An examination of isolation about four isolated people on an isolated island. What differs it somewhat from the rest of director Ingmar Bergman's filmography is its violence. When one thinks of movie violence one thinks of Tarantino or Peckinpah, not Bergman. Yet the film is full of, as a letter to Anna (Liv Ullmann) that Bergman repeatedly refers to states, psychological and physical violence. The film is full of violent imagery: a small puppy hung by the neck, mutilated sheep, a horse set on fire, a filmed execution, dead bodies after an auto accident, Max Von Sydow attacking Ullmann with an axe and then beating her. Yet the psychological violence perpetrated by its characters against each other is no less disturbing. They struggle to make contact with each other yet the kinks (and hypocrisies) in their psychological make-up prevent them from breaking through their walls. It's a compelling piece but Bergman undercuts the momentum by inserting short interviews with his four actors (Bibi Andersson and Erland Josephson are the other two actors) that pull us out of the movie. The acting, as expected, is superb with Ullmann once again demonstrating that she's one of a handful of the greatest film actresses. A long monologue where she delusionally describes her marriage and the car accident that killed her husband child is a beautiful, sustained piece of acting.
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