Face to Face isn't one of the best-known films directed by Ingmar Bergman, but it has decent ratings from sites like IMDb and Letterboxd. I was hoping it would therefore be a bit of an unknown gem, but it's mostly just middle of the road by Bergman's standards. That still means it's far from bad, and it had me more interested than some of his best known films (I have Cries and Whispers hot takes- that's probably a previously unsaid sentence in human history).
It's a psychological drama that talks more about the psychological side of things instead of depicting it visually or in an otherwise more engaging way. I feel like sometimes it spells things out, and sometimes feels purposefully vague. It's the kind of Bergman film I don't really like, but thanks to how it looked and how good Liv Ullman was in the lead role, I stayed somewhat interested. It's almost like she understood the movie better than Bergman himself, because it didn't feel like things were totally committed on his end- maybe his heart wasn't really in this one.
So it's a disappointment, but certainly not a terrible movie. Probably worth tracking down for dedicated Bergman fans.
It's a psychological drama that talks more about the psychological side of things instead of depicting it visually or in an otherwise more engaging way. I feel like sometimes it spells things out, and sometimes feels purposefully vague. It's the kind of Bergman film I don't really like, but thanks to how it looked and how good Liv Ullman was in the lead role, I stayed somewhat interested. It's almost like she understood the movie better than Bergman himself, because it didn't feel like things were totally committed on his end- maybe his heart wasn't really in this one.
So it's a disappointment, but certainly not a terrible movie. Probably worth tracking down for dedicated Bergman fans.