Fanny and Alexander [VHS]

Fanny and Alexander [VHS]
by Ingmar Bergman

Fanny and Alexander [VHS]
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Product details

Actor: Allan Edwall, B?rje Ahlstedt, Bertil Guve, Ewa Fr?ling, Pernilla Allwin
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
Editor: Sylvia Ingemarsson
Producer: Daniel Toscan du Plantier
Producer: J?rn Donner
Producer: Renzo Rossellini
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); German (Original Language); Swedish (Original Language), Analog; Yiddish (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC, Original recording reissued, Subtitled
Running Time: 188 minutes
Release Date: 1999-03-02
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

VHS Movie Reviews of Fanny and Alexander [VHS]

Movie Review: A Real Blockbuster
Summary: 5 Stars

Imagine. You get the three-hour theatrical version AND the five-hour TV series which, in my opinion is the definitive one. Then you get an interview with Ingmar Bergman about the making of this historic family saga. For grandeur, vivid color, exceptional cinematography, and sheer entertainment, this is the set to get.

Movie Review: Theatrical Version: Flawed
Summary: 3 Stars

If you purchase the theatrical version (which is cheaper) you will miss the absolutely beautiful moments containing the metaphor of humanity's long walk. That's like buying a recording of Handel's Messiah without the Hallelujah Chorus - you miss too much for it to be worthwhile.

Movie Review: quite horrible
Summary: 1 Stars

This movie is quite horrible, just as horrible as Bergman's own experience with these people I guess. Given the "realism" of this movie it is very useful in order to avoid all the crazy, oppressive people described in it. Moreover, it could be useful to create change within Norwegian society. It is political in that way. The family described here is no better than the one in "Texas Chainsaw". Have a good one, Norway.

Movie Review: On So Many Levels
Summary: 5 Stars

As Christmas draws near, I just have to watch this film again! It is extremely long and I watched it in a few aittings last time, but if you have the time to watch the whole film you will be transported into such a beautiful, often deeply moving, world.
Seen through the eyes of a child, the world of the late 19th century comes to life, just as the puppets do in the children's theatre. There are so many levels to this film - Alexander's ability to 'see' beyond the material is portrayed so beautifully; the story of the theatre; the stories of the different members of the family and how they interact. It is so clearly a film made from the heart and is well-worth the time it takes to watch it!

Most Beautiful Princess

Movie Review: Very good
Summary: 4 Stars

Why Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman's 1982 final `filmic film', Fanny & Alexander (Fanny Och Alexander), bears the appellation it does is a mystery- one of many in the film, since the first titular character, Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) is a third or fourth level supporting character at best, and in the three hour theatrical version of the film she is not even mentioned by name for nearly an hour into the film. The film really should be called Alexander & Fanny, or simply Alexander, since it most closely follows two years in the life of young, handsome, brown-haired Alexander Ekdahl (Bertil Guve)- the original `boy who sees dead people,' from 1907 to 1909. Better yet, it should really be called The Ekdahls, for it is that whole family that is central to the film, especially Fanny and Alexander's beautiful blond mother Emilie (Ewa Fr?ling- a more intellectual, sensuous, and earth motherish version of Denise Richards, who bears a remarkable facial resemblance to Guve; especially in the cheekbones and puffy lips). Her deep, gorgeous blue eyes hold a viewer's attention, as do the eyes of Liv Ullman, who was originally offered the part, but turned it down. Yes, there are many things that do not make sense in this film- both in the internal narrative and the external aspects of the tale, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.
The theatrical version did win four Academy Awards; for Best Foreign Film, Costume Design (Marik Vos), Art Direction-Set Decoration (Anna Asp), and for the cinematography of Sven Nykvist. This triumph is best illustrated in the scenes of the death of Oscar Ekdahl (Allan Edwall), where beautiful and ornate clocks and shiny accoutrements are contrasted with a bucket of vomit. But it is the 312 minute television series is unquestionably a great film, although it does not have the unadorned greatness of earlier Bergman classics, like Wild Strawberries, Winter Light, nor, most cogently, Scenes From A Marriage- Bergman's earlier tv miniseries that was also released theatrically in a truncated form, but which is a better film, especially in the comparative shorter versions. The shorter version of this film feels chopped up, has too many plot holes, due to some questionable editing by Bergman, especially when compared to the longer television version of the film. Why, as example, does Bergman retain any of the stand alone scenes of Carl Ekdahl and his marital woes in the shorter version, since they go nowhere and contribute nothing to the denouement, and where the best scene that character has is of farting out a burning candlestick to entertain the children? here is an example where leaving a bit of a plot does no good and it should have been wholly excised. By contrast, there are a number of scenes from the longer version that should never have been removed- such as Alexander's run-in with the ghosts of the daughters of the evil Bishop Edvard Vergerus (Jan Malmsj?- who was Peter, the feckless friend to Erland Josephson's Johan, in Scenes From A Marriage)- who torment and puke on him, or the dramatic showdown between Carl and Gustav Adolf and the Bishop, after they have engineered the rescue of the children from the Bishop's home, and revealed the Bishop as a philanderer who owes 110,000 kronor in debts.
Yet, Fanny & Alexander deserves its place in the Bergman and filmic canons, even if it does occasionally suffer from some of what can be labeled `old artist's syndrome'- i.e.- the tendency to over-sentimentalize the past. Bergman was 64 by the film's release.... Fanny & Alexander, while a great film- especially in its longer version, is not all that its greatest boosters claim....Oddly, it is the shorter theatrical version of the film- with its many narrative gaps and unresolved issues, which feels a bit too long, not the significantly longer television version. Yet, despite the above named divergent themes, and the presence of `the other' in the film, the inexplicable works, and works superbly- especially in the deeper, longer, and richer television version, where we get glimpses of the Bishop and his evil clan far earlier in the film, as well as more depth on important characters like Carl Ekdahl and Isak Jacobi. Perhaps it is because most of the film is told from a child's eye point of view, which always warps reality to its own psychological needs, or maybe the whole film is just a child's dream, for early on Alexander Ekdahl falls asleep. Does he ever really wake up?
Whatever interpretation one wants to apply to this film, it is essential to the canon of Ingmar Bergman, and captures an essential bit of humanity past, just as superb films like Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story or Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver do. It will be relevant for as long as humanity exists, just as those other great works are, for despite its setting, we all know people like the Ekdahls and Vergeruses. That it lets us know a bit more about ourselves is merely icing on a damned tasty cake, one that remains tempting even as eaten, and gets better with each viewing. Having seen it thrice, both versions and the theatrical version with comments, this claim is no mystery. Swallow now.
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Summary of Fanny and Alexander [VHS]

One of the more upbeat and accessible films by acclaimed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Written by Bergman, this autobiographical story follows the lives of two children during one tumultuous year. After the death of the children's beloved father, a local theater owner, their mother marries a strict clergyman. Their new life is cold and ascetic, especially when compared to the unfettered and impassioned life they knew with their father. Most of the story is seen through the eyes of the little boy and is often told in dreamlike sequences. Colorful, insightful, and optimistic, this is far less grim than most of Bergman's work. It was awarded four of the six Oscars for which it was nominated, including Best Foreign Language Film. Though this was announced as his last film, Bergman continued to work into the late 1990s, though mostly for Swedish television. --Rochelle O'Gorman

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