Birthday of Fanny and Alexander
On December 17, 1982, premiere of the "Fanny and Alexander" by Ingmar Bergman took place in Sweden.
Ingmar Bergman decided to make an autobiographical film in the late 70s. Already in 1979, he had a 100-page script for the future film ready. The script was based on his childhood memories. The main character of the future film - Alexander - Bergman endowed with his own character traits.
At the same time, Bergman decided that this would be his last film. This decision was caused by a number of reasons. The second half of the 70s brought Bergman several serious shocks. First, there is the scandal with the Swedish tax authorities, when Bergman was accused of tax evasion. This accusation ended in a nervous breakdown for Bergman and a three-week stay in a psychiatric clinic. In order to avoid a prison sentence, Bergman was forced to leave Sweden. Secondly, it is the failure of his film "The Serpent's Egg". All this affected Bergman's health, exacerbating his illnesses, both real and imaginary. Even while working on the film "Fanny and Alexander" Bergman constantly suffered from hypochondria and aloud expressed fears that death would not allow him to finish this film. In fact, after the film "Fanny and Alexander" Bergman lived another quarter of a century.
But Bergman still fulfilled his decision, but only half. "Fanny and Alexander", indeed, became the last full-length feature film in the work of the great master. But Bergman made several television, short films, and documentaries over the next 25 years.
Initially, Ingmar Bergman conceived a 4-part film for television. But the shooting was carried out on film for cinema and Bergman kept in mind two versions: TV and cinema, a shorter one. The first release was the theatrical version, lasting 178 minutes. Swedish moviegoers saw it on December 17, 1982. And during the Christmas holidays at the end of December, viewers also saw a 4-part TV version with a total duration of 312 minutes.
As you know, Ingmar Bergman had his own "team" of actors. Many of the actors from this "team" Bergman was going to attract to work in this film. With Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand and Erland Josephson, it worked. But, unfortunately for Bergman, it didn't work out with Liv Ullman. Liv Ullman, Bergman's ex-wife, refused Bergman's offer to play the role of Emily, Alexander's mother, in the film, citing her employment in another project. The termination of their marital relationship here hardly mattered, because after the divorce, Liv Ullman already played in Bergman's film "Autumn Sonata", and played brilliantly. And she herself later, regretting her refusal, when asked about the reason for it, replied that she did not understand why she refused to play in the last movie of her ex-husband.
For other reasons, the collaboration in this film did not work out for Bergman with Max von Sydow, who had already played in 10 of Bergman's films before starting work on "Fanny and Alexander". And in the film "Fanny and Alexander" von Sydow was just eager to play. But at the time of the negotiations, he was far away, in Los Angeles. An agent was assigned to conduct the negotiations. And the latter, in an effort to maximize his commission, broke the amount of von Sydow's fee, which is not lifting even for a very large picture budget by Swedish standards. As a result, Bergman had to offer the role of Bishop Vergerus, the evil genius of Alexander, to another actor. (It is curious that in the film "Ansiktet (The Magician)" by Ingmar Bergman, the negative character also has the name Vergerus.) Max von Sydow, when he learned all the circumstances of the case, bitterly regretted. The agent, of course, was fired.
At the time of its release, "Fanny and Alexander" with 60 starring actors and 1,200 extras, with a budget of $ 6 million, was the largest film and the most expensive ever made in Sweden.
The year 1984 was a festival triumph for Ingmar Bergman's film "Fanny and Alexander". At the beginning of the year, it received 2 nominations for the American Golden Globe Award. In the category of Best foreign film, the film "Fanny and Alexander" won. And in the Best Director category, the preference was given to Barbra Streisand, the director of the film "Yentl". A little later, the film "Fanny and Alexander" received 6 nominations for the Academy Award, of which it won 4, including in the category Best Foreign Language Film. And in the Best Director category, the American film Academy gave preference to James L. Brooks, the director of the film "Terms of Endearment".
The British Film Academy nominated Ingmar Bergman's film in 4 categories, but its BAFTA award was awarded only for Best Cinematography. In the Best Foreign Language Film category, the award was given to Andrzej Wajda's "Danton". But the French Film Academy awarded Bergman's film its Cesar Award as the Best foreign language Film. The Italian film Academies nominated the film "Fanny and Alexander" in 4 categories and awarded it their David di Donatello Award in 3 of them: Best Foreign Film, Best Foreign Producer and Best Foreign Director. Moreover, the preference for the film "Fanny and Alexander" and Ingmar Bergman was given in comparison with Andrzej Wajda and his film "Danton", Woody Allen and his film "Zelig".
The film "Fanny and Alexander" was widely admired by professional film critics. The guru of American film criticism, Roger Ebert, devoted two reviews to the film and in both rated the film with a maximum of 4 stars. In the second review, from 2004, Ebert included Bergman's film in his list of "Great Movies". The general conclusion that Ebert makes in his review
"The movie is astonishingly beautiful."
Modern moviegoers also highly appreciated Ingmar Bergman's film "Fanny and Alexander". 71% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of Ingmar Bergman's film "Fanny and Alexander" according to FilmGourmand was 10,347, which allowed it to take the 27th Rank in the Golden Thousand. According to FilmGourmand, Ingmar Bergman's family drama "Fanny and Alexander" was recognized as the best film of the world cinema of 1982.
