About

To be honest, it is with delight and curiosity that I think back on my childhood … It was difficult for me to differentiate between what existed in my imagination and what was real. - Ingmar Bergman

Fanny and Alexander was meant to be the end. Ingmar Bergman had decided to make one final cinematic statement before retiring to a life of theatre, television, and writing. While he would eventually return to feature filmmaking with 2003's Saraband, Fanny and Alexander is the director's grandest testament: a sweeping, autobiographical portrait of a family told through the eyes of two young siblings in turn-of-the-century Sweden. An opulent production featuring dozens of speaking roles, it would be the most expensive Swedish film produced to date.

Like Scenes from a Marriage 1973, Bergman shot an extended version of the narrative for television, though this Theatrical Cut was released first. Its grandness is not diminished by its shorter runtime – in particular, Sven Nykvist's sumptuous cinematography (winner of one of the film's four Academy Awards) is luminescent on the silver screen. Fanny and Alexander in either form remains a monumental summation of a life's work; it combines melancholy and joy, high emotion with warm humour. While it did not end up being Bergman's final film, it may still be his magnum opus.