HÖSTSONATEN (1978)

CHARLOTTE: Sometimes, when I lie awake at night, I wonder whether I've lived at all. Is it the same for everybody? Do some people have a greater talent for living than others or do some people never live, but just exist?

Hello everyone, I'm back earlier than a week. I had an overwhelming day, so decided to watch Höstsonaten (Autumn Sonata) that has been in my watchlist for a long time. While the scenes are fresh in my head, I wanted to write down my opinions. I hope you enjoy!

                       

As usual, to give a brief background information, the film is written and directed by the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Bergman shot this movie in Oslo, Norway while he was exiled from Sweden. Being homesick is one of the movie's themes, as Bergman himself carried this feeling at some point in his life. He later expressed his thoughts about getting exiled from his own country in an interview. He said:" It was not difficult to go away from Sweden," later added "The very, very great difficulty is to be away from the island [Faro]." Bergman returned to Faro midway through his time in Germany and he died there in 2007.

Back to the film, I'd like to talk about the actors as they are an essential part of this movie. The character Charlotte is brought to life by the actress Ingrid Bergman. The magical pair Ingmar Bergman/Ingrid Bergman always seeked an opportunity to make a movie together, until they collaborated on this project in 1978. Ingmar said (the names might be confusing, sorry!) he always had Ingrid Bergman in mind while he was writing this role. I heard from somewhere that he always decides the actors while he writes his movies, and never casts someone else other than the actor in his mind. Next up is my personal favorite character in this movie, Helena. It's beautifully portrayed by Lena Nyman. Throughout the movie, I was often taken aback by her portrayal of the character. Last off, the legendary actress that played in 10 (some sources say 12 but I didn't count) Ingmar Bergman movies, Liv Ullmann. She portrays the (neglected) daughter of Charlotte, Eva. We'll see vulnerable sides of this character throughout the movie.

                              

That wasn't a brief introduction, sorry! If you scrolled down to here I don't really blame you. To talk about the movie, I'd like to start by breaking down the meaning of the title. The name Autumn Sonata is given because it both takes place in autumn and the movie itself has the structure of a sonata. Sonata in music has three main parts: an exposition, a development and a recapitulation. Sonata also finishes where it starts, which is the idea behind using this term in the movie's title. Bergman was a filmmaker who was deeply interested in music, and we clearly see this passion in Autumn Sonata.

Talking about music, let's start with the main character Charlotte, a concert pianist and the mother of Eva and Helena. Charlotte is the kind of character that has been studied in psychology and psychiatry courses. The terms narcissist, The Attachment Theory and Freud's Mechanisms of Defense are taught along with this character. I myself have no prior knowledge about these terms, but it urged me to research to understand this character more. As I said before, Charlotte is a world-renowned pianist that puts her career in front of her family in any given chance. Because of neglecting Eva for so long as a child, her daughter grew a deep hatred towards her mom but never shows to her until that one night where they sit down to have a conversation. That scene was my favorite in the movie, because it's the one where we finally hear the hidden words and emotions getting revealed by both Eva and Charlotte. 

On that night, after long hours of fighting, Charlotte lays on the floor and let these words slowly out from her mouth: "Sometimes, when I lie awake at night, I wonder whether I've lived at all. Is it the same for everybody? Do some people have a greater talent for living than others or do some people never live, but just exist?" Relevant or irrelevant to movie's plot of estranged-mother-and-her-neglected-daughter, this is where we see Bergman's existential crisis channeled through this character. Even though I found Charlotte's actions wrong throughout the movie, hearing these words took me aback and rethink her interpretation of her existence. As Eva too forgave her mother at the end of the movie, so did I. 

As we come to Eva, I should say I found her the most honest character in the movie. Eva had a hard childhood. As her mother left her behind, she was the one who had to deal with her heart-broken father. In the flashback scenes, after her mother leaves the house, we see their house depicted as silent and almost isolated. Her father and Eva rarely found anything to talk about, that's what made the house all silent and depressing. This quote from Eva expresses it perfectly: "You'd taken care of all the words in our house." And soon after that Charlotte snaps back to her: "You exaggerate, Eva."

Eva grew up with an irreplaceable hole in her life. As she gives birth to her son, Erik, she makes sure that he won't grow up with lack of attention and care from her mother. Erik tragically dies at the age of four, leaving Eva devastated. Erik's cause of death is drowning, which indicates that Eva and her husband failed to give the attention to their son. Eva sure must feel guilty over this incident, but she never voices it to anyone. She has indescribable bond with her dead son now. She can feel his presence and his breath on her face before she goes to sleep. Eva doesn't believe that there's a boundary to our ideas or our feelings, and she describes it beautifully with this quote:" Only fear and sententiousness confine us. There are no boundaries. Not for our thoughts. Not for our emotions. It's anxiety that sets boundaries, don't you think?" 

Overall, I gave this movie 10 out of 10 without a second thought. I love the kind of movies that shares beautiful yet simple stories as well as urges you to produce your own interpretations on characters. While reading the critics about this movie, I even encountered one crazy idea that called Eva "extremely immature" and even called her long monologue a "teenage hysteria"! While opinions differ -coughs, Alin Tasciyan, coughs- I haven't found Eva immature at all and found her feelings completely valid. I love that this movie gave an amazing opportunity to anyone to think deeply about the characters. It is written in such a way that I believe anyone can find a part of themselves in them. What do you think of this movie? I love meeting people, so don't hesitate to leave a comment or even better- send me an email: moviesatdawn@gmail.com!

I'll end this one here. Thank you so much for reading this far, and I'll see you next week!

EVA: Everything exists side by side. Realities, not only the reality we perceive with our dull senses, but a tumult of realities arching above each other inside and outside.

Next review: Зеркало (1975) dir. Andrei Tarkovsky