Bergman Island

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.

Good in parts, but you get to the end of two hours and wonder what the film was trying to say. Or at least, I did!

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.

This "Bergman Safari" is ultimately an invitation to sigh over these views, and especially, these situations that are so outside our reach. But nothing happens. [Full review in Spanish]