Bergman Island

Now here's a pickle of mine own doing. I saw this film at a preview screening in December last year but it's only due for release now, in March. Precious few notes taken mean I'm vaguing a bit on the finer details, hence a somewhat truncated write-up. I ordinarily like to stew over a film for a day or two before deciding on how I feel about it, but 3 months? Hmmm. Yet, here goes. Bergman Island is a semi-autobiographical film about film-making and film-makers, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve and starring Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth. Both are pretty bloody fine here, and it's a pleasure to see Roth again on the big screen. Sadly, he hasn't made the best choices in his career, but he's a brilliant, naturalistic performer.

The film takes place on the Swedish island of Fårö, where legendary director, Ingmar Bergman made his home. Married couple Chris (Krieps) and Tony (Roth) are booked in to stay for a time while they work on their latest screenplays - Roth seemingly the more successful of the pair. The area reeks of prestige and a form of celebrity tourism that is supposed to invigorate the creative urges - there are Bergman tours, a museum, even screenings of his films. This all seems to work for Tony but Chris finds it tougher to be inspired, perhaps due to some things she learns about Bergman himself - something about him being a great artist but an awful person.

The bend in the film comes from Chris's attempts to iron some sense out of her screenplay. Here's where her characters, Amy (Mia Wasikowska) and Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie) take over large chunks of the film - a film plays out within the film. This is all formula until the lines begin to blur in the third act - who are the characters, who are in Chris's mind? Kind of an arthouse Inception. It gets a bit tied up in its own 'art' but it's certainly not as pretentious as it could have been. 

This is Hansen-Løve's first English language film and she has a smooth, matter-of-fact style, which I think works pretty well for this type of film.

Bergman Island opens March 10th at the Luna cinemas.

See also:

Hansen-Løve's 2009 film, Father of my Children is another example of her style, and Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) is one of Roth's better choices.