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PRIVATE CONFESSIONS Send This Review to a Friend
Combine a script by Ingmar Bergman, direction by Liv Ullmann, acting by Pernilla August and Max von Sydow, and cinematography by Sven Nykvst and you get the totally engrossing drama "Private Confessions." This is filmmaking on the highest level, the kind we have come to expect from such an assemblage of Scandinavian talent.
August plays Anna, a wife troubled by both her marriage and her infidelity in a story set in 1925 Sweden. She veers between passion and guilt. What unfolds here in a series of conversations is nothing less than a portrait of her external and emotional life peeled away gradually, largely through her intimate talks with a clergyman played by the great Swedish actor Von Sydow. The scenes between them are riveting, sometimes relying on dialogue, sometimes on silence.
We are also flashed back to the days when she was infatuated with a married lover, portrayed convincingly by Thomas Hanzon. The relationships exposed are complicated, but Ullmann, who has matured as a fine director in expanding upon her illustrious career as an actress, zeroes in sharply on the characters to make the film very personal, compelling and illuminating as to the mores and personal dilemmas of the time The problems are easy to relate to the present, with the film's attention to the role of women particularly relevant. If you have the good fortune to have "Private Confessions" playing anywhere near you, make a point of seeing this superior film. A Castle Hill/First Run Features release.
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