Fanny and Alexander

"Are you sad because you've grown old?" "I'm certainly not. Everything's getting worse. Worse people, worse machines, worse wars... and worse weather. I'm glad I'll soon be dead."

This 5-hour long Swedish beast of a film, directed by Ingmar Bergman, follows the Ekdahl family’s troubles and hardships over the course of two years. Specifically, it focuses on a boy named Alexander’s close relatives (and he himself) for the majority of the runtime, but the family is sprawling enough to warrant an exception.

Hailed as one of the best films of all time, I had quite some expectations for this film, even if I tried to be as unbiased as possible. So, does it measure up?

Well, for one, the music and acting are fantastic: Bertil Guve (Alexander) and Pernilla Allwin (Fanny) both give absolutely astounding child performances. It’s a shame that both of them didn’t choose to go into an acting career following the release of “Fanny and Alexander,” considering their exceptional child talent.

However, I’m not here to talk about the music and acting’s quality, because there is something much, much better to behold in this film: its tone and direction.

Some background: this film is essentially a biography. Director Ingmar Bergman intended this to be his last film, and even if he continued to do so after the fact, it still remains as his swan song. Right off the back of an initial 1,000 page script, the amount of shot material amounted to a whopping 24 hours, resulting in it being the longest Swedish film made at the time. He truly did intend for it to represent what his career stood for.

This biography-style approach, quite possibly, could have helped the film have such a knowledge, of, well, life. “Fanny and Alexander” has such an understanding- such an impossible understanding- of its characters, so much so that is feels as if we’re watching real people go about their daily lives. Of course, the acting does contribute to this, but it’s Ingmar Bergman’s knowledge of life that leads to such a cause.

What does this add up to? Well, without going too much more into it, “Fanny and Alexander” is one of- if not the- most human films I have ever seen. Its understanding of its characters, story, and meaning of life is one not to be missed.

10/10- A masterwork on all levels, “Fanny and Alexander” carries with it an impossible sense of human understanding.