Fanny and Alexander (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

***FOR MATURE ADULTS ONLY*** Do not allow young children to see this film, but older teenagers could watch it. Contains partial nudity and adult sexual situations. Includes some scenes of emotional and mental abuse of children and some physical abuse of smacking the back of a child's head and one scene of spanking.I have seen Fanny and Alexander (1982) many times throughout my life during different ages. Like fine wine, it gets better. I enjoy the First Act of Christmas in the Ekdakl home. This review originally was for the VHS 2-tape edition, Rated "R". I have now added the DVD set Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection to this comment. Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1982). The very best from Ingmar Bergman. Directed and written by Ingmar Bergman. This film is perfectly cast with actors and actresses you will not soon forget. Very memorable film from Sweden.Won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, nominated for Best Director - Motion Picture.Won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Best Costume. Nominated for Best Director, Best Writing - Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.Won BAFTA Film Award for Best Cinematography, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Costume Design.Filmed in Uppsala Ian and Stockholm Ian, Sweden. In the United States of America, only the 3 hour, 08 minute version had been seen in movie theaters and on KCET (then with PBS) television station. Originally shown as a television mini-series on SVT 1 in Sweden in 1983. As of 2005, for the first time ever, the entire 5 hours, 11 minutes version is now available in this DVD set. This movie plays through the eyes of 10-year old "Alexander Ekdahl" (Bertil Guve). It is Christmas Eve 1907. The Ekdahl family owns a theatre playhouse and for many years they have put on a Christmas play with the family group and respectful actors. Tonight is the annual family Christmas dinner in the Ekdahl estate. It is a big manor with Christmas decorations from room to room, floor to floor. It will be a lively house filled with many people and children to run around. This house is an excellent place for Alexander and his sister Fanny (Pernilla Allwin). The matriarch of the family, the grandmother, is Helena Ekdahl (Gunn Wallgren). Her husband has past previously. This Christmas she is depressed and sits with her husband's friend, Isak Jacobi (Erland Josephson), whom she has secretly courted. Attending the family Christmas gathering is: Emilie (Ewa Froling) and Oscar Ekdahl (Allan Edwall): the parents of Fanny & Alexander. Oscar, the owner of the playhouse has not been feeling well. Alexander (Bertil Guve) is a 9-year old boy full of excitement and wonder. He performs in the family stage productions, but he loves Christmas in his grandmother's mansion.He likes to hide under a table for security and indulges in fantasy, sometimes he listens to adults talking. He likes the comfort from his grandmother, Helena. Alma (Mona Malm) and Gustav Ekdahl (Jarl Kulle): Alma and Emilie are wonderful sister-in-laws and they enjoy each other's company. Alma's husband, Gustav, is a delightful family man with a good business-sense, but is oversexed with Alma and is also philandering with a young maid, Maj (Pernilla August [Wallgren]). Maj is naughty with Gustav, who wants to buy her a cafe to run. Alma and Gustav have a daughter, Petra (Maria Granlund). Carl Ekdahl (Borje Ahlstedt) and his wife, Lydia (Christina Scholin): Carl drinks, but has insomnia and depression. He also has a temper and disrespects his wife. He degrades her. As a Christmas present to the Swedish kids, he likes to walk up and down the stairs quickly with his pants off (is still clothed underneath with long-johns) and provokes farting. With the candles nearby, he can make "fireworks". The children laugh. It is a lovely Christmas for all. Two months later, Oscar has a spell while performing on stage. He dies leaving Emilie in a great amount of grief. Alexander is scared of the death of his father. However, he and Fanny see their father again as a ghost (ironically what he has played on stage). Oscar as a ghost appears standing around the Ekdahl mansion and other places wishing to protect Fanny & Alexander.On the day of the funeral, Emilie is comforted by Bishop Edvard Vergerus (Jan Malmsjo), a theatre patron, and later decides to marry him. Emilie becomes too firm with saddened Alexander and the Bishop is very tough on him and abusive as a stepfather. The Bishop is overbearing and possessive to Emilie as well. Can the children ever return to their happy life again in the Ekdahl estate? Mats Bergman is Ingmar Bergman's son. He plays "Aron Retzinsky", the puppet-maker and assistant to "Isak Jacobi" (Erland Josephson).Bertil Guve gives an excellent and memorable performance as "Alexander". His last film was Ingmar Bergman's After the Rehearsal (1984-tv) where he made a cameo appearance. He kept in contact with director Ingmar Bergman through the years.Pernilla Allwin is a beautiful, decent girl in this film. She plays "Fanny" with strength. Pernilla only did one more tv-movie, Ett hjarta av guld (1982-tv). Like Bertil Guve, she decided not to continue acting in movies.I thought Jarl Kulle was delightful in this movie, a scene stealer. Sorry to hear of his passing in 1997 due to bone cancer. Gunn Walgren is perhaps the grandmother we would like to have. I enjoyed her performance and she brightens up every scene she is in. She passed away six month's after this film was first shown on Sweden television. She was ill with cancer during filming, but never said a word about it. I thought this movie was perfectly cast with a great ensemble cast, Jarl Kulle, Mona Malm, Ewa Froling, Gunn Wallgren with Bertil Guve and Pernilla Allwin. Lena Olin plays "Rosa". If you are new to this film, I would recommend seeing the widely-seen theatrical 3 hours, 08 minute version first. The story gets to the point rather quickly. Objectionable adult scenes are still included. I would suggest an English-dubbed version instead of an English subtitled version. Then, if you really like the movie, go ahead and see the rarely-seen 5 hour version. Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection Jarl Kulle, Mona Malm, Harriet Andersson and Gunnar Bjornstrand worked together 27 years earlier in Ingmar Bergman's Smiles Of A Summer Night - Criterion Collection (1955). Jarl Kulle and Mona Malm were also in Last Pair Out (aka Last Couple Out (1956)), All These Women [PAL Import] (1964). Pernilla August appeared in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) and Star Wars - Episode II, Attack of the Clones (Widescreen Edition). Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection contains the 3 hours, 08 min. theatrical version and the 5 hours, 11 min. Swedish television version. Their is also The Making of Fanny & Alexander included on 2 discs.The 3.08 version DVD, shown in full-screen on one disc, includes the option of the original Swedish language or English language dubbed. Also the option of English subtitles, on or off. It's your choice. Audio Commentary in English is by Film Scholar Peter Cowie. The print of this film is in beautiful color like I have never seen it before. Restored, it looks fresh and new right out of the can.The 5.11 version contains over 2 hours of footage rarely seen in the USA. 2 discs with all four episodes, five acts. Only the Swedish language with English subtitles is available for this version. However, if you have already seen the 3 hours, 08 min. version, it should not be a problem. You may turn the English subtitles on or off. You also get a 34-page booklet with this set. Their is no audio commentary for this version.Disc 2 contains episodes 3 & 4.Disc 2 also has a featurette, "A Bergman Tapestry" with 2004 interviews with: Actress Ewa Froling, executive producer Jorn Donner, production mananger Katinka Farago, Actor Erland Josephson, art director Anna Asp, Actress Pernilla (Wallgren) August, Actor Bertil Guve, assistant director Peter Schildt.If the Christmas scenes are your favorite in the 3.08 version, you will be happy to know that the 5.11 version contains so much more, in fact, the entire episodes.The interior set of Grandmother Helena's home I was quite taken by. Oh to be a boy and roam around that house especially at Christmas time. Bravo to the imagination of the artists, set constructors and set decorators. Every Fanny och Alexander fan will enjoy The Criterion Collection 5-disc set. Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection

I've been meaning to comment on this film for a few days now, but I haven't had the time or the energy (been really busy lately) to do so. Maybe it was Sven Nykvist's recent passing (btw, his Oscar-winning work in this film is one of unparalleled magnificence and beauty) that inspired me to write about it. There are so many things I want to say about this film that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start by saying that this has been the shortest 5 hours I've spent watching a film. At first I had planned to watch it in parts as the film is divided in acts, but I was so instantly taken, engrossed and fascinated, that I just felt like watching the whole thing in one sitting. I know that a 5-hour long film can sound very intimidating and exhausting, but the film is specifically divided in 5 distinguishable acts that make it more digestible, and believe me, it's so absorbing that you will barely notice you spent all that time watching it; it's that good. I've skimmed through the 3-hour theatrical version, and while it is a great film, some of my favorite parts are either shortened or completely cut from the film, which for me, lessens the impact the whole 5-hour extended TV version has. Both versions work, of course, but if you want to get a greater understanding of Bergman's vision, I totally recommend the extended version.Now onto the film itself. What can I say? It's magnificent. A grand, rich and glorious tapestry of life, family, love, hate, imagination, art, fantasy, reality, religion, magic, death, faith, spirituality, God, despair, redemption, youth, innocence, maturity, old age and the supernatural. Fanny and Alexander is all of these things and even more. I don't want to go into much plot detail, but point out what I liked so much about the film by mentioning some of my favorite scenes and commenting on them. And in this film there are plenty. Rarely I've felt the sense of familial warmth and love in a film or elsewhere as I have with Fanny and Alexander. The first act shows us a Christmas dinner family celebration, and it is instantly intoxicating and beguiling, and you're instantly drawn to these flawed-yet-loving and caring characters that constitute this large, happy family and Bergman's direction is so vivid that you totally feel the joy in sharing and the affection and love. One of my favorite scenes in this part is Oscar's (the family patriarch and owner of the family theater)heartfelt and candid speech about the importance of the theater, this "little world" as it is referred to, and how art can reflect the "big world" and help us have a greater endurance during bad times. This theme is more thoroughly explored in an enchanting and beautiful scene in which Oscar explains to Fanny and Alexander through the simple story of a chair how art is connected to life, how important and essential art is in enriching our lives, helping us have a deeper awareness and appreciation of the world at large, and how there is more to what meets the eye, an inner life lying underneath the surface of things. Bergman was raised within a very strict and opressive family, and I'm pretty sure that the Ekdahls is the kind of family (Loving, supportive, encouraging, freethinkers) he would've liked to be raised in. I echo his (likely) sentiment. Likewise, if I got a profound sense of love and family in the first act, when tragedy strikes in the second act, I got a great sense of suffering and despair. One of the most strikingly moving scenes in the film involves Oscar's wife, Emilie, giving these primal, animal cries of grief over her dead husband; the scene is simply heartwrenching. Similarly engrossing, is the open and penetrating conversation between Emilie and the bishop about her faith and her spiritual confusion and longing. But in the third and fourth acts is when the characters' resilience are really put to the test. None of the pain, humiliation and the frailty of the human heart throughout the film is better illustrated in a scene of tremendous impact in which Alexander is severely punished by the bishop and Fanny has no other option but to stand and watch as her brother is being physically abused, only moments later to see her defiantly turn down the bishop's affections. Another favorite scene during this act is Helena's - the family matriarch - beautiful and eloquent soliloquy to her son Oscar about the joys and pains in life, the futility of fighting against its forces and just living it as it comes. It is what it is. Another standout is Isak Jacobi's (a family friend and magician) metaphorical story that encapsulates the importance and at the same time the futility of searching for meaning in life. Some of the film's most intriguing, revealing and fantastical moments are in this act. In what's probably the greatest moment in a film full of great moments, is Alexander's encounter with a mysterious character named Ismael. I think this scene is the climax of the film as it brings closure to Alexander's arch. There's also a deep sense of the supernatural as it is suggested that everything, fantasy and reality, the logical and unexplainable, the material and the etheral, the good and even the bad, is a manifestation of God. I feel that with those statements, Bergman is telling us that he probably managed to finally exorcise the demons that had been haunting him throughout his life, or at least come to terms with them, as his onscreen alterego Alexander has as well. All of this told, detailed and presented with the skill of a master storyteller.I was fully enraptured by this film. I love the way it beautifully conveyed the relevance of art and imagination and how they're actually essential for humanity. I loved how it showed life in all its joyful, fantastical, realistic, tragic, resigned and ultimately hopeful glory. I loved its sense of completeness yet also leaving the viewer with an air of mystery that implies the endless possibilities of life. A masterpiece and easily one of my favorite films ever.

thanks

Un film è perfetto quando per ipnosi magica un grande regista ti fa confondere avvenimenti ed immagini che vedi con avvenimenti ed immagini che hai la sensazione di aver vissuto in vite passate. Così diventi un testimone privilegiato e ti sembra di aver dato un contributo affinchè alcune cose avvenissero così come il grande mago dietro la macchina da presa ha preferito che fossero.

En cuanto a Bergman, está es la mejor compra posible.Fanny y Alexander es una obra maestra. De lo más grande que jamás ha llegado al cine, y televisión. Junto con Persona y Escenas de un matrimonio, Fanny y Alexander encabeza la lista de las mejores películas de Bergman y del cine en general. No hay más grande recomendación que ver este impresionante trabajo, que, en el momento, Bergman esperaba que fuera su último.Por su parte, el trabajo de Criterion es excelente (como era de esperar). La versión de miniserie se encuentra en un disco sin extras. La versión de cine se encuentra en otro disco, junto a un comentario del experto en Bergman (y siempre disfrutable e interesante), Peter Cowie . Y, en el tercer disco, entrevistas (largas, con Bergman y otros miembros del elenco) y el documental dirigido por el propio Bergman, Making Fanny & Alexander. Además del clásico libro incluido en las ediciones de Criterion con diversos ensayos.La remasterización es realmente impresionante. Los colores son magníficos. La imagen es increíblemente detallada, resaltando la impecable cinematografia del incomparable Sven Nykvist. En pocas palabras, es una de las peliculas más bellas que jamás se han hecho.El sonido también es impecable. Tiene una perfecta mezcla mono que es perfectamente clara y resaltable.Simplemente es la versión definitiva de una de las más grandes películas que jamás se han hecho.

No nos ha gustado. El producto estaba en italiano y no en español

包装もキレイで無事に届きました。ありがとうございます。