Fanny & Alexander: Amazon.ca: Bertil Guve, Pernilla Allwin, B�rje Ahlstedt, Allan Edwall, Ewa Fr�ling, Gunn W�llgren, Jarl Kulle, Jan Malmsj�, Christina Schollin, Kerstin Tidelius, Emelie Werk�, Marianne Aminoff, Sven Nykvist, Ingmar Bergman, Sylvia Ingemarsson, Daniel Toscan du Plantier, J�rn Donner, Renzo Rossellini: DVD

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Product Description

Amazon.ca essential video

It was instantly acclaimed the crowning masterwork of Ingmar Bergman's career, and time has not dimmed the Olympian status of Fanny and Alexander. Bergman drew upon memories of his own childhood for this portrait of the Ekdahls, the upper-class Swedish family whose celebrations and tribulations are seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Alexander (Bertil Guve). The world of the theater, of puppet shows and magic lanterns, does battle in this scenario with the cold realities of the palace of the bishop--a man whose influence over Alexander's mother gives the movie the stark outlines of a fairy tale.--Robert Horton

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Customer Reviews

20 Reviews

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Fin-de-siècle phenomenal film - the Apogee of Ingmar Bergman, Feb 20 2012

By

Martin G. Beyer (St-Urbain-de-Charlevoix (Quebec), Canada) - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: Fanny & Alexander (DVD)

Looking for a movie which has everything and anything for the whole family? Looking for a substantial cameo of past European culture and human passion? Looking for lives and loves as Nordic as Carlsberg, L�ytens akkevit, IKEA or Kalajastatorppa? Drama, comics and antics antique and young and fresh? No need to search further than this miracle of a movie, Fanny and Alexander, by the late great Ingmar Bergman, his last and ultimate work for the screen. This fabulous fable on film describes the history of the Ekdahl family , a reasonably well-to-do group of adults and children in the high bourgeois circles of the years before the horrors of World War One, playing, say, around 1905. Not only is there a kaleidoscopic mix of pastoral idyll, although Bergman's phobia of (Lutheran) pastors weighs in strongly in the latter part of the movie, and high drama, but it all gives an intimate picture of Sweden with its folklore and festivals, but also with the pride and prejudice of life in that country of booze and birches as it was a hundred years ago. All is as perceived by the young siblings, Fanny and Alexander, whose wide-open eyes register the antics of farbror(uncle)Karlchen, the indebted professor with his hysteric German wife, of the meandering, philandering other uncle, Gustav Adolf, the mild but doomed theatre director Oscar, the children's dad, his widow, the ethereal Emilie, and her dreadful bishop, stately old and beautiful grandma Helena with her tender Jewish lover Isak Jacobi. If you know and love the water-colour images from his home by the likewise Swedish artist, Carl Larsson, from that very same epoch, this most literary masterpiece is for you and your family. This is not a one-night stand, you would want to see it over and over. The copy of the present reviewer has discreet English subtitles to the Swedish sounds, so far (2012) there seems to be no French version available. Never mind the language, but here you have a gem for your DVD collection!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fairy Tale for Adults, May 10 2009

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Javed Her'aat (Toronto, ON) - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection (DVD)

An earlier reviewer compared the film to literature. It is a tempting comparison. Fanny and Alexander is rich and dense, in the best sense of those words; it gathers and resolves itself at a novel's pace; it is crammed with secondary characters and, without being digressive, it gives glimpses of those lives as well.

The Christmas celebration scenes of the first Act are filled with an exuberance and joy which have rarely been better expressed in art--the only real equivalents I can think of are literary (the party scene in "The Dead", or Nikolai Rostov's homecoming in "War and Peace"). This being the universe of serious art, however, dread and death still skulk about and, though they do strike, the film never becomes oppressive but instead transforms gradually into a marvellous fairy tale.

I have seen the Seventh Seal, Hour of the Wolf, Persona, Shame, Scenes from a Marriage, and Cries and Whispers. Fanny and Alexander is the Bergman film I most love.

The Criterion DVD transfer is beautiful. This movie makes me wish I had a large, wide-screen television on which to watch it. The five-disc set includes both the original theatrical release (approximately three hours) and the even longer version which Bergman made for Swedish television. Most people will be content with owning the three hour version, which Criterion has made separately available for about half the price. While the television version feels even more novelistic--secondary characters get more time, certain details get filled in, and certain themes are allowed fuller expression--I cannot say that it is definitively better. Each version has its particular appeal and indeed is a different film. That said, I do have a slight preference for the theatrical version because it is relatively tighter and the fairy tale theme was better executed, but then that means giving up some lovely and funny scenes from the latter...

Perhaps the only recommendation if you're trying to decide between the two Criterion versions is to get this movie from the local video store. Only if you find your shorter tour of this last of Bergman's cinematic worlds hospitable should you go on for the longer stay. In either case it's worth it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Even better in blue ray, Dec 19 2011

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Mike "at the movies" (Victoria BC) - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection (DVD)

It is delightful to have the television version in blu-ray. It is fuller, rounder and with much additional detail. A highlight for a life-time Bergman lover is the performance of Gunnar Bjornstrand in what was to be his last performance. The sequence with him as the Clown from Twelfth Night is to be savoured.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars We need this movie in DVD format!
I'm not very familiar with other Bergman movies, so I cannot approach this movie from the standpoint of a Bergman fan. Lisez davantage

Published on Nov 20 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars Bergman's Powerful Farewell
Though I give Fanny and Alexander only 4 stars, I can totally understand reviewers who give it 5 stars. Lisez davantage

Published on Oct 18 2001 by andrew smith