Q: Dear Jane, how would you describe the film, "FANNY AND ALEXANDER" ?
A: That film (F & Alexander) is very dense. It has a lot (and even a lot of humor). The film is really about "breaking free". Even the Bishop breaks free in his terrible burning anguish & death. He was also asking to die, in so many ways.
He wanted to be terminated, I feel. He knew that by severely punishing the childen, and also shaming the Jewish man, would bring definitive black karma his way.
The characters are all plagued by this quiet conservative ambience that dominates their lives, yet behind closed doors/red curtains (although the maids are always privvy), they have their fun and flings with one another, and indulge themselves in taboos beyond the imaginable. When doors are closed, they permit themselves to be human.
The mother screaming like a banshee, and pacing back and forth in the background while the children endured was so horrifying. I am glad you made me pay extra attention to that part, with all of its cultural meanings. She was completely lost in a trance of primal screaming.
The marriage of the bishop and his young bride captured the heart of the film. At first, this choice for marriage seemed perfect. Lovey. Responsible. Possible. Then, as their relationship becomes comfortable (I mean as HE becomes comfortable) the devastation of his need to dominate and restrict take course. He drained her without even meaning to. His behaviour toward her children was despicable, but it was not that behaviour that compelled her to take action and leave him. It was her realization that if she stayed there, she would end up just as inanimate as all of those puppets in the film. If she stayed inside of that world, she would be wooden.
* * * I especially liked some of Bergman's casting choices. Like the casting of Ismael (a woman Bergman cast as a male), that weird strange evil person, who basically ignites the horrors that everyone is keeping steadily within by a simple and isolated conversation with Alexander in a room.
In conclusion- The film summarized Bergman's lifelong crisis that he had with his priest father.
For others (us, the public audience), I feel the film explained just how dangerous keeping unexpressed intense family emotions can be. Especially if there is some kerosene hiding somewhere around the house.
