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Saraband (2003)

tomatometer

94

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 78
Fresh: 73 | Rotten: 5

If Saraband appears to be a minor entry in Ingmar Bergman's filmography, it's still an accomplished piece of work from one of cinema's greatest masters.

92

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 26
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 2

If Saraband appears to be a minor entry in Ingmar Bergman's filmography, it's still an accomplished piece of work from one of cinema's greatest masters.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 4,642

My Rating

Movie Info

As the final masterwork of Ingmar Bergman, the world's most revered cinematic craftsperson, Saraband embodies the sequel to the director's five-hour Scenes from a Marriage, produced and directed 30 years after that original epic. Here, Bergman revisits the two characters from that film, divorcees Johan (Erland Josephson) and Marianne (Liv Ullmann), after years of estrangement from one another. Marianne now lives alone; of her two middle-aged daughters from the marriage to Johan, one lives in

R, 1 hr. 47 min.

Drama, Television, Art House & International

Ingmar Bergman

Jan 10, 2006

$0.5M

Sony Pictures Classics

Cast

All Critics (85) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (76) | Rotten (5) | DVD (9)

While bringing an abundance of inspiration to this world, Bergman unapologetically refused to ignore the pain and darkness that infects mankind. There will never be another filmmaker like him.

December 2, 2005 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | Comment
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The performances -- welling, unified and multidimensional -- are beyond praise, as are Bergman's visual images.

September 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A stunning and complex final bow from a stunning and complex artist.

August 11, 2005 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Comment
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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The performances are perfectly distilled, but the traits I dislike in Bergman are all here -- self-pity, brutality, spiritual constipation, and an unwillingness to try to overcome these difficulties.

August 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment (1)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

What remain intact are the filmmaker's unbreakable heart, lyrical soul and sublime art. So why should we say goodbye? Instead: Bravo. Encore.

August 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
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Saraband, flat and static both visually and thematically, doesn't begin to approximate the austere beauty of the director's art-house classics.

August 5, 2005 Comment
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Bergman has a sharp talent for observing human conflicts without claiming to fully understand them.

June 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine | Comment
Paste Magazine

So many great directors seem to go out with a whimper. Ingmar Bergman has gone out with a bang.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | Comment
BrandonFibbs.com

We find [Bergman]at 87, sifting through his pictures, wondering at the choices he's made.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

No one else could have made it, and you should see it.

May 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Sacramento News & Review

Insightful as ever but a little dated in the set-up and treatment of the shooting.

April 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Powerful and more than a little depressing, but it's also essential filmmaking for anyone who cares about one of the giants of cinema.

February 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | Comment
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Any Bergman is better than most of the art-house dramas that have been shipped to the States from Europe in recent times.

January 28, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

It's easy to go out in style when you have style.

January 18, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

confessional outbursts are captured in lengthy takes, usually in mercilessly tight close-ups.... It's as if Bergman is taking X-rays of their souls.

November 8, 2005 Full Review Source: Kalamazoo Gazette | Comment
Kalamazoo Gazette

Even if it is, as he claims, his last film, Saraband will be a testament to Bergman's skill as a filmmaker, still a creative force to be reckoned with after 60-plus years in the business.

October 8, 2005 Full Review Source: BBC | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Saraband

"Saraband", written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, takes place thirty years after the events of "Scenes from a Marriage".(But it is not essential that you see the earlier movie to watch "Saraband.") Once married, Johan(Erland Josephson) and Marianne(Liv Ullmann) have not seen each other in the interim when she

August 14, 2005
Harlequin68
Walter M.

Super Reviewer

hejsan. mycket bra film! even has geriatric nudity!! YEAH! the story is so simple, a 2 line synopsis would sound utterly boring but bergman digs deep into details which keeps the pace fresh and interesting.

October 19, 2006
decals74

Super Reviewer

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Latest News for Saraband

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...

October 5, 2005:
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