Bergman’s assessment is a fair one. He brings his sensual style as an auteur to many of the themes explored in his earlier works full circle with his surprisingly uplifting and accessible film, focuses through the lives of the two children of the film’s title. Film critic Roger Ebert credits this accessibility to the fact that Bergman takes on his large themes of death, religion, and life but turns them into very specific and detailed scenarios which, in turn, makes them more universal.
“Fanny and Alexander” is a chronicle of the year in the life of the Ekdahl family. The film begins on Christmas Eve 1909 as the Ekdahl’s bring together their massive family for a Christmas feast. The audience is introduced to the many members of the family: the two children, Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) and Alexander (Burtil Guve), their mother and sickly father Oscar (Allan Edwall), the children’s nursemaid Maj (Pernilla August), their financially un-sound Uncle Carl, their womanizing uncle Gustav Adolf, as well as many other supporting characters. The dinner and night come to a close as many of the characters make love and fall asleep.
Christmas Day, however, is sadly marked by the death of Fanny and Alexander’s father, Oscar. The family spends the day grieving as Bergman cuts from the children’s mother wailing to the funeral. Alexander seems to take the death the hardest. He curses profusely at his father’s funeral and begins to tell lies at school. Finally, he is confronted by his mother’s new suitor, a strict clergyman. They become married and the children’s lives sink into a overwhelming sadness. They find escape through their Uncle Isak, a Jewish antique dealer who reintroduces happiness and mysticism to their lives.
After the film’s release, Bergman limited his directing career to the theatre. The film delves into this in many ways. Parts of the narrative parallel Shakespeare’s Hamlet, several times during the film the Ekdahls speak about the theatre and the tradition it plays in their family, and the opening shot shows Alexander opening up a miniature stage complete with wooden figurines. In this sense, the film plays between a transition between the lives of the Ekdahl children and Bergman’s life in film to his life in theatre.
Newly released on DVD by the Criterion Collection, “Fanny and Alexander” has been packaged in a five-disc set complete with the three-hour theatrical version along with commentary by film scholar Peter Cowie and Bergman’s preferred six-hour television version (released in the United States for the first time).
The six-hour television edition is a much more rewarding experience than the feature length theatrical cut. Bergman’s preferred edit has much more characterization and deals with Alexander’s fantasies in much greater detail. It is meant to be watched in installments or on an extremely snowy day. The feature length film is more accessible to Bergman newcomers because it conveys the story in half the time along side Bergman’s beautifully sensual style. However, most will find after they’ve finished the theatrical version that they are dying to know more about these characters and the wonderful story they’ve become players in. That is not to say that they’ll be dissatisfied with the three-hour cut.
Also included on the five-disc set is the feature length documentary “The Making of Fanny and Alexander”, the hour-long documentary “Ingmar Bergman Bids Farewell to Film”, along with many other extras. Sorting through all the material is a time consuming process. However, that is not to say that it is not rewarding. Criterion has given Bergman’s most accessible film an outstanding treatment and, in turn, has made the film available to a whole new audience.
