Ingmar Bergman's 1983 classic has been heralded by many as one of the greatest films of all time, and definitely the best to come out of Sweden. The sets and overall theatricality of the film are mesmerizing to look at and the direction is second to none. However, Fanny and Alexander is a film that is beautiful to look at, but almost a bore to listen and think about as it trudges its way through so many different stories that it becomes hypnotizing to watch. While titled Fanny and Alexander, the film mainly centers on the large and wealthy Ekdahl family. The family comprises of the matriarch, Helena, and her three sons, Gustav Adolf, Carl, and Oscar. All three have wives, but Oscar has the most beautiful, Emilie, and two children, Fanny and Alexander. We watch, mostly through the children, as their lives unfold and how they interact with each other as they experience both joy and tragedy.The film is very slow and meticulous with its 188-minute runtime (312 if you watch the miniseries), drawing out every detail and giving us a look at each individual family members personal life. While this does allow for great character development and chemistry, it hurts the film overall as too many details are covered for you to remember or end up caring about by the end. There is also a wild plot shift by the end of the film where spirits and different realities come into play. Bergman is famous for included mystical elements into what seem normal films, but here he should have abandoned that idea as it confuses the audience about what is really going on. For what it lacks in writing, Fanny and Alexander redeems itself in directing and production. This is by far one of the best decorated and positioned films ever made. The sets are all grand in scale and everything is put in exactly the right spot. The elegance of the house shines brightly and makes you want to pause multiple times just to look at everything in the frame. Bergman guides us through his film with such ease that it makes you wonder how a single man could plan and execute all of this. With this being his final feature film, it feels fitting for him to end here by doing what he does best. The cinematography is astounding as we see the beauty of Sweden during all seasons. The winter landscapes, while cold and dreary, still produce a sense of wonder. The summer months give off the essence of life as the frame is filled with lush trees and the occasional sighting of wildlife.Complimenting the production is great acting by the adults, especially Gunn Wallgren as Helena. She plays her character with such warmth and caring and is the best part of the film. The interactions she shares with her family will surely make you remember someone in your life just like her.Another great performance comes from Ewa Fröling as Emilie. She plays one of the most important and well-developed characters in the film. She goes through a roller coaster of emotions as events play out that change her life as well as her children's futures. Near the very end of the film, she shares a passionate scene with Wallgren that perfectly caps off her journey as a mother. The child actors that play the titular leads don't fare so well when it comes to making their characters interesting. They mostly act dormant in most scenes and make you wonder if they will ever do something worth noticing. For a film titled Fanny and Alexander, the characters of Fanny and Alexander are the least compelling to watch or care about.Fanny and Alexander is a film that should be watched by film lovers purely because of its amazing production, cinematography, and directing. But for the casual fan who is looking to see an epic tale, be ready for a long sit for a payoff that never gets close to reaching its potential.

When I watched this film the first feeling I get is that it's like reading a great book. That's how comprehensive it is. That's how much depth there is, created by Bergman here. I normally say that films can't compare to books, but this film is something else. This film has characters that are fully formed.Bergman's created a magical, fantasy world that at times tends toward the supernatural, but then throughout the story is fleshed out as realistic as they come. This is what makes the extraordinary scenes even more extraordinary than it already is. I heard that this film is unlike Bergman's others. I'm not so sure about that. It's longer, yes but the longer version is far superior to the theatrical version. I loved the longer scenes that were added to the television release. There Bergman has more time for more magic, and more time to develop some of the secondary characters. The title gives away the two main characters, the two children Fanny and Alexander. However the film is also largely about their parents and relatives. You wonder why Bergman named the film after them then. It's probably to underline the difference in the attitudes of these two characters with Alex rising to the top, and Fanny in the background. I wonder whether this reflects with the realities that Bergman's painting for us. What I enjoyed the most is the relationship between the priest and one of the female characters. I won't give away the details, but some of the acting scenes between them and their family members is quite incredible. As is usual with Bergman, there's also some theatrical scenes but you'd expect that, again, from a family of actors. I love the way Bergman brings in the theatrical world into this family and it certainly rubs that magical touch that we come to love in his films. Fanny and Alexander may not be as fancy as Persona, but I feel that the quality here is much higher.

We are introduced to a large, well-to-do family, as seen through the eyes of young Alexander: Helena Ekdahl, his regally-looking grandmother and matriarch, who tries to keep the family together, his uncles, philandering Gustav Adolf and Carl, who continually has financial problems. Then Alexander's younger sister, Fanny, and their father, Oscar and mother, Emilie. Both their parents are actors (and some of the other family members too), whilst Oscar also works as director of the acting company. A large and generally happy family, as we see in hauntingly beautifully filmed Christmas scenes.Things change for the worse when Oscar suffers a stroke and passes away. Emilie manages the performing company for a year and then decides to withdraw from it. She is lonely and falls in love with the local bishop, Edvard, who conducted Oscar's funeral service. They get married and she moves to his household with the kids. They were in for a rude shock. They had to leave everything 'worldly' behind, no toys, their beloved books, or fancy clothes. The contrast with their previous lavish and luxury lifestyle and their new life behind cold, unadorned thick walls with bars in front of the windows, couldn't be more pronounced. In their new and austere, depressing household they had to follow strict new rules, something the kids were never subjected to. Furthermore they had to share the house with Edvard's vicious spinster sister, meddling mother and bed-ridden aunt. Alexander has a lively imagination and sometimes makes up stories, or tells fibs. He has a rebellious streak, too, and clashes with his stepfather. As a result he is caned and locked up alone in the cold attic. It seems as if Emilie is powerless, not knowing what to do to help the kids, entranced by the charismatic Edvard.The grandmother comes to learn of the kids' hardships; that they were practically being held prison, and decides to do something about it. But it is not going to be easy; the bishop is a very powerful and influential man... I watched the full, uncut and original version (part of the excellent 'The Criterion Collection'), nearly 5 hours long. (I also have the shorter theatrical version, but will leave that for another day.) It's length did not bother me in the least, and that should be a good indication of the quality of the film.The wonderful cinematography, music score, lavish sets and costumes are all out of this world. And particularly so the outstanding cast. All the actors were excellent, but mention must be made of the remarkable performances of Ewa Fröhling (Emilie), Gun Wållgren (the grandmother) and Bertil Guve (Alexander). And then the clever story-line, fluctuating between the real world and the acted world, the make-believe world. "On a flimsy framework of reality, the imagination spins, weaving new patterns."In my view 'Fanny and Alexander' is one of the best films I have ever seen. 10/10.

Released in 1982 in a 5-hour version for Swedish television and cut to 180 minutes for theatrical release, FANNY AND Alexander was meant to be Ingmar Bergman's last film. Though the great auteur lived on another 25 years and even wrote and directed some smaller projects, FANNY AND Alexander can still be seen as a great capstone to decades of legendary cinema.FANNY AND Alexander deals with the great two preoccupations of Bergman's career, namely the absence of God and the unbridgeable gaps between human beings, but the result is wonderfully life-affirming. Fanny and Alexander are the children of Oscar and Emilie Ekdahl, actors in Uppsala circa 1907, but the film gives a panorama of the extended Ekdahl family, presided over by grandmother Helena, uncles Gustav Adolf (a restaurateur and the film's most comedic presence) and Carl (a professor who has fallen into debt and is trapped in a loveless marriage), their wives and children, and the selfless Jewish shopkeeper Isak Jacobi. This Swedish family lives in an Old World opulence that is hard to believe for audiences today, especially for a country whose class system by and large disappeared after the war. The rigid interaction among people not closely acquainted and the deference of servants to their employers make for gestures as alien to us 21st century viewers as a Noh play.In a way, FANNY AND Alexander is like those big novels of a century ago, by Tolstoy or Galsworthy, dealing with the vicissitudes of a whole family. The vaster family drama, however, is only a backdrop to a more personal one: Fanny and Alexander are soon orphaned, and their widowed mother eventually remarries, this time with a cruel clergyman. The children move from the freedom and comfort of the Ekdahl home to the austere bishop's place, where the children are punished for the slightest infraction by beatings or being locked up in the attic. The Ekdahls' torment living under the bishop is the great crisis of the film, and their unexpected liberation from it presents Alexander with a burden that he will carry into his budding manhood.The original television version is the way to see Bergman's final masterpiece. Don't be daunted by the length: 5 hours should not be a problem in an age when people will watch an entire season of a sitcom on DVD in one sitting. FANNY AND Alexander is not slow, meditative cinema like, say, Andrei Tarkovsky or Béla Tarr, but rather Bergman is always presenting the viewer with some engaging little drama. The theatrical cut, which Bergman made only with the greatest regret, is a very different (and much weaker film), cutting out much of the film's magical realism, the touching meditations on growing old represented by the character of the grandmother, and some vivid depictions of early 20th-century Sweden.