SeptemBergman: Scenes from a Marriage
In 1973, Ingmar Bergman took a less than optimistic look at marriage through his mini-series depicting the lives of a couple, married for a decade, in Scenes from a Marriage. Starring Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, Scenes from a Marriage takes an almost documentarian eye on the complexities of a marriage as it is on the precipice, several times, of either falling apart or falling together. The interactions between the couple are filmed in such a claustrophobic way that the audience becomes voyeurs watching the most intimate details in the lives of others. Despite the audience feeling as though they don't belong in the innermost crevices of these lives, Ingmar Bergman films each moment in such a gentle humanist way that perfectly explores the stages of a relationship.
Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) have been married for ten years when the audience first meets them, and they describe themselves as a happily married couple. Johan works as a college professor and Marianne as a divorce lawyer. They revel in the fact that their marriage is nothing like their friend's Katarina (Bibi Andersson) and Peter (Jan Malmsjö) who they often see carrying on one of their many open arguments. Despite not having an outwardly volatile relationship, there is a clear detachment between Marianne and Johan, and a sense that they are not as happy as they have convinced themselves that they are. The camera checks in with them over the next 10 years as they encounter extramarital affairs, differences in developing the lives of their children, and the constant back and forth about whether or not they will divorce. Throughout each trial and tribulation, what Marianne and Johan truly need to solve is how exactly they feel about each other. Do Marianne and Johan love each other, have they just tolerated with each other out of a level of comfort and routine, or do they actively dislike each other? While attempting to discover their true feelings for each other, they also must figure out how to relate to each other as they continue to maneuver through their lives and care for their two daughters. As the pieces of their lives are about to fall, it is unclear whether or not they will end up being married, friends, or strangers.
There was scarce a doubt that I was going to love this. I greatly enjoy slow, dialogue-heavy films with brooding emotions percolating just beneath the surface. Scenes from a Marriage had all of the above characteristics and was carried out in such a sincere way thanks to master director, Ingmar Bergman. The slow, "talky" film perfectly illustrates the idea of marriage. Most of a marriage is what happens in day-to-day life and isn't punctuated by much in the way of grand happenings. Only when we reflect on multiple years spent together do we recount the larger issues that have taken place during a marriage. Those larger issues are few and far between with proximity dictating a married couple sharing the banal existence of everyday life as long as their marriage lasts. It is this preoccupation with daily lives that allow people to see beyond what drew them to their partner in the first place. When two people become comfortable in their unchallenged existence, they begin to look for excitement beyond their homes. Such a quest for excitement may lead to an affair, as was the case for Johan in Scenes from a Marriage. Conversely, close proximity allows us to learn about our partner in a more intimate way than anyone else. Living with someone may also create a bond so strong that partners become devoted to one another and are most taken by an image of their partner in everyday life that reminds them that there is no one else they'd rather be with. As depicted in the final scene when Marianne begins to cry as she watches Johan singing after cleaning up the house, it is often in the moments that our partner is most "themselves" that we find the most alluring. There's something about knowing that no one else gets to see the one we love in this particular way that allows us to look past all of the daily annoyances. Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson give pitch-perfect performances delivering actions and emotions that perfectly allow the viewer to read beyond what they are saying to understand what they are truly feeling. Scenes from a Marriage is an emotional exercise that almost feels voyeuristic to witness, yet is one that we are blessed to experience that will stay in the minds of the audience long after the credits roll.
