The Best Intentions ***** (1992, Samuel Fröler, Pernilla August, Max von Sydow) – Classic Movie Review 9921

Ingmar Bergman’s true story about the courtship and marriage of his parents Henrik and Anna (Samuel Fröler, Pernilla August) becomes director Bille August’s 1992 period drama film The Best Intentions [Den Goda Viljan], which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992 and Best Actress award for Pernilla August.

Samuel Fröler plays Henrik Bergman, a poor theology student who meets vivacious upper-class Anna in Edwardian Sweden (it is 1909). But, when they fall in love, both Anna’s mother Karin (Ghita Nørby) and Henrik’s father Fredrik (Keve Hjelm) oppose the match. Anna is surrounded with love from her father Johan Åkerblom (Max von Sydow), but her mother conspires against her.

This wonderful film, full of Bergman’s usual obsessions about love, pain and forgiveness is taken at mini-series length to tell the complex story of the decade before Bergman’s birth. It was indeed originally shot as a six-hour mini-series for Swedish television but cut down to a three-hour film when it premiered as a cinema feature at Cannes.

The Best Intentions is impeccably filmed and acted, with Pernilla August quite outstanding, and Fröler remarkable in a difficult, unsympathetic role. The detail, both emotional and physical reaches a rare depth. Though not directed by him, it is a true Bergman film. It is advertised as ‘Ingmar Bergman’s The Best Intentions, a film by Bille August.’ Bergman picked Bille August to direct because his admiration for Pelle the Conqueror (1987), which he watched seven times.

There were murmurs of dissent when it won at Cannes, and it did not do well on release in Britain, but nevertheless it is a tremendous film, haunting and moving.

Ingmar Bergman’s screenplay is based on his autobiography The Magic Lantern, and he conceived of the film while writing those memoirs.

The film takes place between 1909 and 1918. It took eight months to film, and was the most expensive Scandinavian film at that time.

Pernilla August was married to Bille August from 1991 to 1997 (divorced, with two children). Ingmar Bergman cast her as a nanny in his Fanny and Alexander (1982).

Also in the cast are Ghita Nørby, Lennart Hjulström, Mona Malm, Lena Endre, Anita Björk, Keve Hjelm, Björn Kjellman, Börje Ahlstedt, Hans Alfredson, Lena T Hansson, Elias Ringquist and Ernst Günther.

The Best Intentions [Den Goda Viljan] is directed by Bille August, runs 181 minutes, is made by SVT Drama, Danmarks Radio, Yleisradio, La Sept Cinéma, ZDF, Channel Four Films, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, Norsk Rikskringkasting, Ríkisútvarpið-Sjónvarp and Focus Features International, is released by Artificial Eye (UK) and The Samuel Goldwyn Company (1992) (US), is written by Ingmar Bergman, is shot in Panavision by Jörgen Persson, is produced by Ingrid Dahlberg and Lars Bjälkeskog, is scored by Stefan Nilsson and Björn Linnman, and is designed by Anna Asp.

RIP legendary actor Max von Sydow, who died on March 8, 2020, aged 90. He appeared in 13 films directed by Ingmar Bergman: The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), Mr Sleeman Is Coming (TV movie) (1957), So Close to Life (1958), The Face [The Magician] [Ansiktet] (1958), Rabies (TV movie) (1958), The Virgin Spring (1960), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), Hour of the Wolf (1968), Shame (1968), The Passion of Anna (1969) and The Touch (1971).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9922

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com