48 REVIEWS

The film presents Marianne () Reviews and John (), a middle-class married couple, in six scenes spanning a ten- In the first called "Innocence SCENESFROM A MARRIAGE year period. scene, and Panic,"they are interviewedfor a woman's Writtenand directedby IngmarBergman. Photography: Sven magazine as the perfect couple. They live in a Nykvist.Cinema V. comfortablehome with two lovely daughtersand Scenes from a Marriage is emotional dynamite. both have interestingcareers; he is a psychology That may not be surprisingfor an IngmarBerg- professorand she a divorcelawyer. Yet he seems man movie, but in some importantways this film arrogantand vain while she is self-effacingand moves in a new direction. It reachesnew depths unconfident- a reflection of traditional sex of psychologicalrealism, and at the same time roles. Nevertheless, they get along harmoni- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/fq/article-pdf/28/2/48/120284/1211633.pdf by guest on 13 May 2020 is actuallyhopeful. Normallywhen I see a Berg- ously, particularlyin contrast to their friends man film, I am exhilaratedby his artistic bril- Peter (Jan Mahnsjo) and Katarina (Bibi An- liance and overwhelmed by his insights into dersson), who have an ugly quarreland are on human suffering,but I leave the theater feeling the verge of a messy divorce. In the second emotionally drained and depressed-especially scene, entitled "The Art of Sweepingunder the after films like The Silence, Shame, Hour of the Rug," Marianne and Johan begin to be aware Wolf, and . I may feel less of the dangersinherent in their conventionality. isolated in my pain, but there are few signs of She tries to rebel against her mother's control relief; all humans seem doomed to experience over their lives and is frightenedby a middle- unrelieved suffering. But Scenes from a Mar- aged client who rejects a safe, loveless marriage riage made me feel more hopeful about the like her own. Johan is told by an old friend and human condition-more willing to accept the colleague () that his poetry contradictionsin the desires and actions of my- is disappointinglymediocre, and we suspectthat self and others, and more willing to believe in he may be having an affair. Hesitantly, Mari- the possibilitiesof growth and change, particu- anne and Johan begin to admit that they have larlyfor women. sexual problems but don't do anything about

...... ;iii~ii .--a . . . .!!.ii "Open-ended, slow-paced,and ...... multi-climaxed": SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE.

ONM1-~i OP I'llMill iiiiiiiiiiii...... ii REVIEWS 49 solving them. In the third scene ("Paula"), a highly symbolic framework. In these films Johan tells Marianne that he has fallen in love ordinary reality subtly merges into dream and with another woman and intends to leave. fantasy, characters function as fragments of a Shocked and humiliated, Marianne begs him to single personality, editing style and visual imag- stay. Although he feels guilty, he leaves anyway. ery call attention to the film-making process, Scene four ("The Vale of Tears") takes place breaking the dramatic illusion. These character- a year later when Johan comes to visit Marianne istics are not present in Scenes from a Marriage. and spends the night. Things have begun to go Rather, the mode is an expanded psychological Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/fq/article-pdf/28/2/48/120284/1211633.pdf by guest on 13 May 2020 wrong for Johan, particularly in his relationship realism, which consistently strives for and with Paula. Although Marianne is beginning to achieves an extraordinary verisimilitude. The grow and to have new lovers, she is still in love acting performances of Ullmann and Josephson with Johan and wants things to be as they were. are so convincing, the dialogue so realistic, the Scene five ("The Illiterates") is the most explo- conception of the relationship so subtle, that it sive and the most contradictory. They meet in is difficult to believe we are watching a theatrical Johan's office to sign the divorce papers. The illusion. fact that Marianne no longer loves Johan en- The action is confined almost entirely to sim- ables her to seduce him and to be more sexually ple indoor settings-comfortable living and din- aggressive than she has ever been. Immediately ing rooms, modern bedrooms and bathrooms, after making love, they vent their anger and sunny breakfast rooms and hallways, sparsely rage. Johan tells her how much he loathed her furnished offices and labs, small cottages. Un- while they were married and then confesses that like the interior locations in The Ritual and he really didn't want the divorce. They have a Cries and Whispers, these environments are violent bloody brawl, and then quietly sign the ordinary and realistic rather than theatrical or papers. The final scene, which takes place years symbolic. Yet the rooms inhabited by Marianne later, is called "In the Middle of the Night in a and Johan express a great deal about their mar- Dark House Somewhere in the World." Both riage. Despite the warmth of the earth colors are remarried to other persons, but they spend a and wood panelling that gloss its surface, their weekend together in a friend's cottage. In con- house is dominated by a routine symmetry in trast to the first scene, Johan has shrunk and the arrangement of chairs, couches, lamps, become more humble while Marianne has ex- tables, and flower pots, which is very restrictive. panded and discovered her strength. Yet they In the first scene when they are entertaining their are both independent human beings who have friends for dinner, Marianne remarks: "Both grown tremendously. They speak honestly and Johan and I like to tidy up." It is precisely this despite all fears, doubts, and confusion, they overly patterned life which Johan attacks when find they love each other. he runs off with Paula. In the final scene, when The themes and situations are not new for Marianne and Johan come together after they Bergman. We find the same courageous ex- have learned to accept the confusion in their ploration of what lies behind the conventional lives, they reject their own former country house, masks and social personae, the same intensity of which is still dominated by the old doublet pat- psychological encounters, the sudden outbursts terns, and go instead to a friend's cottage, which of violence and rage, the same range of volatile is terribly cluttered. In the act of sorting out emotions and shifting power dynamics that we the confusion and "tidying up" together, Mari- have seen in films like The Ritual, Persona, and anne is strongly moved by Johan and discovers Cries and Whispers. Bergman's work has al- how much she loves him. Throughout the film of had an ways, course, extraordinary degree of there are very few exterior scenes, which helps psychological realism, but between The Silence to make their relationship seem more "hermeti- and Cries and Whispers it has been expressed in cally sealed." The few street scenes that do 50 REVIEWS occur retain the sense of isolation by showing a scene starts with a symmetrical medium two- no people other than Johan and Marianne. Yet, shot. As the conversation becomes more in- whenever the camera goes outside, we experi- tense and the characters begin to drop their so- ence a sense of freedom. This effect is most cial masks, the camera moves in for a close-up powerful in the third scene when Johan leaves of the individual. The close-ups grow larger as Marianne. The scene opens with a long-shot of the emotions become more heated. For example, Johan driving to the country house at night, in the scene where Marianne is interviewing the a lone he comes with the in- woman who wants a divorce, we first see the passing dwelling; Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/fq/article-pdf/28/2/48/120284/1211633.pdf by guest on 13 May 2020 tention of running away to Paris. After a heavy equally balanced in the frame, then encounter, which is played out within the nar- intercut between a close-up of each. As the row confines of the small rooms, Johan finally woman describes her loss of sensation, Mari- breaks free from Marianne's desperate clinging anne's face grows larger, enabling us to recog- and the camera follows him outside and watches nize the terror in her expression. Throughout him drive off in the morning as the wind blows the film the camera is usually static. When it through the trees. Then Bergman intercuts be- does move, it has tremendous impact, particu- tween huge close-ups of Marianne's face, taking larly in the violent struggle between Marianne over the whole screen as it slowly registers the and John. Similarly, the characters are also painful reality of the situation, and long-shots frequently static; when they do move, their ges- of Johan's car speeding away from the claustro- tures frequently help to express their feelings. phobic house. The final scene, in which they Marianne paces in anger when she describes have both gained considerable freedom, opens what she endured in their marriage and paces in with an exterior overhead shot of a city street. fear when she tells Johan her dream. Although A car drives into the frame, parks, Marianne the film's style is highly controlled, it is almost gets out, runs across the street, as wind blows invisible; it does not call attention to itself. The through the trees. Johan drives into the frame, only sign of artificiality is the division into six parks, gets out; they kiss behind a tree, then run scenes, which is carried over from the original to his car and drive off to their rendevous at the television format (six 50 - minute segments, same house John previously abandoned. But which have been cut down for theatrical distribu- this time we are more aware of the surroundings tion to two hours and 48 minutes); yet these --especially the trees and the sea. During the divisions function like chapter headings in a night, we see briefly a moody dark landscape of psychological novel. the isolated cottage in the misty air as a foghorn Scenes from a Marriage belongs to a new wails in the distance. This jarring image intro- genre of expanded psychological realism--the duces a different mode of reality (which is fa- four- or five-hour film exploring complex mod- miliar in other Bergman films such as Persona, ern relationships, focusing on intense encounters Shame, and ) and prepares between two or three people, and achieving a us for the next shot, where Marianne awakens depth of characterization previously thought from a terrifying nightmare, in which she has possible only in the novel. This genre also in- lost her hands and is sinking in soft sand, unable cludes Jacques Rivette's L'Amour Fou (Mad to reach Johan and the children. The ordinary Love), which presents a marriage between a reality has temporarily receded, and Marianne, theatrical director who is working on a produc- who is so proud of her ability to cope realistically tion of a classical play and his actress wife who in the world, is momentarily out of control. quits his play and retreats into madness, tem- As in earlier films, Bergman relies heavily on porarily drawing him into her schizophrenic the facial close-up to explore the feelings of his world of playful destruction. Another example characters, but this technique is handled less is Jean Eustache's The Mother and the Whore, self-consciously than usual. Characteristically, which examines a complex triangle involving a REVIEWS 51 childish,charming, exploitive young man who is though they are handled very differently. The gripped by the fear of death; the economically connectionwas very apparentin The Lie, a tele- independentwoman he lives with in a modern play written by Bergman,but directed and pro- relationship of limited commitment; and the duced by others in the United States, Canada, dependent, alcoholic, promiscuous nurse he and England. Despite the fact that the Ameri- takes up with, who longs to have his baby and can production used very talented actors (the whom he ultimatelyagrees to marry. The four- husbandand wife were played by George Segal hour of these two films be essential and the lacked

length may Shirley Knight), performances Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/fq/article-pdf/28/2/48/120284/1211633.pdf by guest on 13 May 2020 to achieve the unusualdepth of characterization the authenticitywe are accustomedto seeing in and to reveal the many contradictorysides of Bergman movies. The timing was off and the these unconventional relationships, but it has visuals mundane. As a result, The Lie looked seriously limited their commercial distribution. more like conventionalsoap opera than a Berg- The long version of Scenes from a Marriage man film. In Scenes from a Marriage Bergman probably would have done better because of retains this same subject matter and adopts the Bergman'sstature, but he didn'ttake the chance soap opera's serial structure,yet without losing and decided to cut it for the theaters. Although his usual depth and power. He transformsthe more conventionalin length, some films by John sentimentalpopular form and proves it is capa- Cassavetes (particularlyFaces and Husbands) ble of becoming high art. Thus, the growth of share the same focus and are related to this his charactersand their relationshipis analogous genre. Like Bergman, Cassavetes relies on the to the growthof the genre or form in which they intense psychological encounter between two are presented. individualsas a recurringstructural element that Soap opera appealspredominantly to a female works against the more conventional narrative audience, particularlyfrustrated housewives. A line and that highlights the acting rather than couple of years ago at a meeting of the Modern the visuals or editing rhythm. Like both Berg- Language Association, Leslie Fiedler argued man and Eustache,Cassavetes is a writer-direc- that the soap opera was a revolutionaryform tor who is able to draw upon his own emotional in disguise, for it enabled oppressedfemales to experience, using some of his intimate friends watch women triumphingover men. Like the both as models for his charactersin the writing sentimentalnovel, it presents a world in which stage and as actors in the final production. This the capacity to feel is at the top of the moral intimaterapport enables all three film-makersto hierarchy, and our culture has traditionally tap the inner resourcesof their actors, allowing assignedthis virtue to women. The soap opera's them a great deal of freedom in the roles while appeal to women might also rely partiallyon its still exercising considerable control over their structure. Open-ended,slow paced, and multi- performance. The result in all three cases is an climaxed, it is in tune with patterns of female extraordinary emotional authenticity. When sexuality, particularlywhen contrasted to the watchinga Cassavetesmovie, we are awarethat "well-made"play, with its emphasison a single Gina Rowlands is his wife, and Peter Falk and climax, and to the fast-pacedpicaresque adven- Ben Gazarrahis buddies. When we see Scenes ture story. The psychological and sentimental from a Marriage,we can't forget that Liv Ull- novel, which also appeal strongly to a female mann and Bergmanused to be lovers. Undoubt- audience, grew out of Samuel Richardson's edly, in making the film, they both drew heavily eighteenth-century epistolary novels, Pamela from this sharedexperience. and Clarissa, which focus on heroines whose In some ways, Scenes from a Marriage, and exceptional virtue and strength of personality indeed the entire genre of expandedpsychologi- enablethem to breaksocial convention. In these cal realism, is related to the soap opera. The works, the action is presentedin a seriesof long, basic materialsand subjectmatter are the same, highly detailed, slow-paced letters which also 52 REVIEWS

have multipleclimaxes. The readeris concerned holds a cat by the tail. We watch this spirit dis- less with discoveringwhat actuallyhappens than appearin awkwardadolescence, and observethe in learning how the heroine feels about it from young woman arranged in a series of stilted moment to moment, and these fluid feelings can poses, trained to act out a variety of roles, cul- only be capturedin the personalletter, which is minatingin the bridal portrait. We try to figure the prime vehicle for honest and sincereexpres- out what, if anything, these frozen images can sion. tell us about Marianne'sinner self. Perhapswe In Scenes a as in the remember her examination of Paula's from Marriage, soap desperate Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/fq/article-pdf/28/2/48/120284/1211633.pdf by guest on 13 May 2020 opera and the sentimentalnovel, the woman ex- photograph when she was trying to accept the pands her power. In the opening interview, reality of the other woman's existence but could when Johan is asked to describe himself in a commentonly on her "lovelybreasts" and "dyed few words, he rambleson confidently: hair." Marianne is eager to hear Johan's re- to these first of honest It sound I as sponse signs self-explora- might conceited if describedmyself tion, but he has fallen As her extremelyintelligent, successful, youthful, well-bal- asleep. conscious- anced, and sexy. A man with a world conscience, ness begins to awaken, his slips into uncon- cultivated,well-read, popular, and a good mixer. Let sciousness. Later, after they have made love me see what else can I think of . . . friendly. and he is about to leave, she reads him a letter Friendlyin a nice way even to peoplewho are worse from Paula, which redefines Johan as an insecure off. I like sports. I'm a good familyman. A good man full of self-doubt. In the next scene in son. I have no debts and I pay my taxes. I respect Johan's office, the situation is reversed. This our it I government,whatever does, and love our time Marianne is the seductive visitor who royal family. I've left the state church. Is this yawns as Johan delivers an he enoughor do you wantmore details? I'm a splendid identity speech; lover. Aren'tI, Marianne? is the one who offers the brandy and wants to return to the safety of their marriage. Yet his Besides the list of glowing adjectives,we learn clinging is a lot more violent than Marianne's that his self-imageis largelybased on social roles has been. In the final scene, Johan comments and attitudes and that he requires validation directly on the reversal: "We've discovered our- from Marianne only in the area of sex. Hud- selves. . . . One perceives his smallness. The dling beside her husband on the couch, making other her greatness." And then as he invites her herself look as small as possible, Marianne is to bed, he jokingly asks, "Can you possibly, I asked the same question and replies: "Hmm, say possibly, ration your boundless female what can I say . . . I'm married to Johan and strength?" The development of Marianne's sex- have two daughters." The rest of the film is uality is reinforced by Bergman's choice of the spent revising these answers. In scene four, soap opera structure. The original five-hour ver- when Johan visits Marianne a year after their sion, Which focuses on six scenes from a period separation,they sit on the same couch and she of ten years, already presumes time gaps and tries to answer the same question by reading the omission of other significant encounters. from a journal which her therapisthas encour- That is one reason why the cutting of two hours aged her to keep. She reveals an awarenessthat does not really ruin the movie. Of course, I she has played the role of the passive female would love to see the whole five hours and dictated hope by the culture, that she has learned to that at some time this will be possible; but even dissemble and to deny her own sexuality, that that version is partial. In the theatrical version, she has no idea who she is or what she is capable Bergmancreates a two-partstructure, each part of. As we listen to this moving speech, we see a comprised of three scenes. In contrast to the series of still photographs of Liv Ullmann. A original, he omits all characters other than Johan blonde child is singled out from a class picture. and Marianne from the last three scenes. This We see her then again naked, mischievous as she narrowing of focus and the balanced two-part REVIEWS 53

structure may intensify the claustrophobicna- LUCIA ture of the couple's relationship,yet part two Director:Humberto Solas. Screenplay:Solas, Julie Garcia Espinosa presentsa reversalof many scenes from part one and NelsonRodriguez. Photography: Jorge Herrera. Tricontinental. and becomes a vehicle for thereby expressing Of the more than 50 feature films which have growth. Unlike the conventional soap-opera been produced in Cuba since the revolutionary structure,the movement is not merely linear. The distinctionbetween Scenes governmentset up the ICAIC (InstitutoCubano primary from del Arte Industria a and is the it affects e Cinematogrificas) Lucia is Marriage soap opera way Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/fq/article-pdf/28/2/48/120284/1211633.pdf by guest on 13 May 2020 us The film's is tremen- only the second to be distributedin the United emotionally. impact Since its release in 1968,2 Lucia has dous. Instead of leading us to forget about our States.1 won several internationalawards, including the own lives and to get caught up vicariously in the of it throwsus back on our- Society of Italian Producers' "Golden Globe" intrigues others, award,the InternationalFilm Critics' selves and our own The Prize, and experience. violent the at the Moscow Film Festival. quarrel between Peter and Katarina and the grandprize Lucia panic felt the woman the divorce is composed of three separate films by seeking about women named Lucia. Each lives in a should have been signals for Marianne and dis- Johan to examine their own we tinct period of Cuban history, indicated by the relationships; dates which the three of the are invited to use their experience in the same introduce parts film -1895, 1933, 196-. These way. In this film we do not escape into the con- years correspond ventional fantasies offered but respectivelyto the war of Cuban independence by soap opera, from courageously where a is Spain, the end of the dictatorshipof Ger- explore relationship ardo capable of going. We watch Johan and Mari- Machado, and the period of the post-revo- undertakenin anne experiencea kind of growththat has never lutionaryliteracy campaign 1961. before been capturedon film. The portrayalof Solas uses differentsets of actors and distinct their marriageis so complex, so subtle, so varied cinematic styles for the three historicalepochs. and multi-dimensionalthat it is bound to trigger Moreover, each Lucia belongs to a differentso- personal associationsfor anyone who has been cial class--landed creole aristocracy,the upper involved in a long-term relationship. It makes middle class of the depressionyears, and what us think about our own ex-husbands,ex-wives, would have been the rural peasant class before and ex-lovers, wondering if those relationships the Cuban revolutionarygovernment came to would have followed a similarcourse if only we power in the late fifties. Each Lucia thus lives in had had a similar capacity for growth and the a period of great political and social change courage and energy to persist. It makes us con- which inevitablyand profoundlyaffects her pri- sider where those relationshipsstopped, at what vate life. A love storyserves as the basicplot out- stage and for what reasons, and to try?to see line for the unfoldingof the threeparts, and each wherewe are now in our own process of growth. Lucia'scircumstances and choices are related to The film implies that if we have the strengthto a love affairand/or marriagewith one man. take a relationshipas far as it will go, to discard According to director Solas, in an interview as many false masks as possible, to live through in the Cuban magazine Bohemia, the links be- the outbursts of hatred and violence, to con- tween the three stories are: front honestly our full range of feelings, we may discover an emotional that is much .. a woman'spresence, a woman'sattitude dur- capacity ing a specificperiod of history,and her relationship deeper and richer than we expect. The doubts with a man. On the other hand,what is most inter- are never quieted, the struggleis never over, the esting for me is that, throughoutthe film, there'sa theme confusion is never eliminated,but the imperfect of a particularsociety, though this has several love comforts and survives. -MARSHA KINDER levels to it. The most importantlevel, it seems to me, concernsa certaindecolonization process, which I try to reflect.