Bergman Island

"Can I tell you about the story I'm writing?"

A couple retreat to the island that inspired Ingmar Bergman to write screenplays for their upcoming films when the lines between reality and fiction start to blur. Bergman Island is a light-hearted drama that's been going from festival to festival the past few month. People have praised it as a great feel good movie for cinephiles. If I'm being honest, I haven't actually seen a Bergman film. The closest I've gotten was this year's limited series Scenes From a Marriage based on his film. Being in film school, though, I am familiar with his works and what he has done for cinema. Bergman Island is there to pay homage to the name Bergman. Everything about it is centered around the filmmaker. The first 45-minutes actually goes through a tour and gives the audience a slice of who he was. This is good for those who don't know him. After a little bit, it does begin to feel more like a lesson than part of the movie. It is necessary to know all of this information but it can be a bit excessive. It almost feels like it's testing our knowledge and talking down to us. When we get into the actual story the movie is about, it becomes an enjoyable time. Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth play a troubled couple trying to find their voice for their upcoming screenplays. The two play their characters well. I found Krieps' character more appealing. We are supposed to side with her and follow almost the entire time so that is inevitable. Her passion for film and wanting a story centered around a woman like her is delightful to see.

Where the movie finds a unique voice in story is Krieps' idea of a story. The movie becomes a movie inside of a movie. This movie that we're watching stars Mia Wasikowska as a woman similar to Krieps' down to the look. This new story actually took my interest more than the overall one. It's very fun and a little more relatable. And Wasikowska steals the entire show! By adding this new aspect, it grounds the movie as a whole. Both stories start off string but lose steam as they go along. By the time we get to the new story, it felt like it was going nowhere. As great of an idea as this is and it works well, the placement is awkward. Not till about an hour in so we see this. It diverts our attention, and for good reason, but feels out of place to begin with. By the end of the new story, I started to feel some fatigue. The very end of the movie leaves us on a hopeful thought. It's a movie full of hope and there to inspire others to let their creativity flow. Mia Hansen-Løve showcases good filmmaking through direction and writing. I'm glad I saw it once it ended. I do think there were story aspects that could've been approved upon, but this is a downright enjoyable movie. Bergman Island is available to rent on VOD and it's one that I'd like to revisit again someday.

Could have been a great film, but it cannot decide which way to go. It feels like standing beore a signpost with a dozen possible directions, but the author director could not really make up her mind which one to pursue.

Since the story revolves around Ingmar Bergman, who used to life and film on this island, we get a lot of references, movie clips, talks, sights, and quips about him, his films and his life. Praise and critique about Bergman is woven into the story of a couple of filmmakers, Chris and Tony, coming to Fårö, to write scripts and learn more on Bergman. Their different work styles, subjects and attitude have quite some Bergmanesque quality, though none of the straits are followed to the end. The Bergman worshipping and bashing does not offer any new insights and sounds like remnants from an abandoned documentary project. The film tends to remain on the lighter side until we get to hear and see Chris' script evolve as she tells it to her partner.

Here begins the strongest plot line, blending fiction with the reality. I only wish the director had focussed more on this development. It would have been an ultimately more compelling film.

At first a rather boring car journey and a rather uninteresting looking island where Chris and Tony, or Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth are to have a working holiday for their screenplays. Faro was the island where Ingmar Bergman worked and filmed and Roth is especially keen on being there. The couple are not quite as loving as they might have been and Krieps starts to tell her story, although he is not so interested, as he has already planned out his own. Of course the story becomes a film within a film and it is something like her life and there are moments about Bergman. Roth even rented the house that had been filmed with the very bed in Scenes For A Marriage, 'The film that made millions of people divorce'. I understand that in reality the director, Mia Hansen-Love had a long affair with the French director Olivier Assayas who was the senior partner in both age and success.

Bergman Island is a beautiful story about the creativity and strong inner life of artists.

My review is likey biased towards favorable one because most clever and abundant references were so familiar to me, not only Ingmar Bergman's films and his biography (recommend Laterna magica to everybody), but also the soundtrack including the hymns of Lutheran church, the recurring theme of Vem kan segla förutan vind and naturally one of the key songs Abba's Winner takes it all. All these elements strongly resonated within me together with the beautiful but a bit harsh island of Fårö connected with a ferry to the outer world.

This was an extremely beautiful film about the creative process and strong inner life of artists. Its focus was what is lurking under the surface which may be only expressed in the art. Here, the theme is the severe longing of fulfillment, in love but also in the film making. The longing of complete connection, warmth and acceptance.

I loved the choice of using a triple-layer structure, the meta-layers were convincing and emotional. Mia Wasikowska's performance was perfect as always. I also admired Tim Roth's subtle performance which created the needed background for the inner struggle of the main protagonist and the artist in the film, played by Vicky Krieps.

The paradox is that the lack of absolute love and connection often drives the artistic process and you need to embrace it while writing and directing. Yet, you need to come back to the imperfect but real world after the process. This may be exhausting. This films describes this perfectly.

I would recommend this film to all cinemaphiles, in particular to those with an earlier interest in Ingmar Bergman's work and life. The movies's tempo is rather slow and the layered structure may be a bit demanding for a wider film audience. This film also gives a valuable view on the women in the film industry as creative artists themselves and not only as muses and lovers of famous directors.

Master Director Ingmar Bergman famously lived for the last decades of his life on the island of Fårö off Sweden and made it the setting for many of his films as well as varied relationships with wives and women. Writer-Director Mia Hansen-Love (EDEN, THINGS TO COME) sets her newest film on the isle and it becomes a character in and of itself.

A filmmaking couple, Chris (Vicky Krieps; so fascinating in PHANTOM THREAD) and Tony (Tim Roth), visit Fårö to work on their new screenplays as well as soak in the Bergman atmosphere, both being devoted to the famed Director. Tony is also being feted by the Swedish film community which grants the pair special access including a stay at one of Bergman's homes. This description may make it seem like this is a movie only for fans of the Swedish Director (he passed in 2007), but Hansen-Love has more on her mind (still, at least a cursory knowledge of Bergman's work is essential). This isn't to say that the film isn't littered with references and allusions to the filmmakers work and life - it is (the couple sleep in the same bedroom that was used for Bergman's SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE: "The film that made millions of people divorce" as is said here); But, Hansen-Love's focus is on the personal dynamics.

While Tony is obviously the senior partner in both age and success, the central character is clearly Chris. A movie within the movie brings to life the screenplay that she is working on. That inner tale concerns a young woman (Mia Wasikowska) who meets up with an old flame (Anders Danielsen Lie) at a wedding....on Fårö. While Wasikowska's character is named 'Amy', she is clearly a stand-in for Chris. It's a tricky and mostly clever device, even if it is awkwardly inserted into the storyline (and far too late). As a backstory within a backstory, Hansen-Love herself famously had a long affair with French Director Olivier Assayas -- who was also the senior partner in both age and success. And, to extend the "in" nature of the production even on step further, Greta Gerwig had been slated to play Chris originally (Gerwig, of course, also being involved in a filmaking couple romance with Noah Baumbach). As noted, it's awkward.

Cinefiles certainly are the target audience here. Bergman presence clearly haunts the island and there is talk of how he may have believed in ghosts. The film has an oddly structured screenplay that meanders a bit before making its design clear, but there are pleasures to be had for those that stick with it. The uninitiated may find it a pleasant tour of the scenic island (usually rendered bleakly in Bergman's films, and often in Black &White).