Bergman Island: Film Review
I have heard a lot about Mia Hansen-Løve‘s romance drama Bergman Island since it premiered at Cannes last year so of course, I had to check it out.
The film stars Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth as Chris and Tony Sanders, a filmmaking couple who travel to the Swedish island of Fårö, where famed director Ingmar Bergman lived and worked, to focus on their next screenplays when the lines between reality and fiction begin to blur.
Bergman Island is so slow in the beginning and it really tested my patience. I kept wondering when something was going to happen during the first hour as we just watch them write, watch Bergman movies, visit Bergman tourist spots and have a relaxing time on the island. Chris and Tony seem to have reached a roadblock in their marriage and they don’t talk much, or at least not in a deep, meaningful way that you can sink your teeth into either. It was nice to watch them spending time on the beautiful, sunny island but I needed more.
Thankfully, the film kicks into gear when Chris shares the outline of the screenplay she’s been working on and it becomes a movie-within-a-movie. We watch Amy (Mia Wasikowska) and Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie)’s love story play out and you can’t help but notice the parallels between Chris and Tony’s life. How much is fiction and how much has Chris taken from her own life? That isn’t clear, but one thing is for certain – that love story is far more interesting and gripping than the movie it exists within. My attention had been waning and it brought it back.
I don’t want to spoil anything but after we switch back to Chris’ narrative, the movie gets very meta and it totally blew my mind. I didn’t expect it and I don’t fully understand it in the literal sense but I think it’s trying to say something about how creatives borrow from their experience to make their art and sometimes the lines blur. Chris is almost using her story to express her dissatisfaction with her marriage and figure out what to do about it.
At first, I was concerned that not having much knowledge about Bergman (sorry, bad film critic!) would hinder my enjoyment of the film. There are a lot of references to his work and personal life, particularly in the first 30-40 minutes, that went over my head. It’s not essential to know all about him but I think you might have appreciated those earlier scenes more if you did.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Wasikowska and she was my standout in the film, closely followed by Danielsen Lie. Their performances in the movie-in-a-movie were sensational and I wanted to spend more time with them. You could feel their passion and the burning desire for one another as well as the complicated history. Their story is told fairly briefly by Chris but they bring it to life brilliantly and it’s a shame their parts were this small.
Bergman Island is a mixed bag. It vastly improved once Wasikowska and Danielsen Lie got involved and the twist is unexpected and interesting but the first half is just too slow.
In cinemas from Friday 3rd June