The Passion of Anna [En Passion] *** (1969, Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow, Erland Josephson) – Classic Movie Review 9924

Writer-director Ingmar Bergman’s tormented 1969 Swedish drama film The Passion of Anna [En Passion] is hardly considered one of Bergman’s greatest or most successful works, thanks perhaps to a self-imposed burden of heavy weight it can barely carry. There is so much emotional pain that many will want to turn away from it.

But, with its notable performances from Swedish heavyweights Max von Sydow as Andreas Winkelman, Liv Ullmann as Anna Fromm, Bibi Andersson as Eva Vergerus and Erland Josephson as Elis Vergerus, and its links to Hour of the Wolf (1968) and Shame (1968), as well as its truthful dialogue and probing drama, it is still essential Bergman viewing.

Bergman was awarded Best Director at the 1970 National Society of Film Critics Awards.

After the filming of Shame in the Baltic Sea island of Fårö ended, its environmental regulations required the house built for the film be burned, but Bergman liked it and saved it by claiming there were plans to use it in another film. So he began writing The Passion of Anna, and, with Shame’s stars Von Sydow and Ullmann still under contract, saw it as ‘virtually’ a sequel. So more gloom, doom. guilt, doubt and self-hatred then, and in large amounts.

Max von Sydow plays Andreas Winkelman, a man struggling with his emotional isolation after his recent divorce, who befriends a married couple (Bibi Andersson as Eva Vergerus and Erland Josephson as Elis Vergerus) in psychological turmoil. Then Andreas meets emotionally devastated widow Anna Fromm (Liv Ullmann), grieving after the recent deaths of her husband and son, and the two begin a disconnected love affair.

Also in the cast are Erik Hell as Johan Andersson, Sigge Fürst as Verner, Britta Brunius as Woman in dream, Lars-Owe Carlberg as Police officer, Malin Ek as Woman in dream, Barbro Hiort af Ornäs as Woman in dream, Svea Holst as Verner’s wife, Marianne Karlbeck as Woman in dream, Annika Kronberg as Katarina, Brita Öberg as Woman in dream, Brian Wikström as Police officer, Hjördis Petterson as Johan’s sister (uncredited) and Ingmar Bergman as Narrator (voice) (uncredited).

It runs 101 minutes, and is shot in Eastmancolor, with a black and white dream sequence, by Sven Nykvist.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9924

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