kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** It's the autumn of her life as famed concert pianist Charlotte Andergast, Ingrid Bergman, decides to patch things up with her estranged daughter Eve, Liv Ullmann, whom she hasn't seen in seven years. At first happy to see Eve, who's clergyman husband Viktor played by Halvar Bjork seems to go out of his way to avoid her, Charlotte is stunned to find out that her other daughter, who's suffering from brain damage, Helena, Lena Lyman, is living under the same roof that both Eve & Viktor are. It was Helena that Charlotte had committed when she was in her teens to a mental institution for life because of her mental disability. Things soon get a bit sticky when Eve who feels that her life had been destroyed by her mother's absence, playing in concerts all over Europe, now lets Charlotte have it in how unloving she was towards her and the mentally ill kid sister of hers Helena.With Viktor drinking his brandy and smoking his pipe and Helena falling out of her bed and almost cracking her skull open mother & daughter, Charlotte & Eve, have it out in a night long discussion in how their lives were messed up by each other not showing the both love and respect for themselves all those years together. It's Eve who ends up getting the upper hand in the conversation in getting Charlotte to admit that she was more interested in her career as a concert pianist then in her two daughters as well as live in lover Leonardo, Georg Lokkeberg, who after putting up with her for almost 20 finally and blissfully, in not having to put up with her anymore, passed away from cancer six months ago.After an all night verbal slug-fest both Eve & Charlotte decided to bury the hatchet, in the sand not in each other heads, and let bygones by bygones and start all over again as if nothing happened in the past. Later after Charlotte left Eve gave her husband Viktor who was neutral in the entire matter a letter of forgiveness to her mother for everything bad she said about her. It's now up to Charlotte to do the same in asking for forgiveness from Eve as well as the mentally damaged Helena for all the bad things she did to them while they were still together. And undoubtedly in what we saw in the movie up until then, with Charlotte in tears in knowing what she did, she definitely will.

WNYer Typical introspective Bergman film with exceptional performances by Liv Ullman and Ingrid Bergman.The latter plays a famous concert pianist visiting her daughter after a long absence. Both harbor a mutual hope for reconciliation from their estranged past but the emotional baggage carried by each may be too much to overcome.The film is beautifully photographed and the script is engrossing but it is extremely "wordy" even for a Bergman film. There is lots of voice over narration, lots of flashbacks, lots of static dialogue, and lots of static monologue (sometimes with the character talking directly to the camera.) The on focus mother-daughter relationship is sad in itself but the overall gloom is layered on pretty thick - loss of parent, loss of husband, loss of child, bad parenting, absentee parenting, repressed anger, forced abortion, disabled child, spastic cerebral palsy, disgust, hatred, emotional detachment and so on......This is the perfect movie to watch if you're a psychoanalyst but for the casual viewer it's pretty depressing stuff. A lot of reviews give this film very high marks but this is not grade "A" Bergman. It is superbly crafted and well acted but it comes across more like a filmed stage play than a movie.

TheLittleSongbird Autumn Sonata was a movie that did move me a lot, but I'd hesitate in calling it one of Ingmar Bergman's best. I did find The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander, Cries and Whispers and Persona even better. This said, apart from an occasional over-load of speeches that come across as too theatrical, Autumn Sonata is still a remarkably good film. As ever with Bergman, it is wonderfully photographed(by none other than Sven Nykvist) and directed, and it has some lovely scenery too. The music is beautiful and haunting, I have to say as a life-long fan of classical music that the use of the Chopin prelude is one of the finest uses of classical music in film to me. The script is mostly thought-provoking and the story, which is essentially a study of guarded emotion, resentment and regret, has the Bergman darkness and harrowing moments like with the sister with the horrible degenerative disease and the drowned toddler. Charlotte's selfishness is also very powerfully conveyed as is Eva's sense of resentment, while the scene that moved me most was the two at the piano. Both leading ladies are outstanding, Ingrid Bergman's elegant but somewhat faded beauty is ideal for the selfishness of her character, but I was even more impressed by Liv Ullman, who has such intensity in her eyes and facial expressions. All in all, powerful and moving, and while it is not one of my favourites from Bergman it is still highly recommendable. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Sindre Kaspersen Swedish screenwriter, playwright, producer and director Ingmar Bergman's 39th feature film which he wrote, is a West-Germany production which premiered in Stockholm, Sweden. It was shot at a film studio in Oslo, Norway during the period when the director was in exile due to his conflicts with the Swedish Government, and produced by American producer Richard Brick, Russian-born English film producer Lew Grade (1906-1998), Austrian-born Swedish film producer Katinka Faragó and American film producer Martin Starger. It tells the story about Charlotte Andergast, a world renowned concert pianist who after seven years abroad visits her daughter Eva who lives on the countryside with her husband Victor who is a preacher and her multi-disabled sister Helena who Eva brought home from the institution her mother had placed her in after abandoning them to pursue her career.Distinctly and precisely directed by filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, this condensed and finely paced psychological character-piece draws an incisive portrayal of a materialistic artist's afflicting relationship with the daughter she has neglected for many years and her struggle to redeem herself and gain her religious daughter's forgiveness. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, prominent set design by production designer Anna Asp, cinematography by cinematographer Sven Nykvist (1922-2006), costume design by Swedish costume designer Inger Pehrsson and use of music, this dialog-driven, existentialistic and humane chamber-piece depicts two converging and deeply internal studies of character.This atmospheric, straightforward and concentrated story about a heart- to-heart conversation during one autumn night between a reunited daughter and mother, is impelled and reinforced by it's emotional depth, substantial character-development, riveting dialog, cogent narrative structure, the profound acting performances by Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) in her next to last acting role and the fine supporting acting performances by Swedish actor Halvar Björk (1928-2000) and Swedish actress Lena Nyman (1944-2011). A consistently involving and masterful melodrama which gained, among other awards, the NSFC Award for Best Actress Ingrid Bergman at the 13th National Society of Film Critics Awards in 197 and the NBR Award for Best Director Ingmar Bergman at the 50th National Board of Review Awards in 1978.