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Product Description

Ingmar Bergman declared that Fanny and Alexander would be his final film when it was released in 1984. This 5-DVD set includes 2 versions of the film, the 188 minute theatrical print and Bergman's 312 minute director's cut for Swedish TV.

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It was instantly acclaimed the crowning masterwork of Ingmar Bergman's career, and time has not dimmed the Olympian status of Fanny and Alexander. Bergman drew upon memories of his own childhood for this portrait of the Ekdahls, the upper-class Swedish family whose celebrations and tribulations are seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Alexander (Bertil Guve). The world of the theater, of puppet shows and magic lanterns, does battle in this scenario with the cold realities of the palace of the bishop--a man whose influence over Alexander's mother gives the movie the stark outlines of a fairy tale.

As for the Criterion five-disc DVD: This may be the most beautiful DVD release ever devoted to a single film. The original 188-minute international release is here, of course, in all its original glory. (It won four Oscars: foreign language film, costumes, art direction/set decoration, and cinematography--the last to longtime Bergman collaborator Sven Nykvist.) An audio commentary by Peter Cowie gives useful background.

That film was carved out of Bergman's preferred 312-minute version, telecast on Swedish TV and included here. While the shorter cut remains a wonderful movie, and complete unto itself, the five-hour film is a deep, luxurious expansion. There is more of the Christmas Eve party that begins the film, more of the theater, more of Alexander's imagination. Especially meaningful is a long sequence between Fanny and Alexander and their doomed father, as he demonstrates the nature of storytelling with a simple chair.

Also here is The Making of Fanny and Alexander, Bergman's feature-length self-portrait, and a fascinating look at the rapt attention he bestows on actors and camera. DVD extras include a penetrating hourlong TV interview Bergman gave in 1984, and a 40-minute documentary shot in 2004 with reminiscences from cast and crew (including actors Guve, Pernilla August, and Erland Josephson). A handsome booklet includes essays by Rick Moody and Paul Arthur, and one disc is made up of pithy introductions shot by Bergman in 2003, for 11 of his classics, plus a sampling of trailers. Fanny and Alexander was Bergman's final theatrical film, though he has gone right on making TV movies and writing screenplays. This is a fitting treatment of his triumph. --Robert Horton

Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.66:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 0.7 x 5.4 inches; 2.88 Ounces
Item model number ‏ : ‎ CRRNFAN050DVD
Director ‏ : ‎ Ingmar Bergman
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Box set, Closed-captioned, Color
Run time ‏ : ‎ 5 hours and 12 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ November 16, 2004
Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ English
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
Language ‏ : ‎ Swedish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Unqualified (DTS ES 6.1)
Studio ‏ : ‎ Criterion Collection
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000305ZYS
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 5

Best Sellers Rank: #28,389 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #168 in Foreign Films (Movies & TV)
- #4,981 in Drama DVDs

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Matthew A. Pagan

5-hour Christmas/Ghost Story

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2023

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Alexander, the child protagonist after whom Ingmar Bergman titled his 1982 film Fanny and Alexander, opens the initial scene of this festive yet eerie Swedish movie. The little boy wanders alone, room by room, through a glittering mansion. Hiding underneath an opulent oak table, a macabre vision presents itself. The marble statue in the corner dances, its white arms flailing with life like the silent, living woman it must have been carved to resemble. Behind the statue peers the grim reaper. Never does the narrative return to this statue’s haunting moment of vivacity, but the grim reaper reappears several times throughout the course of the film.

Fanny and Alexander is not a short film; nor is it even a medium-length film. The theatrical release lasts 3 hours and 8 minutes. Ingmar Bergman bemoaned this cut as woefully truncated and even truculent towards his artistic vision, which could only fully find expression broken into four parts. Before the director amputated his creation for international movie theaters, Fanny and Alexander debuted as a miniseries on Swedish television. The uncut running length of all four combined episodes measures to 5 hours and 12 minutes.

The first episode presents a jolly Christmas affair, gathering together the extended Ekdahl family, whose children delight in the entertaining antics of their uncles while enduring the stuffy rules of a wealthy holiday observance. In warm splendor and lively humor, the Christmas celebration scenes introduce the names and faces of this large family, including the cousins, grandmothers, and servants. Fanny and Alexander are the daughter and son of Oscar Ekdahl, the well-known manager of the community theater.

Thespian sequences removed from the theatrical version quote Shakespeare’s Hamlet under sometimes slapstick conditions. During one such yuletide rehearsal, the Ekdahl family patriarch, Fanny’s and Alexander’s father, suffers a dramatic attack of poor health and dies.

The subsequent family life to which Fanny and Alexander must adjust includes a new step-father, a hard and cruel bishop into whose charms their tender actress mother succumbs. For Bishop Edvard Vergérus, disciplined severity is as much a part of religious living as austere renunciation. He removes his new wife and her children from the mansion in which they grew up into smaller accommodations where his own deceased daughters once slept. The ghosts of these dead girls come to visit Alexander after one particularly tense encounter with his violent new stepfather.

The sets and the photography of this film combine into a beautiful presentation. In this partially autobiographical story, the director Ingmar Bergman traces his own creative obsession with the memento mori, apparent throughout his cinematic oeuvre, back to a childhood exchange of art’s redemptive innocence for submission to dogmatism’s blood-beaten falsehoods.

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James McDonald

Alexander loves the happiness of Christmas, but not the New Year.

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2005

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***FOR MATURE ADULTS ONLY*** Do not allow young children to see this film, but older teenagers could watch it. Contains partial nudity and adult sexual situations. Includes some scenes of emotional and mental abuse of children and some physical abuse of smacking the back of a child's head and one scene of spanking.

I have seen Fanny and Alexander (1982) many times throughout my life during different ages. Like fine wine, it gets better. I enjoy the First Act of Christmas in the Ekdakl home.

This review originally was for the VHS 2-tape edition, Rated "R". I have now added the DVD set Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection to this comment.
Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1982). The very best from Ingmar Bergman.
Directed and written by Ingmar Bergman.
This film is perfectly cast with actors and actresses you will not soon forget. Very memorable film from Sweden.

Won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, nominated for Best Director - Motion Picture.

Won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Best Costume.
Nominated for Best Director, Best Writing - Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

Won BAFTA Film Award for Best Cinematography, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Costume Design.

Filmed in Uppsala Ian and Stockholm Ian, Sweden.

In the United States of America, only the 3 hour, 08 minute version had been seen in movie theaters and on KCET (then with PBS) television station.
Originally shown as a television mini-series on SVT 1 in Sweden in 1983. As of 2005, for the first time ever, the entire 5 hours, 11 minutes version is now available in this DVD set.
This movie plays through the eyes of 10-year old "Alexander Ekdahl" (Bertil Guve). It is Christmas Eve 1907. The Ekdahl family owns a theatre playhouse and for many years they have put on a Christmas play with the family group and respectful actors. Tonight is the annual family Christmas dinner in the Ekdahl estate. It is a big manor with Christmas decorations from room to room, floor to floor. It will be a lively house filled with many people and children to run around. This house is an excellent place for Alexander and his sister Fanny (Pernilla Allwin). The matriarch of the family, the grandmother, is Helena Ekdahl (Gunn Wallgren). Her husband has past previously. This Christmas she is depressed and sits with her husband's friend, Isak Jacobi (Erland Josephson), whom she has secretly courted.
Attending the family Christmas gathering is: Emilie (Ewa Froling) and Oscar Ekdahl (Allan Edwall): the parents of Fanny & Alexander. Oscar, the owner of the playhouse has not been feeling well.
Alexander (Bertil Guve) is a 9-year old boy full of excitement and wonder. He performs in the family stage productions, but he loves Christmas in his grandmother's mansion.
He likes to hide under a table for security and indulges in fantasy, sometimes he listens to adults talking. He likes the comfort from his grandmother, Helena.
Alma (Mona Malm) and Gustav Ekdahl (Jarl Kulle): Alma and Emilie are wonderful sister-in-laws and they enjoy each other's company. Alma's husband, Gustav, is a delightful family man with a good business-sense, but is oversexed with Alma and is also philandering with a young maid, Maj (Pernilla August [Wallgren]). Maj is naughty with Gustav, who wants to buy her a cafe to run. Alma and Gustav have a daughter, Petra (Maria Granlund).
Carl Ekdahl (Borje Ahlstedt) and his wife, Lydia (Christina Scholin): Carl drinks, but has insomnia and depression. He also has a temper and disrespects his wife. He degrades her. As a Christmas present to the Swedish kids, he likes to walk up and down the stairs quickly with his pants off (is still clothed underneath with long-johns) and provokes farting. With the candles nearby, he can make "fireworks". The children laugh. It is a lovely Christmas for all.
Two months later, Oscar has a spell while performing on stage. He dies leaving Emilie in a great amount of grief. Alexander is scared of the death of his father. However, he and Fanny see their father again as a ghost (ironically what he has played on stage). Oscar as a ghost appears standing around the Ekdahl mansion and other places wishing to protect Fanny & Alexander.
On the day of the funeral, Emilie is comforted by Bishop Edvard Vergerus (Jan Malmsjo), a theatre patron, and later decides to marry him. Emilie becomes too firm with saddened Alexander and the Bishop is very tough on him and abusive as a stepfather. The Bishop is overbearing and possessive to Emilie as well.
Can the children ever return to their happy life again in the Ekdahl estate?

Mats Bergman is Ingmar Bergman's son. He plays "Aron Retzinsky", the puppet-maker and assistant to "Isak Jacobi" (Erland Josephson).

Bertil Guve gives an excellent and memorable performance as "Alexander". His last film was Ingmar Bergman's After the Rehearsal (1984-tv) where he made a cameo appearance. He kept in contact with director Ingmar Bergman through the years.

Pernilla Allwin is a beautiful, decent girl in this film. She plays "Fanny" with strength. Pernilla only did one more tv-movie, Ett hjarta av guld (1982-tv). Like Bertil Guve, she decided not to continue acting in movies.

I thought Jarl Kulle was delightful in this movie, a scene stealer. Sorry to hear of his passing in 1997 due to bone cancer.

Gunn Walgren is perhaps the grandmother we would like to have. I enjoyed her performance and she brightens up every scene she is in. She passed away six month's after this film was first shown on Sweden television. She was ill with cancer during filming, but never said a word about it.

I thought this movie was perfectly cast with a great ensemble cast, Jarl Kulle, Mona Malm, Ewa Froling, Gunn Wallgren with Bertil Guve and Pernilla Allwin. Lena Olin plays "Rosa".

If you are new to this film, I would recommend seeing the widely-seen theatrical 3 hours, 08 minute version first. The story gets to the point rather quickly. Objectionable adult scenes are still included. I would suggest an English-dubbed version instead of an English subtitled version.
Then, if you really like the movie, go ahead and see the rarely-seen 5 hour version. Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection
Jarl Kulle, Mona Malm, Harriet Andersson and Gunnar Bjornstrand worked together 27 years earlier in Ingmar Bergman's Smiles Of A Summer Night - Criterion Collection (1955).
Jarl Kulle and Mona Malm were also in Last Pair Out (aka Last Couple Out (1956)), All These Women [PAL Import ] (1964).
Pernilla August appeared in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) and Star Wars - Episode II, Attack of the Clones (Widescreen Edition) .

Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection contains the 3 hours, 08 min. theatrical version and the 5 hours, 11 min. Swedish television version. Their is also The Making of Fanny & Alexander included on 2 discs.

The 3.08 version DVD, shown in full-screen on one disc, includes the option of the original Swedish language or English language dubbed. Also the option of English subtitles, on or off. It's your choice.
Audio Commentary in English is by Film Scholar Peter Cowie.

The print of this film is in beautiful color like I have never seen it before. Restored, it looks fresh and new right out of the can.

The 5.11 version contains over 2 hours of footage rarely seen in the USA. 2 discs with all four episodes, five acts. Only the Swedish language with English subtitles is available for this version. However, if you have already seen the 3 hours, 08 min. version, it should not be a problem. You may turn the English subtitles on or off.
You also get a 34-page booklet with this set.
Their is no audio commentary for this version.
Disc 2 contains episodes 3 & 4.
Disc 2 also has a featurette, "A Bergman Tapestry" with 2004 interviews with:
Actress Ewa Froling, executive producer Jorn Donner, production mananger Katinka Farago, Actor Erland Josephson, art director Anna Asp, Actress Pernilla (Wallgren) August, Actor Bertil Guve, assistant director Peter Schildt.

If the Christmas scenes are your favorite in the 3.08 version, you will be happy to know that the 5.11 version contains so much more, in fact, the entire episodes.

The interior set of Grandmother Helena's home I was quite taken by. Oh to be a boy and roam around that house especially at Christmas time. Bravo to the imagination of the artists, set constructors and set decorators.

Every Fanny och Alexander fan will enjoy The Criterion Collection 5-disc set.
Fanny and Alexander (Special Edition Five-Disc Set) - Criterion Collection

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rodneyshute

how little you know

Reviewed in Canada on November 2, 2023

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thanks

Giulio Montenero

Sognare il passato senza rimpianti

Reviewed in Italy on October 15, 2019

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In Fanny e Alexander ho trovato il tesoro che quand'ero bambino, novanta anni fa, miei genitori, mia nonna e le persone di casa mi hanno donat; era un mondo estremamente ricco di sentimenti sfumati e cangianti, per cui solo a teatro, nella rappresentazione dei balletti e delle marionette riuscivo a ricostruirne l'unità e la centralità, Fanny e Alexander mi ripropone l'incantesimo di allora moltiplicato per mille nella famiglia borghese ottocentesca che, grazie alla gestione del teatro, raddoppia magicamente quella concentrazione della civiltà europea che soltanto nell'estremo nord è possibile

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Jesús

La presentación definitiva de la película definitiva

Reviewed in Mexico on July 9, 2017

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En cuanto a Bergman, está es la mejor compra posible.
Fanny y Alexander es una obra maestra. De lo más grande que jamás ha llegado al cine, y televisión. Junto con Persona y Escenas de un matrimonio, Fanny y Alexander encabeza la lista de las mejores películas de Bergman y del cine en general. No hay más grande recomendación que ver este impresionante trabajo, que, en el momento, Bergman esperaba que fuera su último.
Por su parte, el trabajo de Criterion es excelente (como era de esperar). La versión de miniserie se encuentra en un disco sin extras. La versión de cine se encuentra en otro disco, junto a un comentario del experto en Bergman (y siempre disfrutable e interesante), Peter Cowie . Y, en el tercer disco, entrevistas (largas, con Bergman y otros miembros del elenco) y el documental dirigido por el propio Bergman, Making Fanny & Alexander. Además del clásico libro incluido en las ediciones de Criterion con diversos ensayos.
La remasterización es realmente impresionante. Los colores son magníficos. La imagen es increíblemente detallada, resaltando la impecable cinematografia del incomparable Sven Nykvist. En pocas palabras, es una de las peliculas más bellas que jamás se han hecho.
El sonido también es impecable. Tiene una perfecta mezcla mono que es perfectamente clara y resaltable.
Simplemente es la versión definitiva de una de las más grandes películas que jamás se han hecho.

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俵　貴実

良かったです。

Reviewed in Japan on March 2, 2023

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包装もキレイで無事に届きました。ありがとうございます。

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Javier M. F.

Mala edición en Bluray de Fanny y Alexander, editada por CAMEO

Reviewed in Spain on May 26, 2014

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Edición muy justita esta de Fanny y Alexander, editada por CAMEO. Muy parca y con algún problema importante.
Veamos:
IMAGEN: Buena. No obstante, era de esperar, estamos hablando de una película rodada en 1981-82.
FORMATO: 1:78:1. Un 16:9, llena toda la pantalla.
IDIOMA: Sueco y castellano. La calidad del audio es MALA. Los diálogos de Alexander, en español, son poco menos que inaudibles.
SUBTÍTULOS: Sólo castellano.
MENU: Normal.
EXTRAS: No tiene.
RESUMEN: Es una edición cicatera, parca en idiomas, en subtítulos, sin extras, y con un sonido regular tirando a malo. Lo único positivo es una imagen buena y que el formato es 16:9. Para esto no merecía la pena el Bluray.
La conclusión que uno saca, después de ver lo que hacen determinadas editoras españolas con el paso a Bluray de algunas películas, es ver y escuchar antes de comprar (si fuera posible). Sólo en el caso de ediciones realizadas por las grandes multinacionales tienes alguna garantía previa de que el producto va a reunir unos requisitos mínimos.

LA PELÍCULA: La lista de Carl Cavanagh, en 2003, fruto de la consulta de fuentes de lo más heterogéneo a nivel internacional, la sitúa entre las 100 mejores.

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Fanny and Alexander (Theatrical & Television Version) (The Criterion Collecton) [DVD]

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