Johan and Marianne are married and seem to have it all. Their happiness, however, is a façade for a troubled relationship, which becomes even rockier when Johan admits that he's having an affair. Before long, the spouses separate and move towards finalizing their divorce, but they make attempts at reconciling. Even as they pursue other relationships, Johan and Marianne realize that they have a significant bond, but also many issues that hinder that connection.
Сцены из супружеской жизни, Escenas de la vida conyugal, Six Scenes from a Marriage, Scener fra et ekteskap, 결혼의 풍경, Scènes uit een Huwelijk, Scener fra et ægteskab, Σκήνες από ένα Γάμο, Evlilikdən Mənzərələr, Scene da un matrimonio, Secretos de un matrimonio, Jelenetek egy házasságból, Szenen einer Ehe, Scènes de la vie conjugale, 婚姻生活, תמונות מחיי נישואין, Cenas de um Casamento, Sceny z życia małżeńskiego, Bir Evlilikten Manzaralar, Scény z manželského života, Kohtauksia eräästä avioliitosta, Σκήνες από έναν Γάμο, Сцени з подружнього життя, صحنههایی از یک ازدواج, Secrets d’un matrimoni
France 
Greece 
USA 
Sweden15 France 
Germany16 
Italy 
FinlandK-12 France France 
Brazil14 France USA Brazil Finland France Germany Greece Italy Sweden USA 
[theatrical version]
Damn. Really wish I caught the 5 hour version first because I would have loved to sit and endure each and every detail of this relationship. Very rare for me to think something like that after spending nearly 3 hours with a movie that is entirely conversations, but Bergman's way of capturing the pain in these characters was too real to not feel completely immersed. Liv Ullmann has so much truth in her performance, specifically in the Paula chapter. Nothing captures the magic of the movies quite like divorce!
This film is compared to Marriage Story a lot but they are very different in how it makes the audience feel.
Marriage Story is sad. It's an emotional journey where I'm in the room crying and walking away with a new found appreciation for my fiance and love overall.
Scenes from a Marriage is depressing. I didn't cry and I didn't emotionally connect with the two characters. I just walked away from the film depressed with no hope on love ever lasting. After the three hour movie; I turned it off, jumped in my car, and went to get ice cream to cheer myself up.
gosh darn it i love bergman he kills me every time this is so beautiful and honest i could cry
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
I can't tell if this is a deeply painful and cynical film, or a deeply painful and romantic one. No one is happy in this film, but in the end, some semblance of connection seems to have survived. It shows marriage to be a psychologically difficult enterprise, a bleak and angry settling, a series of lies and pretensions. It utterly destroys marriage. It rips it to shreds. And yet, in the end, two people come together and comfort each other. They know each other. They understand each other, it seems, perhaps.
Not enough can be said about the two lead performances here. That there are barely any scenes with any other performers was surprising to me; the film felt full.…
Marriage Story was found dead in a ditch
Kind of embarrassing how we all nerded out over Marriage Story so hard last year when this has been around for over 40 years.
Ullman is an absolute powerhouse.
Ingmar Bergman's epic mini-series, Scenes from a Marriage, is a brilliant, intimate observational study of a couple's marriage. At the start of the film, Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) have been agreeably (if not always happily) married for ten years. Bergman's film meets a couple that seems to have it all together, peels back the façade, and shows us the tension right under the surface.
Ullmann and Josephson provide powerhouse performances, and their chemistry here is probably the best I've seen for a married couple in film. While watching Ullmann and Josephson at work here, I was reminded of Ullmann's performance alongside Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata, another Bergman film where two acting legends go toe-to-toe with raw,…
“Scenes from a Marriage” is distinct among divorce films for depicting the subtle destruction wrought from endurance at all costs.
Ingmar Bergman’s multi-year spanning drama, initially made for Swedish television, depicts fragments of a couple’s relationship as it is subject to time, and those passing through it together.
While they may put on pretences for others - and themselves - Bergman is unyielding with his imposition on the pair’s intimacy by the viewer.
Marianne and Johann arrive to the audience in a marriage fully formed. This is aided by the long offscreen friendship of actors Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson. In the first third of the film - there is little feeling that the audience is interrupting any of their…
“But it should be for pleasure, not obligation.”
A seemingly isolated comment made by Marianne (played by Liv Ullman) when trying to evade an invitation for lunch with her parents. Spoken early and out of context, this sentiment comes to signify the moral centre of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage. I daren’t call this his masterpiece, as he had many, but this is undoubtedly a perfect film.
It does what it says on the tin: we are witness to scenes from a marriage between Marianne and Johan (played by Erland Josephson). This rollercoaster of a relationship with highs and lows charts a similar course covered in other great works like Linklater’s Before Trilogy and Baumbach’s Marriage Story. But Bergman’s…
Unfortunately letterboxd doesn’t have the original televised version, so the condensed theatrical version will have to do.
For some reason I find it both ironic and appropriate that my breakup movie odyssey led me to my first Bergman film. Writing my script, I’ve been struggling with the notion that nothing about my story is “cinematic,” and I know Bergman has a reputation for films like Persona which aren’t exactly ground in reality (as far as I’ve been informed), so it was comforting and motivating to see that he of all people successfully made a film comprised of nothing but conversations between a couple, shot with very few cutaways. There are no tricks here, just tight closeups and an honest script, and if that’s good enough for Bergman, it’s good enough for me.
"Everything you've owned is gone
Everything you know is wrong
Everyone you've loved has left
Everything you've touched is dead
"Everyone you know is gone
Everything you've touched, gone wrong
Take my hand, raise up underground
Listen well, follow the sound
"Chains moving along like our legs
Never quite knowing where to stay
And rest for a while
"When you're underwater, whisper
Wait for all the sounds to fall away
When you're underwater
Insert your feet on the wall for your things"
"we love each other in an earthly and imperfect way."
[watched six episode mini-series]
bergman has a very specific way of capturing pain. he lingers on the faces, closing in so their expressions are the only thing taking up the screen. their teary eyes. their trembling lips. their red cheeks. he traps us with them, forcing their pain onto us. their pain is not only theirs, but is ours. as you're watching, bergman forces you to think of all the times you've felt like this. it's visceral and confronting. it's almost as if you're watching two films: the one bergman has laid out in front of you, and the one that plays in your mind - the memories and fears that your brain conjures while watching this overwhelmingly human and painful tale. bergman's masterpiece, and one of the most essential anti-romance stories ever brought to screen.
