Fanny and Alexander

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Template:Infobox Film Fanny och Alexander is a 1982 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was originally conceived as a four part TV movie which spanned 312 minutes. A version lasting only 188 minutes long was created later for cinematic release.

Bergman announced that the film would be his last feature, and as of March 2004 it has been the last he has directed, although he has written several scripts since 1986 and has directed a number of TV specials, including After the Rehearsal and Saraband, a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage.

1 Plot
2 Academy awards
3 DVD Release
4 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story is set in the early twentieth century in Sweden and deals with a young girl named Fanny, her brother Alexander, and their well-to-do family. Fanny and Alexander's mother and father are both involved in theater and are happily married until the father's sudden death. Shortly thereafter, the mother finds a new suitor in a bishop and accepts his proposal, moving into his ascetic home and putting the children under his stern and unforgiving rule.

In addition to its themes of Christianity, repentance, and submission to authority, the film deals with love, estrangement, ghosts, and the paranormal, as well as the more common Bergman theme of existentialism.

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Academy awards

The film was released in the United States in 1983 as Fanny and Alexander and received six Academy Award nominations winning a total of 4 Oscars:

Best Foreign Film (producer Jörn Donner)
Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist)
Best Art Direction (Anna Asp, Susanne Lingheim)
Costume Design (Marik Vos-Lundh)

Bergman was nominated for both Directing and Writing Original Screenplay but was not awarded, thus ending his last chance of ever receiving a personal Oscar for a film.

Technically, Fanny och Alexander is no longer Berman's final feature, since the highly successful play filmed-for-television, Saraband, was later released in art house movie theatres. Regardless, in practical terms, Fanny och Alexander is Bergman's last movie.

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DVD Release

Image:617044877897062.jpgThe Criterion Collection has released Fanny and Alexander on anamorphically enhanced DVD's. The theatrical version , television version , and the behind-the scenes film, The Making of Fanny and Alexander, were all released idividually. A 5-disc DVD box, including both versions and the supplemental film, was released additionally . This DVD release marked the first time the television version of Fanny and Alexander was availabe in the US.

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