From:
Date: Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: AUTUMN SONATA: Scheduled film for Friday, 14 May 2010
To: rdca25@gmail.com
Max, Eileen, Candy Jiang, Tiffany, Jeanette, Hansel, Mamie, Abby, Juliet, Alice Huang, Chin, Joseph, Alice Wang, Ida, David, Vivian Lin, Violet, Carolina, Tina, Karen, April, John, Charlene, Minnie, Vicky Lin, Cherry, Ivana, Vivian Yang, Vicky Shih, Sophia, Hilary, Christopher, Tiger, Anne, Irving, Emily, Vincent
MaxThis film, Autumn Sonata , shows the power of intercuting and flashback. During the mom and the daughter's quarrel, intercutings and flashbacks efficiently explain what happened in the past. They not only explain the cause and effect to the viewers but also make the movie more interesting, for we can temporarily be free from their stressful and unpleasant air of fights and watch different techniques. Another good use in the film is the prop, such the glasses.
In the beginning of the quarrel, the daughter wears the glasses, which represents the wall she builds between her mother and her. After a while, as their argument goes intensive, she takes the it off, which indicates that she freaks out and starts to express her real anger and hatred. It powerfully shows the subtle and slight changes between them.
EileenHave seen three of the Ingmar Bergman's movies, I found that his movie likes to have the girl to be the leading role and likes to film about the story of the women. Ingmar Bergman's movies that I have seen always made me afraid and glum. In Autumn Sonata, Lena's character just like Agnes's character in Cries and Whispers. They all sick and always lie on the bed. In Autumn Sonata, Bergman likes to use the close-up. I can see clearly of the actors facial expression. In the film, Eva keep talking and arguing with her mom Charlotte. She complains about her mom of ignoring her when she was little. But in the film I found that she also ignores and speaks less to her husband. I think do not do to others what you don't want to be done to you is important. Different from the Cries and Whispers, Autumn Sonata use the cross-cutting and flashbacks. It cuts the film with flashbacks not with the res fades that I can know what happen in her past.
Candy JiangIn Autumn Sonata, what's the weirdest is that the credit sequence is put in the middle of the film. At first, I was so confused and thought that the film was ended by the time the sequence showed. However, after waiting for a while, the movie began with a totally different situation. Thus, I think that the reason why the editor put the credit sequence in the middle is to use it as a distinguishing point. The relationship between the mother and the daughters is quite different before and after the sequence. Before it, their relationship is tense and full of complaints. However, after it they are in a harmony. Daughters are happy to have their mother visiting them, kissing and hugging her. They smile all the time. And the mother tries her best to make her daughters happy instead of ignoring them again.
Besides the credit sequence, editing is used when Viktor read Eva's letter, which is written to her mother. At first, it was Viktor's voice since it is him that read the letter; however, later on it was Eva's voice with her looking directly into the camera. Afterwards, there's an intercutting to her mother looking directly into the camera as well. Through this editing, the audience can feel much clearer the feelings of Eva and Charlotte for the sequence is not Victor's reading anymore. It is Eva and Charlotte's telling and listening. It is their most direct communication of inner words.
Moreover, I discovered that smoking should be a motif because whenever Charlotte said something in the deepest part of her heart, whenever she said something that is true with her feelings, she smoked.
TiffanyAutumn Sonata, another Ingmar Begrman's movie, starts with conversation between mother and daughter. Plenty of close up on actresses' face used in this conversation expresses their tense atmosphere and terrible relationship because of mother's past unconcern on Eva, the daughter. Director takes flashback at this film-beginning with result and then following with origin. In addition, Helena plays a symbolic role to show viewers Eva's need of love from her mother (Charlotte) and Helena's inability to contact to her mother implies that daughter hopes get closer to her mother but struggles to show her need and feeling. Love is the theme of this film. Humans require love and they can obtain it from parents, friends, and lovers. However, love is both warm and cold. Most people get sweet or bitter memory during experiencing love. In general parent's love is most necessary which are supposed not to harm us. But in this film, Begrman let viewers know the controversy and difficulty of love to solve.
JeanetteIngmar Bergman's film is really hard to understand. Unlike the previous films (Hour of the Wolf, Persona, Cries and Whispers) the plot and mise-en-scene ofAutumn Sonata is relatively simple. The theme is not that twisted as the previous. However, I don't like the scenes when Viktor is reading the letters. It seems quite weird for the audience when we are concentrating on Eva's facial expressions, but having a voice reading as "background music" at the same time. Another thing is, I can't really get the meaning of the emphasis on screaming. Lena is screaming, probably yelling or crying all the time. I get the point that screaming represents her intensive emotion, since she is not able to speak; however, it's quite distracting and annoying when too much screaming is in the film.
Hansel
I love the contrast in Autumn Sonata. Through different lighting, the film portrays both tranquility and tension very well. The scene in which Charlotte and Eva play piano in the living room is special. The camera seldom moves so that we can focus on the two characters. The piece they play is evidently a representation of their inner emotions and their relationship. Eva is happy to see Charlotte, but as Charlotte starts correcting her piano skills, her bad memories start to surface. Like the piece, the secret grudge lies silently within Eva; it has always been there and gradually turns stronger. We can see this from how Eva looks at Charlotte when she is showing her what she thinks is the correct way to play. We also see how she is obsessed with playing the piano, which somewhat suggests her selfishness. The shot of the piano keys is like another symbol of their relationship; the black keys between the white keys are like hatred hidden in affection. The night scene where Eva and Charlotte have a talk is spectacular. The dim lighting gives a tense and repressive atmosphere. The close-up of Eva talking out all her bitterness and resentment is stunning. The camera is still for a long while, and the shot only depends on the character's acting to keep it from being dull.
MamieIt is my fourth time to watch Ingmar Bergman's film. From Hour of the wolf to Autumn Sonata, I sum up some of these similarities. First of all, Ingmar Bergman is good at capturing characters' facial expressions. General speaking, the themes of his films always focus on human relationships. We often see close-up used in the films to express actors' emotions, as if they are talking to us. Take Autumn Sonata for example, the whole film focus on the continuous chatting between a mother and her daughter. Different from his previous films, this film is more understandable. Ingmar Bergman doesn't use distorted images (in Persona) or red fade outs (in Cries and Whispers) in this film, instead, he simply show actors' feelings. In the end, I want to go back to the film title Autumn Sonata; I think Ingmar Bergman uses this title is to show the sadness or other emotions among actors, since autumn is a season that most people felt depressed.
AbbyThe most impressive thing in "Autumn Sonata" is the way it narrates. There are many flashbacks in between while the characters talks. And the talk of the character becomes the narration of the flashback. Most of the flashbacks are without sound or conversation in order to let the narration of the characters be sounded. Besides the common use of close shots, as we can see them a lot in Ingmar Bergman's films, there are long takes of the characters. It would be like having a conversation; however each character would talk a lot within a take and even becomes the narration of the next scene as the flashback. Close-ups are commonly used, too, to clearly show the facial expression of the character. I wonder if the staff in the library plays the discs in the wrong order. Because I felt like I watched the disc 2 at first then disc 1. The plot confuses me a little bit.
Juliet
In my opinion, the director, Ingmar Bergman, makes good use of close-ups in his films such as Persona, Cries and Whispers, and Autumn Sonata. Take the quarrel between the mother and the daughter in Autumn Sonata for example. The camera focuses on both Charlotte Andergast's (Ingrid Bergman) and Eva's (Liv Ullmann) faces. As far as I am concerned, close-ups which focus on actors' expressions can help to present their state of minds clearly. Hence, in this quarrel scene, we can strongly feel Eva's rage toward her mother from her expression. Moreover, while Charlotte is watching Eva playing the piano, the camera focuses on Charlotte's face. Owing to this use, we can clearly see a subtle change in Charlotte's expression. Namely, we can find that teardrops in her eyes seem to fall over her face. To sum up, I praise the director's use of close-ups in his films. This technique is actually a significant characteristic of Bergman's films. I think this technique is really helpful to involve audiences in characters' feeling and thinking.
Alice HuangIn this film, one of the most common usages of shot is the soliloquized shots of those characters. Though, in most cases, they are talking to each other—just like the scene in which Eva is talking to her mother—the shots tend to capture the characters as if there were talking to themselves. I think this can be interpreted as that they are revealing the inner conflict not only to the other person, but also to themselves. Another significant soliloquized shot is in the scene that Viktor talks to camera screen, or the audience. This one is even obvious because he acts as the neutral character who records the whole process of the appearance of the wedge between the mother and daughter.
Beside, as what we have discussed in the class, this director sometimes only films one of the characters in a conversation including of two people. I assume this kind of phenomenon as that the ebb and flow of power between two characters. It's obvious to see this change when the mother and daughter are quarrelling. As Eva burst out her anger and sorrow at first, her words take part in most of the shots of their conversation. Then in the middle of the movie, their power exchanges gradually. That is, the mother becomes the one who say more and expresses emotions more. Later on, the power distributed equally between Eva and Charlotte. The audience can see lots of pan shots moving back and forth within them. This is one kind of subtext displayed by a film since by observing the growth and decrease of power between them; we can see that their relationship is under great storm.
Though I can comprehend the general structure of this film, I think there are still some scenes that are hard to study in this director's movie.
ChinThis is the third Ingmar Bergman's movie we had gone through. From these movies, we can realize Bergman's personal characteristic in shooting movie. In his movie, Bergman always emphasis on one character which is dolly shot. Nevertheless, each character in Bergman's movie has a very clear or obvious characteristic, for example, Alma in Persona. From the three movies I had watched, I noticed that Bergman will arrange some shouting scene for the actor in each of his movie. In my opinion, I think this is some sort of familiar image for his entire productivity. I still cannot figure out what are those shouting representing. According to my observation, each of Bergman's movie has a specify characteristic, the color arrangement in Cries and Whispered, for instance. For Autumn Sonata, I think this is a flat story because it seems like a story telling style which I don't very interest in. We have to understand the entire content of the story so that we can really understand what the director is going to express. However, although we understand the story, sometimes we still cannot agree or satisfy with the explanation. This is Ingmar Bergman.
JosephInsofar I have seen three Bergman's films, which are Persona, Cries and Whispers, and Autumn Sonata. Within these three, there are some similarities and also differences. It is not hard to find that the theme of these three films all surround the corruptive relationship between characters, but with three levels of expressing it among them. The former two are shown with more expressionist way, like the use of breakdowns and red fadeouts respectively while indicating the changing points of relationships. The latter, however, is shown more explicitly. For example, the director kept shots going when there are conflicts between characters, without cutting out or using fadeouts. In addition, in Persona and Cries and Whispers, many scenes are shown as if they are dreams. That is, there are blurred distinctions between the reality and the dream in these two films. But few dreamlike scenes are used in Autumn Sonata.
Flashbacks are commonly used in this film because they can call audience' attention to the relationship between especially Eva and her mother, Charlotte, resulting in the cause-and-effect relationship. Besides, as usual, the director tended to use close-ups to make focus on characters' facial expressions, making audience' involvement with emotions.
Alice WangThe film Autumn Sonata is another movie directed by Ingmar Berman. As we can see from the past movies by Berman, most of his films are discussing the relationships between people. The director seems to be quite good at depicting the delicate emotions of human beings. For example, the confliction between Karin and Maria in Cries and Whispers, the mergence and separation between Elizabeth and Alma in Persona and also in Autumn Sonata, the hatred and love between Eva and Charlotte. Beside focusing on the usual topic of complicated relationships between the characters, one of the most interesting and special features of the film Autumn Sonata is that unlike other movies of Ingmar Berman, most of the scenes are based on reality rather than surreal circumstances or dreams. However, some of the mise-en-scenes still indicate the dreamlike imageries in Berman's previous movies. Also, unlike some of the movies like Personas and Cries and Whispers, which uses special effects such as strong fadeouts or violation of the camera frames to express or suggest the change of the character's emotions or the relationships between one another, the scenes in Autumn Sonata has almost never been interrupted. Instead, Berman challenged himself by keeping the scenes as they were to show directly the reactions of the characters when undergoing all the strong emotions, enabling the movie to express the theme of complicated relationships in another special and impressive way
IdaIn fact, when we saw Autumn Sonata in the library last week, we saw the second part first, in which Eva was constantly blaming to her mother and the movie was dark and cold; then came to the first part, in which Eva and her mother talked happily and the movie was light and lively though the director implied the following dangers for several times. At that time, I felt very confused and even thought that the director tried to shot the same family in two different sides. However, when I knew that we had seen the movie in a wrong sequence, I reorganized my thoughts and thought that this movie was very different than the previous Bergman I had seen. As The Hour of Wolf or Persona mainly focused on some surreal editing and confused the audience. However, in Autumn Sonata, we clearly knew that it was a story about the neglecting and compensating of love. As a result, I even think that seeing this movie in a wrong direction might be much more inspiring.
David
In Autumn Sonata, The director, Bergman, uses a lot of close-ups. Maybe it's because the whole plot stems from Eva and Charlotte's conversation. The close-ups show their power when Eva is going mad. With the voice becoming louder and louder, the speaking faster and faster, the audience's mind is being hit again and again. Finally, the audience is almost stunned, for Eva bursts the extremely strong emotion. I never see the face of Eva's dad in the whole film. I think it in a sense shows his inability to deal with the relationship among the family.
Vivian LinTo be honest, I do not like the movie when I am in the class. First, there are long dialogues between mother Charlotte and her daughter Eva that make me lose my attention. Second, the conflict between Eva and Charlotte seems to be normal thing that may happen in some people's lives. However, I watched it again at home. I am totally attracted by Ingrid Bergman's performance. She acts naturally. There are some scenes that Charlotte is alone in the room and she talks to herself. The emotions are perfectly translated by her. Sometimes, she feels anxious, but sometime, she is looked okay. I like her performance really much. It is compose of selfish and isolation between mother and daughter. Although, the movie seems that it is not easy for me to understand. I like Ingrid Bergman who is surprised me.
VioletThis film started from a man's monologue. He is Eva's husband, more of a character in film than of a commentator. Though I found that after the end of this film, the first sequence was related with the ending sequence. It means that this film is composed of retrogressive organization of time.
As <Cries and whispers>, this film show us strong color contrast. In the first sequence, we can see lots of warm color such as orange and yellow color. However these color and 'autumn' background strongly remind three women's sorrow and pain. Also two main characters was contrast by the color of their clothes. Charlotte usually dresses in bright and loud color such as red and yellow. But Eva only dresses inachromatic-colored clothes. Even Charlotte's suitcase and wallpaper of her room was yellow. When Charlotte stayed by Leonardo's deathbed, there is only colored one. That is Charlotte. The others are all white, it means white is died and just one alive Charlotte.
For effective concentration, camera hardly ever moved. When Charlotte and Eva in front of mirror, just focus moved one to one. The scene of playing piano was too.
There are a lot of flashbacks. The camera close up key-lighted two women's faces and shows scenes of the past. In scenes of the past, there are lots of back-lighting for expressing their sorrow.
Also DP uses the light for Charlotte's hided pain. When she saw Helena at first, she doesn't want to see but pretend it was so glad. In the frame, there is low key lighted her face and shadowed Helena's body. Also it is high-angle. The best one is when Charlotte leaving, in the train she tries to be happy and talkative. But she turns her head, showed her face by window. She sit next the light but her face is shadowed and look sad.
I think that in the first scene, Eva dresses in loud red clothe. It means that she understand Charlotte was pain as much as she does. Also she writes the letter for Charlotte about she want to forgive.
I like the scene after Charlotte leaving Eva's house, Eva was sitting aside old tree. And there are two grave aside. Even I don't know what it is. But when I saw this scene, I can feel that Eva is understanding her mother's sorrow too and their conflict is melting away.
CarolinaFrankly, I could not fully comprehend the movie and there is not a complete video on internet so I need to read some reviews from other watchers, though I knew that it is related to the relationship between a powerful mother and a weak daughter. The surprising thing is that Charlotte, the mother, is played by the director itself, which makes Bergman herself directs and films herself.
The color of their wardrobe seems to have some significance, as Charlotte uses a long elegant reddish dress in the dinner and Eva uses a simple green dress. I think the role of Eva is always subordinated to her mother. She is like a servant who tries to make her mother comfortable and the mother just receive her kindness as an innate gift. It is more noticeable when Eva talks about Helen, her daughter with some mental deficiency. It seems that Charlotte does not agree that Eva brings her home and her kindness to the little girl is faked.
TinaDifferent from other movies, the lines in this film are mostly in the form of "monologue". There are bunch of evidences for that, including Viktor talking to the camera in the beginning, the part Charlotte murmuring to herself in her room, the part when Eva tells Charlotte her true feeling at night, the part Charlotte talks as she lies on the ground, and so on. I think the director uses these monologues, instead of common conversations between characters, as a way to show his emphasis—the inner thoughts of people. But the long monologues somehow make the movie a bit dull and sound like running on all the time. I also notice that during some conversations or interactions between characters, the director avoid cutting from one's face to the other's, but use pan shots to catch their facial expressions.
KarenIn the movie Autumn Sonata, Ingmar Bergman used many close-ups, especially on the female characters' faces. Their facial expressions are hence shown very clearly, but most of the time, their countenances seems to be in misery because of Eva's quarrel with her mother. Moreover, among the four movies we have seen which is directed by Ingmar Bergman, Autumn Sonata has the most dialogues. However, most dialogues are disputes between Charlotte and Eva. Sometimes, their mother-daughter relationship seems harmonious, but the conversations between them often end up spilling all the things they ever wanted to say, crying and shouting at each other. The mother and daughter are in a tense relationship mostly because of the mother has been neglectful of her daughters. Eventually, Eva is totally intolerance of her mother's disregard of her after many years. In the final sequence, the disabled Lena is crying, but just as the professor mentioned, it is not evident whether she is calling "come" to Eva or to Charlotte. Nevertheless, this sequence appears to reveal that Lena is neglected by her sister and mother.
AprilThe film revolves around a core issue: mal-function conversation. The daughter talks about the past memory, how the mother "tortured" her father and her. During their conversation, the daughter lets her emotion flows, combined with distorted facial expression and trembling voices, her anger as well as depression outburst.
The daughter manifests her uncontrollable emotion by constantly wearing and taking off her glasses, which can be taken as a transition of her emotion. Whenever there is an explosion of feelings, she takes off her glasses or clam down for a few-minute silence. Although the daughter keeps blaming her mother for her neglecting of the family, she herself should also account for the consequence. Most of the time, the daughter didn't speak out loud what's on her mind; she chose to bear and stay dumb, being an obedient "girl."
JohnIt's Bergman again! This is the third one. I think these films of Bergman have the same property, which is impressive and bring me a new visual effect. This one is shock me again! The relationship between mother and daughter is really easy way for me. Maybe I can't endure my mom sometimes when I have bad mood. But I really can't image what it will be like if I get along with my mom in that way. In this film, the mother and daughter love each other actually. But they just can't do it, and turn the love into hate! I think we should always open our mind to our friends and family. Share with them more and keep good relationship!
CharleneThis film started with a sequence of brawls. The camera cuts from the mother to the daughter, and the opposite, with many close-ups on their faces to show their mentally excited emotions and many flashbacks, with the bridge of the lines which mostly spoken by Eva. And I begin to think that this film is another one for Ingmar Bergman to analyze, or even exaggerate the subtle relationship among people, just like Persona and Cries and Whispers. For example, Cries and Whispers is centered on the three sisters, having complex cognition with each other. And there need to be an anguish character, who always suffers from certain incurable disease.
The most impressed scene is that when Eva offers to play the piano for her mother, Charlotte. I can tell that she totally does her best to play the best for her, but it just sounds clumsy to her, a talented pianist. For me, this plot represents the invisible war between them, just like the mother is superior to her daughter.
Eva also seems to be the shadow of her mother, just like what is in the film Persona. Eva is so desperate for love and affection from her mother that she seemingly misses the fact that her husband loves her very much. She ignores her husband, just like what her mother did on her. And she also ignores her disabled sister.
MinnieBecause I have a stereotyped-mother of East countries, I could not help but side on Eva when the movie was started. (Usually I take a side, good or bad, victim or villain)
But suddenly I wonder how I describe Charlotte. A pianist? Or mother of Eva and Helena? I confused. Of course, I think mother should not sacrifice their life due to their family. But in this case, her daughter became a victim because Charlotte was irresponsible as a mother. To Charlotte, their children should play a role as a helper, not a baby. I remember young Eva carried a tea to her mother, and bent her knee like a servant.
Lack of love and care from Charlotte became scars to Eva and Helena. So I felt nervous when they started to talk their past. Maybe their eruption of emotional pains was expected. In the movie [Cries and Whispers], sisters pain was described with red. In this movie, Eva and Charlotte just spoke their pains. (Helena really struggled to talk.)
I surprised to see many close-up scenes. Eva and Charlotte looked as they suppressed their pains inside which are about to bounce off.
Vicky LinThe director uses a lot of close shots in this film, Autumn Sonata, particularly when Charlotte and Eva is talking or disputing to each other. Bergman also uses the same technique in Persona. I think in this way, as an audience, I can observe and feel more deeply of the characters' emotion for example, their disappointment which shows on Eva's face, surprise or even rage. I feel so impressive of Helena's cry in the movie because it sounds so horrible. I think Helena does not get much care and love from Eva just like Eva does not get these from Charlotte. So, when Eva is disputing with her mother with an angry mind, Helena always cries out for care. In my opinion, Helena's emotion echo or is echoed with Eva's.
CherrySince it is directed by Bergman, we can still see many close-up and he also seldom include two people in one shot. At the beginning, we can see Charlotte (the mother) and Eva (her elder daughter) are talking and there are two times their talking ends up with Helena's (another daughter) struggling. (first time she is yelling when sleeping; the other time is she crawling on the ground) Although I am a little confused at that moment so after looking for some information later, I think that it maybe because not only Eva was ignored by her mother but also shows Helena is ignored by both Charlotte and Eva. The time when Charlotte was talking to Eva (mother stands in the front with Eva in the back), it really gives the audience the feeling that their roles are changed. (mother to daughter; daughter to mother)
I think roses and the long way Charlotte was driving to Eva's house both play important roles. And in my interpretation, they both mean Charlotte's changed attitude to accept the fact she had ignored her daughters before. Besides, because the roses and the color red both mean love; therefore we can see after this transition, there are almost no shots which are taken in dark place or at night. (most of them are bright) At last, (if I recorded it correctly) I think there are elliptical cuts (the same technique used in Emma) when Viktor (Eva's husband) is first reading the letter.
IvanaIngmar Bergman's films always contain hysterical explosion among the main characters. Like in Cries and Whispers, the relationship of the three sisters' breaks and lead to some hysterical expression, the mother-daughter relationship also ends up leading to Eva's hysterical accuse of her mom's neglect of her. However, this time, the film is easier for me to comprehensive. Some scenes are shot in a surreal way, yet what the character's words mean are obvious. Therefore, I can focus more on the actions and the cinematography.
Vivian YangAutumn Sonata, the other Bergman's classical movie, describes the alienated relationships and twisted characteristics. Compared with what we have seen in Cries and Whisper, the protagonists Charlotte and Eva are like Karin and Maria; i.e., Charlotte and Karin stands for rationality and self-possesion whereas Eva and Maria stands for sentimentality and self-absorbed. On one hand, they are psychologically restricted by each other; on the other hand, they defend themselves through physical touch or verbal attack.(Maria touches Karin as an gentle attack. Also, Eva defends herself through emotional words.)
In Bergman's work, I found the strong connotation of Helena and Agne, which is to symbolize mostly the distorted, dark side of human nature. What Bergman tries to convey, in my points of view, is the feminine struggle through their lives. No matter how hard they try to escape from the relationship, the bonding force would still exist.
Vicky ShihLike the films "Cries and Whispers" and "Persona" we watched before, Autumn Sonata was also directed by Ingmar Bergman. He is skilled in dealing with the relationship between humans. Autumn Sonata told about the mother Charlotte and her daughter Eva's emotion. Most of the film focuses on their conversation. Eva complained about her mother's absent in her childhood. Director used many close-ups and cross-cutting to make viewers connect the past and present. And he also used many metaphors to reveal the characters' emotion. I think Ingmar Bergman is really a prominent director in filmdom!
Sophia
Produced by Ingmar Bergman, Autumn Sonata is a film about the conflicts and interaction between a well-known piano player and her daughter. The film opens with the visit of mother. In the conversations between the mother and daughter, the shots always focus on two people's faces. The director makes an angle for them especially. The part of how they play the sonata becomes a classic in the film. The whole performance must impress the viewers. In the second part, the conversation between Charlotte and Eva becomes a climax. Eva's violent and furious emotion breaks out all of a sudden. The actress, Liv Ullmann, does a very good job in her facial expression. Because of close-ups, Eva's facial expression shows how tense and strong her emotion is. In addition, the relationship among Charlotte, Eva and Helena is very interesting. Due to Charlotte's abandon, disabled Helena is taken well by her sister. Charlotte and Helena rely on Eva's help and translation to understand each other. The way how the director handle their relationship is interesting.
HilaryThis film makes me confused. This is the third Bergman's film I saw. All of his movies puzzle me. This time there's no subtitles. That is really tough for me. Another reason is that it is likely that it was played upside down. When the movie started, Eva was quarreling with her mom Charlotte. And there are titles of the film in the middle of the movie. I am not sure if it is a special arrangement just like fades on red.
There are some kinds of feeling in Bergman's film. He likes to use metaphor. Using something symbolizes some concepts or inner feeling. Sorry for that I cannot understand it clearly this time. Maybe I'll see it again next time!
ChristopherAUTUMN SONATA is written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, it was my first time to see a Bergman movie, and it is quite impressive.
Although the story was constructed in an uncomplicated plot, it remained me deeply in mind of two simple reasons. First, the acting of both two actresses is awesome. The Bergman style movie might consider taking too long in one shot of conversation, it would drive audience crazy or fall in sleep, still, to be deepen thinking, it provided the only way for them to have an interior expression.
Finally, a literary film is a literary film; we should not anticipate getting any excitements from it, if you have not deliberative thought, then you better being deliberate to the every detail, maybe we could find out a huge emotion hidden in a master piece.
Tiger
Films by Ingmar Bergman have explicit Auteur style. The subjects are always the strange relationships between lover and within a family. The connections between people are usually in a tense atmosphere. In Autumn Sonata, the audience would felt nervous about the mother-daughter relation between Charlotte and Eve. Watching Ingmar Bergman's movie is not like entertainment but more like a self rescue for people who have confusion of some kind of ill relation with their love ones. However, it is sometimes heavy to undergo those stories because the way Bergman handles the camera is always sharp and poignant. The scene when Eva shouts at Charlotte accusing her indifferent attitude in Eva's childhood releases severe emotion, and also Eva's strong tone shows a contrast to her loving and fond state when Charlotte just arrived.
AnneHonestly, I have to say this movie is very hard for me to totally understand. However , the director is Bergman so I try to make the connection of every role in the movie and try to make sense. I thought that the movie was talked about the problem in a family, a mother was dedicated most her life to her career, without taking good care of her daughter. Then ,time passed her daughter grown up and her mother getting order. The mother tried to make up the lack of love in her daughter's childhood , but everything seems to be late. The topic is common in nowadays , parents devoted themselves on the career and neglected their children , this kind of problem still existed. In the movie, the director used lots of closed-up to show the changing of their faces. Besides , the way the director used in the beginning of the movie confused me ,too. It looks like the middle part of a movie.
IrvingAfter watching Bergman's films these weeks, I think Bergman is very skilled with portraying characters inner emotion.
I thought Eva and Charlotte had a good relationship when the scene Charlotte went to see Eva because Eva was so happy to run out of the door with joy.
But in the end, I think Eva must had a conflict emotion when she knew her mother's coming.
I like the scene they play Chopin's piano piece.
When Charlotte played, the close shot on Eva's face created a complex emotion. There are so many words weren't spoken out but shown on her expression.
When Eva played, I think her version is more moving and full of pain and Charlotte's expression changed from a little sad to weeping, I think her acting skill is very skilled and touching.
Emily
This film talks about the misunderstanding and conflict for many years between the mother and the daughter. The director presents the story by flashback. This film begins with the censures they say to each other. The viewers may be confused and do not know what is going on. Besides the flashback, the director also uses metaphor, like Lena and Eva's husband. Lena presents only for the indication of guilty from the mother and the pity of her physical incomplete. Eva's husband, reading the letters in this film, acts as a viewer of Eva's letter and be used as a metaphor for Eva's father when he smokes.
VincentWe've watched three Ingmar Bergman's film this month. In his film, the story always are about women. Under the camera, women became the most complicated and beautiful creatures. In Persona, we saw two women shared a similar life experience, and almost become one woman; In Cries and Whispers, we saw sisters, and each of them are unique. And this film, Autumn Sonata, is about mother and daughter.
Because the assistant of the class made the parts mixed up, the film began from the part two. And what a coincidence, it just the most impressive part of the film on my opinion. They are arguing And I think it's also the most precise scene to describe the complication of two women's mind. I can hardly tell what it is, but their love and hatreds are strongly showed in front of my eye. And, Liv Ullman's acting is fascinating, too. In Persona, she only spoke one word. In this film, she cried and tell everything in her mind when arguing with her mother, such acting is heart touching and unforgettable.
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