Bergman Island
classified 15Please note: This was screened in June 2022
Mia Hansen-Løve's (Goodbye First Love, Eden) latest is a serene and self-reflective ode to love, cinema and storytelling that fluctuates playfully between fantasy and realism.
Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth are filmmakers Chris and Tony, a couple on a summer holiday to Fårö, the Swedish island home of Ingmar Bergman (and where he shot some of his greatest films). They hope to make progress on their respective scripts, but as the days pass by, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, and the couple is torn apart as Chris’ fascination with the island engulfs her and relics of her first love bubble to the surface.
You don't actually have to love (or know) Ingmar Bergman, or have even seen a Bergman movie to lose yourself in this playful portrait of the pursuit of writerly ambition. Unravelling with an easy naturalism against a picturesque backdrop, Hansen-Løve's talent for mining her characters' quiet lives for all they're worth is clear. Thoughtful, layered and satisfyingly complex, it’s some of her best work to date.