Autumn Sonata Review

Ingmar Bergman's only film with Ingrid Bergman (no relation) is a two-hander with a piano in the middle. Eva, a country pastor's wife played by Liv Ullmann, invites her mother Charlotte, a celebrated concert pianist, for her first visit in seven years. Eva plays Chopin's A minor prelude for her; Charlotte explains what the piece is really about, then plays it herself. That scene contains the whole film, and the night that follows only spells it out.

Sven Nykvist keeps the camera on faces, often holding both women in one frame so neither can escape the other's reaction. Ullmann plays Eva's grievance as something rehearsed for decades, and Ingrid Bergman gives Charlotte vanity, evasion and genuine bewilderment in equal measure. She won the New York and national critics' prizes for best actress and an Oscar nomination, and Ingmar Bergman's script was nominated too.

The design is also the weakness. Eva's accusations arrive as long prosecutorial speeches, and her disabled sister Helena, whom Charlotte did not expect to find in the house, serves more as evidence than as a person. Dave Kehr called it a crafted miniature, which is fair: magnificent acting inside a frame narrower than Bergman's best.