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Movies / On DVD / Fanny and Alexander
Fanny and Alexander

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Fanny and Alexander (1982)

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Reviews Counted: 33

Fresh: 33

Rotten:0

Average Rating: 8.9/10

Runtime: 5 hrs 12 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: Director Ingmar Bergman had intended FANNY AND ALEXANDER to be his final theatrical film and a summing-up of sorts of his entire cinematic career. (It was followed by 1984's AFTER THE REHEARSAL,... Director Ingmar Bergman had intended FANNY AND ALEXANDER to be his final theatrical film and a summing-up of sorts of his entire cinematic career. (It was followed by 1984's AFTER THE REHEARSAL, which was also made for Swedish television and subsequently released theatrically abroad.) FANNY AND ALEXANDER is the story of two children belonging to a wealthy, extensive theatrical family in provincial Sweden in the early years of the 20th century--10-year-old Alexander (Bertil Guve) and his younger sister, Fanny (Pernilla Alwin). When their father dies unexpectedly during a performance and their mother decides to remarry, the children are forced to relocate to the austere (and possibly haunted) home of their stern and rather coldhearted stepfather, Bishop Vergerus (Jan Malmsjö). A means of escape is eventually provided by Isak Jacobi (Erland Josephson), a longtime friend of the Ekdahl family's who seems to possess magical powers. In this somewhat autobiographical movie--which was filmed in the director's hometown of Uppsala--the gifted, precocious Alexander is a stand-in for Bergman himself, who had a problematic relationship with his own father, a strict clergyman. At once festive, spooky, and bawdy--and uncharacteristically life-affirming--FANNY AND ALEXANDER is one of Bergman's most universally appealing and accessible works. [More]

Starring: Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve

Starring: Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Director: Ingmar Bergman

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Release:

Nov 16, 2004

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Fanny and Alexander

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Arrange By: Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

A sprawling, ornately constructed entertainment.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
12/03/08
Lance Goldenberg
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This premiere of the original cut, running at 312 minutes, leaves room for more than a story of one life.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
12/01/08
Logan Hill
New York Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Newsweek | comment Comment
11/24/08
David Ansen
Newsweek
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Sumptuous, haunting, and unusually tender... a nakedly psychological 'in' to [Bergman's] earliest artistic impulses; nothing else in his oeuvre addresses so directly his childhood escapes into fantasy as the by-product of a harsh Lutheran upbringing.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
01/08/08
Aaron Hillis
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Our young protagonist will be obsessed with death and see ghosts everywhere. Never has the prison of childhood seemed so inescapable.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
01/03/08
Melissa Anderson
Time Out New York

During its three hours, seasons come and go, friends and relatives gather for funerals, weddings and christenings, and all human life is here.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
08/11/07
Philip French
Observer [UK]

Dickensian in its extravagant emotional power - with a hint of Charlotte Brontë - and some Chekhov in its melancholy.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
08/10/07
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

Bergman at his most compelling, detailed and witty. An astonishing and deeply rewarding achievement.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
08/10/07
Jon Fortgang
Channel 4 Film

An accomplished masterpiece, with excellent performances and rarely bettered direction.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
08/10/07
Alan Morrison
Empire Magazine

Immensely pleasurable.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
08/01/07
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

The result is one of Bergman's most haunting and suggestive films.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
08/01/07
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A sumptuously produced period piece that is also a rich tapestry of childhood memoirs and moods, fear and fancy, employing all the manners and means of the best of cinematic theatrical from high and low comedy to darkest tragedy.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
08/01/07
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An extraordinary drama about childhood and imagination as a passport out of dread and into mystery.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
07/31/07
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

One of the Great Films by one of the Great Filmmakers.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
07/30/07
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide

Arguably Bergman's most accessible and upbeat work, this childhood fable is magical, personal, and poignant in the way that other masterpieces of the genre are, most notably Truffaut's 400 Blows and Fellini's Amarcord.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
07/03/06
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

It’s a marvellously engrossing and thought-provoking film, filled with dazzling dramatic set-pieces and witty, knowing allusions to its creator’s artistic conceits and deceits.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

No review available.

comment Comment
10/01/05
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

The director's most accessible, and perhaps most personal film.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
07/25/05
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

No review available.

comment Comment
07/07/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
06/03/05
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Latest News for Fanny and Alexander

July 30, 2007: Through Bergman's Past, Brightly
With the passing of Ingmar Bergman Monday, the world of cinema lost one of its most unique and important voices. Thus, we at Rotten Tomatoes decided to pick our favorite Bergman... More...

July 30, 2007: Legendary Director Ingmar Bergman dies at 89
Ingmar Bergman, the "poet with a camera," died in his sleep at his home in Faro, Sweden Monday at the age of 89. The director of such influential films as The Seventh Seal,... More...

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