Barnes & Noble

Marital bliss is torn apart by infidelity in Faithless, a hauntingly dark Swedish drama directed by Liv Ullmann from a script by her mentor, Ingmar Bergman. The simple story focuses on an actress (Lene Endre) married to a conductor (Thomas Hanzon) who has an affair with a close friend (Krister Henriksson), but the telling is as important as the tale itself. The narrative unfolds as a recollection imparted to an aged writer; the actress herself tells it to him, though he seems to have conjured up her imaginary presence as a muse. (The writer, named Bergman, is played by the great filmmaker's friend and colleague Erland Josephson.) Events are half described in monologue and half dramatized, a familiar Bergman technique that gives the story the quality of a memory. What we see and hear is the story of a premeditated and carefully planned extramarital affair, involving deception that is nothing short of breathtaking. All the characters' lives are completely undone as a result, yet at the heart of this story is not a moral but a mystery as profound as the pain and psychological violence to which the characters subject each other. Ingmar Bergman's tumultuous personal life seems to have inspired Faithless, and Ullmann's years of collaboration and romantic involvement with him undoubtedly contribute to her confident grasp of the material. The result is a film of stillness and silence punctuated by agony and grief, as powerful as it is ultimately disturbing. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

Renowned actress-turned-director Liv Ullmann helms this bleak, nuanced film about marriage and betrayal penned by legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. The story is straightforward -- Marianne Vogler (Lena Endre) is a beautiful actress who is married to Markus (Thomas Hanzon), whose job as an orchestra conductor requires numerous concerts abroad, and who dotes on their young daughter Isabelle (Michelle Gylemo). Yet when Marianne has an affair with family friend David (Kirster Henriksson), a film director with a volcanic temper and little regard to those around him, the fallout destroys the marriage and brings grief and suffering to all involved, particularly Isabelle. Ullman and Bergman frame this plot with a tale about an elderly director named Bergman (Erland Josephson, who played opposite Ullman in Bergman's landmark Scenes from a Marriage) who is trying to write a script about infidelity. In his austerely decorated house on a remote island, Bergman invites an actress, who may or may not be a figment of his imagination, to breathe life into the character of Marianne. The actress tells Bergman of Marianne's story through flashbacks. One evening, on the closing night of the play that Marianne was in -- and while Markus is abroad -- David arrives for dinner with her and ultimately sleeps, platonically, in her bed. This unplanned intimacy soon leads to a full blown affair, including a three week romantic getaway to Paris. When Markus finally discovers the couple in flagrante delicto, he demands an immediate divorce and custody of their daughter. This film was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Jonathan Crow

Washington Post

What's best about Faithless is its honesty, its lack of desire to ingratiate itself with the audience. Desson Howe

Boston Globe

Ullmann's film is an achievement of heart and consequence, as full of integrity as Bergman, yet demonstrating more mercy. Jay Carr

Los Angeles Times

Complex, challenging and richly rewarding, it glows with the kind of wrenchingly selfless portrayals that are the hallmark of the Bergman classics. Kevin Thomas

Product Details

• UPC: 687797945099
• Source: FIRST LOOK PICTURES
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 2:22:00

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