Herfstsonate - Engels ondertiteld
Ingmar Bergman’s classic with a wonderful role for Ingrid Bergman as a self-centred concert pianist who has always put her career before her family.
After an absence of seven years, the famous concert pianist Charlotte visits her daughter Eva. She is shocked to discover that her other daughter, the mentally handicapped Helena, is also present. Eva turns out to have taken in her sister. Charlotte has never had any affection for Helena. Eva, played by Liv Ullmann, is full of resentment about the way she has been emotionally neglected by her mother all her life. Over the course of a day and a long, painful night, the tensions between Charlotte and Eva reach a peak.
AUTUMN SONATA is a film that alternates intense emotional discharges with painful silences. As the title suggests, the film is structured like a sonata, with a quiet opening, a turbulent and emotional middle section and a finale with only resignation. The film marks the only collaboration between cinema’s two great Bergmans: Ingmar and Ingrid, the monumental star of CASABLANCA.