Scenes from a Marriage

Following two characters, Marianne and Johan, the film, in typical Bergman style, examines ontological questions of love, loneliness, being and what it means to be 'fulfilled'. As with all of Bergman's films, 'Scenes From a Marriage' is not simply a narrative about a married couple and their 'ups and downs'. Bergman successfully probes into what it means and feels like to need the love and/or security, validation of another person and the consequences of life-changing decisions.

Marianne and Johan meet again after thirty years without contact, when Marianne suddenly feels a need to see her ex-husband again. She decides to visit Johan at his old summer house in the western province of Dalarna. And so, one beautiful autumn day, there she is, beside his reclining chair, waking him with a light kiss. Staying at a cottage on the property are Johan's son Henrik and Henrik's daughter Karin. Henrik is giving his daughter cello lessons and already sees her future as staked out. Relations between father and son are very strained, but both are protective of Karin. They are all still mourning Anna, Henrik's much-loved wife, who died two years ago, yet who, in many ways, remains present among them. Marianne soon realizes that things are not all as they should be, and she finds herself unwillingly drawn into a complicated and upsetting power struggle.