A woman reunites with the husband she left 30 years ago along with as well as his grown son and granddaughter in Ingmar Bergman’s latest directorial effort, which was actually a Swedish made-for-TV movie. Like so many before this is rumored to be Bergman’s last movie but I seem to think I’ve heard that before.

The Poster

What are the two focal points that will bring people in? That this is a relationship drama and that it’s directed by Bergman. Those two goals are admirably accomplished with this poster. The two characters do not look happy and yet obviously share a physical intimacy in their pose. Bergman’s name is directly under the title so as not to allude the eyes of passersby.

The Trailer

It’s an odd trailer. It opens by emphasizing and showing Bergman, hammering home that this is his movie. The rest of the trailer is composed of stills from the movie accompanied by classical music. It’s interesting that there’s no clips, just stills. Almost disorienting to watch. There’s nothing in any of the plot descriptions that leads me to believe stillness is a central theme of the movie so it’s not like they were trying to get that across. The stills/words mix almost reminded me of the orientation presentation they used to show at Brookfield Zoo at the Visitor Center.

The Website

A sparse site with one interesting feature. There’s a page for the Trailer, a Photo Gallery that focuses to some extent on shots of Bergman, a Synopsis and a downloadable Press Kit. The one thing that sticks out is the Links page. There are links there not only to reputable sites such as RottenTomatoes and MSN but also to unofficial and fan sites for Bergman and the main actors. That’s a great way to build a community among internet denizens. I’ll have to mull that one over.

Overall

I’m not sure what kind of audience Sony Classics is hoping to attract outside of Bergman fans who already know this exists. The trailer especially is designed for existing fans and not for the broader public. It looks like at pretty good movie, but it’s hard to tell.