Fanny And Alexander

About Fanny And Alexander

Fanny and Alexander (Swedish: Fanny och Alexander) is a 1982 Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was originally conceived as a four part TV movie which spanned 312 minutes. A version lasting only 188 minutes was created later for cinematic release.

Along with The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander is considered by many to be one of Bergman's best films.[citation needed] He intended the film to be his last feature, although he wrote several screenplays afterward and directed a number of TV specials.

The story is set in the early twentieth century in Sweden and deals with a young boy named Alexander, his sister Fanny, and their well-to-do family the Ekdahls. Fanny and Alexander's mother and father are both involved in theater and are happily married until the father's sudden death. Shortly thereafter, the mother, Emilie, finds a new suitor in the local bishop, a handsome widower, and accepts his proposal of marriage, moving into his ascetic home and putting the children under his stern and unforgiving rule. He is particularly hard on Alexander, trying to break his will by every means. The children and their mother live as virtual prisoners in the bishop's house until finally the Ekdahl family intervenes. With help from an old friend, a Jewish antiques dealer, as well as some magic, the children are smuggled out of the house, but the Ekdahls' attempts to bribe or threaten the bishop into divorce fail. Emilie, by now pregnant, slips her husband a sedative and flees as he sleeps, after which a fire breaks out and the bishop is burnt to death. In the meantime, Alexander has met the Jewish merchant's mysterious son and fantasized about his stepfather's death – it is as if Alexander's fantasy comes true as he dreams it. The story ends on a mainly happy, life-affirming note, with the christening of Emilie's and the late bishop's daughter and the illegitimate daughter of one of the Ekdahl men, but Alexander encounters the bishop's ghost, signalling that he will never be completely free of him.