I have taken my time with INGMAR BERGMAN Vol 4. For Bergman films need time and 8 films need a lot of temporal commitment. I will forgo the usual review of the films, as this will serve no purpose to the likely target buyer. For this is the fourth set, his later films. By now you know what you are getting. Vol 1 was the early films. MUSIC IN DARKNESS and PORT TO CALL saw his style and language evolving. These are the films for the classic film academic. Bergman being cemented as the master. Vol 2 are the masterpieces. The adulated works that included THE SEVENTH SEAL and WILD STRAWBERRIES. These are for those who like sets that have the ‘best of’. This is the set for those wanting Bergman at his most complete in the eyes of broad film books. Vol 3 is the radical. The 1960s had dawned and THE VIRGIN SPRING, THE FAITH TRILOGY and PERSONA are in prescene. These are the films of the rebel. The iconoclast. The films that film students watch and wonder, ‘could I be this good?’ (the answer is, no you cant).

So Vol 4, what is Vol 4 going to be? Well this is the decade of Bergman making his films, his signatures. CRIES AND WHISPERS opens the set. It has no extras on it be aware but it looks as if its the same transfer as the Criterion collection release. This is a 2K restoration from Sfilm and I compared and saw little difference. This is my favourite film on the set. A bold, late new wave fist in the stomach from Bergman. The BFI team have Geoff Andrews writing on this. Setting the scene. Transformative words used to make a great film sing. Compact as well. Great work Geoff. We move on to SCENES OF A MARRIAGE. Which looks better than it has for sometime. Cleaned up in the HD it still has a flat light issue but that is all. It is a film I still cant quite get with. Its on par again with Criterions set version though in terms of treatment. Maybe a little richer here thanks to Catherine Wheatley. She identifys its glories in her essay but you feel she deserves an extra on the disc to tell us more. Extract that ambivolence for us. I would have spoken of Berne and how his transactional analysis could reward multpile views but I think Wheatley is infinetly more interesting than I could be. Then we get to AUTUMN SONATA. Again its comparable with Criterion, though marked as a 2K restoration I felt it was a little less washed out, though it is a little less detextured than its American cousin. This is the highlight of the set for many. Like PERSONA with a menage a tois or some such maybe. Leigh Singer discusses much about the creative construction historically of the film in this context. All fine. All documented but here more puchy. Less academically dry. This disc contains the FARO DOCUMENT. Which is a masterpiece of people, land, vistas and…well sea. I will note, it has never been so palatable for the 2K here has at least evened out the cracks.

The halfway point is met with FROM THE LIFE OF THE MARIONETTES and AFTER THE REHERSAL. The former has never been so well treated and the later is again standard definition version. I dislike both films. Andrew Graves essay attempts to place it into the realm of Bergman by looking at the man and his troubled times. I found little to see here. Though you may disagree. Ellen Cheshire does. Writing about how the made for TV AFTER THE REHERSAL life, was not as smooth, nor as final as Bergman wanted. It was not to be his final film, yet became so. The BFI treating it as not, well I doff my cap to this. So finally FANNY AND ALEXANDER. In the cinematic version and the 4 part TV version. Both are 2K restored and look utterly magical. These are the best served films on the set. Good look, good essay. The thetrical version seems shorter than I remember but I have seen the TV version thrice now, so thats a possibility as to why. The TV version is a great 4 part extension. This was to be Bergman sign off and it is fitting. Phillip Kemp talks more about it but I would say that the TV version is preferred as it allows the staggered viewing that is richer and more comprehensible to the viewer. All in all a great final set from the BFI about one of cinemas great Autuers…

The Films:

• Cries and Whispers (1972)
• Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
• Autumn Sonata (1978)
• Faro Document (1979)
• From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)
• Fanny and Alexander (1982)
• Fanny and Alexander (TV Series), (1983)
• After the Rehearsal (1984)

• Six-Blu-ray set featuring eight landmark works by Ingmar Bergman^*
• 100-page perfect bound book featuring new essays by Geoff Andrew, Catherine Wheatley, Leigh Singer, Andrew Graves, Philip Kemp and Ellen Cheshire
• Newly commissioned artwork by Andrew Bannister
• Limited edition of 5,000

*Please note that After the Rehearsal was only made available in Standard Definition