Bergman Island

A film-making couple make a trip to Ingmar Bergman's island home in a sensitive look at cinema and sexist double standards.

It's a piercing and rather unforgiving way of looking at the lies that we tell each other under the guise of normal human behavior.

For once the film-within-a-film is more interesting than the film that frames it. It's like a puzzle box showing you the characters' inner lives.

Nothing much else happens in the film, which never really justifies its setting, save as a postcard-pretty destination. Whither the rending of garments? Did anyone actually see a Bergman film?



A meditation that muses on many matters.

Just missing out on top-tier Hansen-Løve, Bergman Island is beautifully played — especially by Krieps and Wasikowska — and retains all the hallmarks of her best work; an intelligent, personal, heartfelt treat.

“Bergman Island” is a mix of reality and fantasy that explores how the two can influence and oppose each other, even simultaneously.

Hansen-Løve never takes herself too seriously, lining up a parade of references from Persona to Cries and Whispers with more disarming humor than ponderous melodrama.

Despite the enormity of Bergman’s presence, Hansen-Løve is able to create something singular and fresh. She presents a compelling meta-narrative that twists around and through itself like an Escher staircase or a Swedish cardamom bun.

Hansen-Løve expertly balances between the loneliness of your twenties with the complacency of middle age, while both find solace on the island.