Customer Reviews

Making of Fanny & Alexander [VHS]

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this documentary on the making of Ingmar Bergman's crowning masterpiece, 'Fanny and Alexander', is essential viewing, not just for admirers of the director's work, but for anyone who wants to get the most out of watching films. We are privileged to trace the miracle of creation, as the tedious process of rehearsals, takes, retakes, compositons, mapping of camera movements, is transformed into the magic of the final cut. On the way, we become alert to nuance and the specifics of film grammar (not just camera work and editing, but the placing of characters, the importance of colour, the meaning of decor etc.) - if you watch this documentary before 'Fanny', or any Bergman film, you become more alert, responsive to what can seem forbiddingly difficult or concealed.

'The Making Of...' is also more than a mere adjunct to Bergman's oeuvre: it is a true Bergman film, a portrait of the artist, and the lengthy sequence near the end, where Bergman rehearses his old colleague, the great Gunnar Bjornstrand, now approaching senility, is as remorselessly harrowing as anything in 'Persona' or 'Cries and Whispers'.

Al Capp, the creator of Li'l Abner, is not someone we normally think of in connection with Ingmar Bergman, but Capp was the creator of a character called C.C. Yokum, where "C.C." stood for "Complete Control." And "C.C. Bergman" is who the great director becomes in front of our eyes during this protracted peek behind the scenes of his great last work, "Fanny and Alexander." In this respect, the main feature on this DVD is a remarkable inside look both at Bergman and how his movies were made. Is his the iron hand in a velvet glove or the soft voice that just might possess a mailed fist?

Never mind, because the greatest treasure on this DVD is not the main feature. It is an interview with Bergman -- 60 minutes of pure pleasure and wisdom as he talks to Nils Peter Sundgren in a 1984 Swedish TV interview. I recommend two or three hearings for true Bergman fans, more if you have the time.

This film is very much what its title suggests - the making of Fanny and Alexander. A camera is registrating the people and the work around Bergmans master-piece Fanny and Alexander. It is nothing more and nothing less. It is a silent testimony in which youre not served anything, as a consequence there is, on the other hand, a lot to discover.