Hostsonaten (aka Autumn Sonata) (1978)

Set in rural Norway, the wife (Liv Ullmann) of a country parson (Halvar Bjork) invites her mother (Ingrid Bergman), a celebrated concert pianist, to visit her although they haven't seen each other for seven years. During a long and painful night, they confront each other with the pain inflicted in their stormy mother/daughter relationship. Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, the highly anticipated and the only collaboration between Sweden's two most celebrated film icons, Ingmar Bergman and Ingrid Bergman. The near extraordinary performances of two of cinema's greatest actresses (Bergman and Ullmann) are reason enough to embrace the film but is it really a good movie? When the daughter rages and attacks her mother with such viciousness and venom and blames her for everything awful in her life yet never taking responsibility that perhaps she might have been complicit in her own unhappiness, it's painful to watch. The film ends with a coda of forgiveness but the damage is done. Could one blame Bergman's mother for avoiding her daughter. No, she's far from mother of the year but she's no mommie dearest either. As cinema, it's a belligerent one sided film but a must see for the staggering performances. With Lena Nyman, Erland Josephson and Gunnar Bjornstrand.