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Fanny and Alexander

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Fanny and Alexander
Original movie poster
Directed byIngmar Bergman
Written byIngmar Bergman
Produced byJörn Donner
StarringPernilla Allwin
Bertil Guve
Börje Ahlstedt
Distributed bySandrew
Release dates
Sweden December 17 1982
United States 17 June, 1983
Running time
188 min.
312 min. (TV version)
LanguagesSwedish/German/
Yiddish/English

Fanny and Alexander (Swedish: Fanny och Alexander) is a 1982 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was originally conceived as a four part TV movie which spanned 312 minutes. A version lasting only 188 minutes long was created later for cinematic release.

Bergman announced that the film would be his last feature, and as of March 2004 it has been the last he has directed, although he has written several scripts since 1986 and has directed a number of TV specials, including After the Rehearsal and Saraband, a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage.

Plot

Template:Spoiler The story is set in the early twentieth century in Sweden and deals with a young boy named Alexander, his sister Fanny, and their well-to-do family. Fanny and Alexander's mother and father are both involved in theater and are happily married until the father's sudden death. Shortly thereafter, the mother finds a new suitor in a bishop and accepts his proposal of marriage, moving into his ascetic home and putting the children under his stern and unforgiving rule.

In addition to its themes of Christianity, repentance, and submission to authority, the film deals with love, estrangement, ghosts, and the paranormal, as well as the more common Bergman theme of existentialism. When the children's father suffers his fatal heart attack, he is playing the ghost of the dead King in Hamlet; the figure of the Bishop, and what happens to him, are reminiscent of Claudius' usurpation and the young Prince's final revenge.

Cast (main)

File:Fanny and Alexander Poster.jpg
International movie poster

Academy awards

The film was released in the United States in 1983 and won four Academy Awards:

Bergman was nominated for both Directing and Writing Original Screenplay but did not win them. Since he has now retired from making theatrically released films, he will thus never have received a personal Oscar for a film.

DVD releases

File:617044877897062.jpg
Cover of the Criterion Collection 5-Disc DVD release of Fanny and Alexander

The uncut TV version of the film is available in DVD editions released by Artificial Eye (in Region 2) and The Criterion Collection (in Region 1). The Criterion Collection edition is anamorphically enhanced and is released as three separate sets: the theatrical version, the television version , and a behind-the scenes film, The Making of Fanny and Alexander; these discs are also available as a 5-disc box set. The Criterion release marked the first time the television version of Fanny and Alexander had been available in North America.

Preceded by Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
1982
Succeeded by