The first thing you notice is the look of the picture. Bergman chose to film "The Passion of Anna" in colour and again his DoP was Sven Nykvist. There's nothing as innovative here as in, say, "Cries and Whispers" but the use of colour alleviates the bleakness, both of the landscape and of the emotions on display, (this is certainly not one of Bergman's 'lighter' films). Then there's the style; early in the picture Bergman inserts a cutaway to actor Max Von Sydow talking about his character and later, other actors follow suit. It's only a film, you see.
The setting is yet another island in winter and no-one is happy, particularly Von Sydow's Andreas, living alone with his books and getting drunk until he meets Anna, (Liv Ullmann), who moves in with him. He's superb, of course, but then so is everyone and yet we never feel any emotional engagement with any of the characters. Do we need these explanations by the actors? Personally I found these Brechtian devices nothing more than a distraction in a film singularly lacking in passion of any kind, (a subplot involving the killing of animals is more interesting than the relationships on show). For some reason I imagine this is just the kind of Bergman film Woody Allen would worship.
The setting is yet another island in winter and no-one is happy, particularly Von Sydow's Andreas, living alone with his books and getting drunk until he meets Anna, (Liv Ullmann), who moves in with him. He's superb, of course, but then so is everyone and yet we never feel any emotional engagement with any of the characters. Do we need these explanations by the actors? Personally I found these Brechtian devices nothing more than a distraction in a film singularly lacking in passion of any kind, (a subplot involving the killing of animals is more interesting than the relationships on show). For some reason I imagine this is just the kind of Bergman film Woody Allen would worship.