Coming out in 1982 initially as a five-hour version for Swedish television before being shortened to 180 minutes for theaters, *Fanny and Alexander* was intended to be Ingmar Bergman’s final work. Although the acclaimed filmmaker continued his career for another quarter century, creating smaller projects along the way, it remains a significant conclusion to a long period of celebrated filmmaking. *Fanny and Alexander* explores two central themes that have occupied Bergman throughout his career: the absence of God and the difficulties in connecting with other people, but ultimately delivers an uplifting experience. The film focuses on Fanny and Alexander, the children of Oscar and Emilie Ekdahl, actors working in Uppsala around 1907, yet it portrays a wide-ranging view of their extended family. This includes their grandmother Helena, uncles Gustav Adolf (who runs a restaurant and is the film’s source of comic relief) and Carl (a professor struggling with debt and trapped in an unhappy marriage), along with their wives, children, and Isak Jacobi, a kind Jewish shopkeeper. The Ekdahl family lives in a level of wealth that seems hard to believe today, especially considering Sweden's largely dissolved class system after World War II. The formal interactions between people who aren’t close and the servants’ obedience to their employers feel as distant to modern audiences as a Noh play. In many respects, *Fanny and Alexander* resembles the large-scale novels of a century earlier, such as those by Tolstoy or Galsworthy, which examine the lives of entire families. However, this broader family story serves primarily as a backdrop for a more intimate one: Fanny and Alexander are soon left without parents, and their mother eventually marries again, this time to a harsh clergyman. The children transition from the freedom and comfort of the Ekdahl home to the strict environment of the bishop’s residence, where they face punishment—beatings or confinement in the attic—for even minor misdeeds. The Ekdahls' suffering under the bishop represents the film’s central conflict, and their unexpected release from this situation leaves Alexander with a responsibility he will carry into adulthood. The original television version is the best way to experience Bergman’s final achievement. Don’t be put off by its length; five hours isn’t excessive when people readily watch an entire season of a sitcom at once. *Fanny and Alexander* doesn't have the slow, contemplative feel of films by directors like Tarkovsky or Tarr, but instead consistently offers viewers engaging mini-dramas. The theatrical version, which Bergman made with considerable reluctance, is significantly different—and notably weaker—as it removes much of the film’s magical realism, poignant reflections on aging through the grandmother's character, and some striking depictions of early 20th-century Sweden.

Source on TMDB