt and resentment agains her mother is truly amazing. I suddenly realised that I had actually recoiled into my chair with my hand thrown across my mouth because I felt that I was witnessing something disturbing, personal and shocking. Few films have ever affected me in that way. It is an astonishing piece of acting, writing and directing. The scarey thing is that for a brief moment I was, in my mind, unleashing some of the issues that were left unresolved between myself and my own parents. Uncomfortable but undeniably great. Rating *****

Cerpts wrote :

There's a reason why David Byrne and co. chose to call their band "Talking Heads": because there's very few more compelling things than two people talking. I'll have to check this film out.

Weaverman says :

Be prepared to suffer!