In 1979, Ingmar Bergman conceived Fanny and Alexander as his swan song, calling it “the sum total of my life as a filmmaker.” The director returned to his own childhood in Uppsala, Sweden, and for the first time, told a story from the perspective of a child, Alexander Ekdahl. The film interrogates family, faith, mortality and—perhaps most importantly—imagination. At its core is the ideological clash between the creative Ekdahl family and their authoritarian bishop stepfather—a figure inspired by Bergman’s own father, a Lutheran minister. 

Originally a five-hour miniseries, it was the most expensive Swedish production of its time, though the version screened here is the widely known and acclaimed theatrical cut—an exquisite distillation that captures both the splendor and the melancholy of Christmastime. Bergman’s farewell to the cinema is perhaps his most hopeful: a testament to imagination’s triumph over oppression and the enduring power of art. – Capri Wayne ‘28