Movie #: 1853 Title: Autumn Sonata 1978

Rating: 8.90

Director (last): Bergman (first): Ingmar

Writer (last): Bergman (first): Ingmar

Bitter, powerful drama about a celebrity concert pianist, Charlotte, returning to visit her daughter for the first time in seven years. Her daughter, Eva, is bitter about her upbringing, and her mother's absence from her life. She has also brought her disabled sister, Helena, home, without telling Charlotte, who, she says, would never have come to visit if she knew. There is a searing, extended scene of Eva relentlessly detailing all of the slights and hurts and neglect she has experienced, and caustically assessing her mother's selfish personality. Her mother, in turn, describes her own childhood: her parents never showed affection. There is a suggestion that Eva's need to nurture and "spoil" people, including Helena, is just as narcissistic as Charlotte's need to perform and receive public approval for her art. Bears consideration that Bergman himself neglected his own family for his "art"-- if so, he certainly doesn't spare himself.

Is this movie a "gem"? No

Evil Twin: A Star is Born

Good Twin:

 

Added: 2012-08-25 [yyyy-mm-dd]