The most postmodern film ever, filled with metaness, intertextuality and an abundance of homages to Bergman yet it lacks any semblance of narrative. This film does pose an interesting question: whether or not a film should be self-contained, or if it should require you to come into it with prerequisite knowledge? Admittedly I don’t know a lot about Bergman, however I don’t think that impeded on my enjoyment as this film felt like some film snob showing you how much they knew about Bergman by telling you a plethora of facts.
This just wasn’t enjoyable. It takes about 50 minutes for the film to head in a different, more interesting, direction but prior to that the film follows two bland characters exploring Bergman Island and exchanging facts about him. Even for fans of his work I struggle to understand how this start of the film would be entertaining, besides getting to know some information about him that you didn’t know.
The second half of the film, I just wish was the whole film. The characters were far more interesting, and it felt as if the film had something to say and an idea to explore. But the way this ends just trickles out into nothing of impact, which is disappointing considering how well it was built up. There’s a cool meta twist at the end but again the resolution from it was so disappointing.
The film tries to attempt to say something about young love vs aging love, and the heightened emotions that are once experienced that in longer relationships don’t exist. And also, there’s some attempt at looking at the creative process, but nothing came together that well as the film opted to focus on telling you another Bergman fact instead of developing their characters.
It’s shot well, the acting is good to amazing in parts, but a lacklustre story, some atrocious, unbelievable dialogue and plain, undeveloped characters ruined the film. There was an ABBA needle drop though so that was great.
★★
