Fanny and Alexander (film)

This was a film that was made at the end of Bergman's life and there is a feeling throughout the film of reflection tinged with nostalgia, and dotted throughout with autobiographical material.

Set around the beginning of the 20th century, this is a fairytale like story of the Ekdahl family told through the eyes of its youngest Fanny and Alexander. The film opens on the eve of Christmas where the grand Ekdahl household is bustling with preparations for festivities. There is something comforting about watching all the Christmas decor, food, and traditions that were being observed. It reminds me of what Ang Lee said about his work in Eat Drink Man Woman: time and time again he would present an amazing spread of food that goes uneaten inducing a feeling of yearning or dissatisfaction. Bergman seems to play on this idea but produces the opposite effect (I'm not suggesting that Bergman was inspired by Ang Lee and it wouldn't be possible as EDMW came out in 1994). The early part of the film is filled with drinking, eating, dancing, joking, and fornicating to excess as if to demonstrate the energy of youth and strength. It's as if Bergman was reminiscing his early energetic years as he makes this film near the end of his career.

But it's not all fun and games for the Ekdahls, particularly for Fanny and Alexander. Illness, death, as well as birth and marriage come and go as tides, changing people, their physique, attitude, strengths and weaknesses, and their hopes and dreams. Towards the end of the film, I came to realise that Fanny and Alexander as children merely float away like buoys in the waves of an environment created and amended by the adults around them and their happiness is a litmus test to the wellbeing of the entire family. 

The future Bergman envisioned at the time of the film, and quite correctly, was a world where women were more in control as the final scenes allude. We also encounter the message that institutions and those representing them, either religious, political or educational, often have the opposite effects and intentions to those they preach, and that joy and kindness is found in unexpected places. It is a beautiful film filled with lush magical scenery which is what I look forward to seeing from Christmas films, and expresses a kind and hopeful sentiment I hope you enjoy. 

Things to come ; L'avenir (film)

I am loving everything with Isabelle Huppert in it lately and this quirky, thoughtful piece certainly did not disappoint.

Isabelle Huppert plays Nathalie Chazeaux, a philosophy teacher who initially seems to have lots of good things going for her. Her and her husband seem to have a solid relationship (he also teaches philosophy at university), she gets along with her children and her rather difficult mother, and she has been in her field for more than a decade yet is still enthusiastic about philosophical ideas.

What becomes clear through a series of events is that she is detached from the ideas and principles she teaches. The viewers get a glimpse of this when she refuses to allow students to have a debate about a current political event insisting that they are there to "learn" about. She fails to realise that students thinking and talking about current events becomes more urgent and real when applied to life.

Despite how many philosophers she can name, to her, they are merely the subject matter of her teaching profession. The film seems to be poking fun at the consumerist culture that dehumanizes the process of production and consumption. Expanded into academia, education is a "product" or "service" rather than an advancement in the way people think about the world and the improvement of character.

Nathalie acts as a passive deliverer of ideas to her students as much as she passively consumes ideas from the books she reads. She is embarrassed and dismissive of her more passionate younger self but she's stuck in the present and unable to move on, like how her and her husband play the same few composers decade after decade, afraid to try out something new or different for fear of failure or ridicule. The modern world is calling on Nathalie to engage and get more involved but not in the way she would like to; the marketing team wants her book cover re-designed with bold patterns and colors to attract more consumers: Nathalie is repulsed.

Overnight, everything changes: Nathalie's husband has an affair and leaves her, her mother dies leaving behind a cat, her book deal is off, one of her favorite students is critical of her, and she becomes a grandmother. We see Nathalie become irrational and child-like, overwhelmed by her emotions, and far removed from the thoughts and discussions she preaches. "But isn't that the most human response?" the film seems to be asking: the views of the audience will vary depending on each person's own experience and that's what makes this film so fantastic.