Saraband is a commandingly restrained final composition and -- as the theme of classical musicianship suggests -- very much an affair of close attention to the nuances of performance.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2012

With Saraband, the great writer-director has stepped back into the ring for one last epic wrestle with his demons. There is, as always, no easy outcome. But no one ever fought for higher emotional and spiritual stakes.

| Nov 1, 2007

A parlour-room theatre of emotional cruelty, with all exits barred by the past.

| Jun 24, 2006

Insightful as ever but a little dated in the set-up and treatment of the shooting.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

While bringing an abundance of inspiration to this world, Bergman unapologetically refused to ignore the pain and darkness that infects mankind. There will never be another filmmaker like him.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 2, 2005

Even if it is, as he claims, his last film, Saraband will be a testament to Bergman's skill as a filmmaker, still a creative force to be reckoned with after 60-plus years in the business.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 8, 2005

The performances -- welling, unified and multidimensional -- are beyond praise, as are Bergman's visual images.

| Sep 9, 2005

A pure distillation of the great director's ongoing themes of the frailty of the human psyche and mankind's willful inability to accept the inevitable, whatever that may be.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 14, 2005

A stunning and complex final bow from a stunning and complex artist.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Aug 11, 2005

What remain intact are the filmmaker's unbreakable heart, lyrical soul and sublime art. So why should we say goodbye? Instead: Bravo. Encore.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 5, 2005

The performances are perfectly distilled, but the traits I dislike in Bergman are all here -- self-pity, brutality, spiritual constipation, and an unwillingness to try to overcome these difficulties.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 5, 2005

Saraband, flat and static both visually and thematically, doesn't begin to approximate the austere beauty of the director's art-house classics.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 5, 2005

Saraband shows absolutely no sign that Bergman has run out of things to say or ways to say them -- it is as fresh and direct as any he's made.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 4, 2005

Powerfully, painfully honest.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 4, 2005

Ullmann, in her mid-60s, and Josephson, in his early 80s, still know how to build fascinating characters.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 28, 2005

An emotionally searing look at the ways we hurt the ones we love and the ones we have come to hate.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 28, 2005

The compositions are stark, the tone wintry and the conversations bleak. Yet there's a flicker of something affirmative in this darkness.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 22, 2005

Performed in a series of devastating duets, it's so mature and authentic that it feels like an alien presence in the current (i.e. shallow) movie landscape.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 22, 2005

If Saraband is not one of the best Bergman films, it's a very good one and a valuable statement from a great artist in old age.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 22, 2005

Reminds us again that Bergman, in his camera choices and blocking of characters, remains unrivalled in revealing the sea of emotions between two people face-to-face.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 22, 2005