Other Titles • Faithless (2000) • Trolösa (2000) • Uskoton (2000) • The Faithless • Trolosa
Synopses for Faithless (2000)
1.
Directed by Liv Ullmann from a script by Ingmar Bergman and starring Lena Endre and Erland Josephson, FAITHLESS is a story of passion and infidelity based on a real event in Bergman’s past. A sensation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Lena Endre’s bravura lead performance was justly celebrated, the film has also been featured at the Toronto, Telluride, New York and Montreal film festivals. FAITHLESS will have its U.S. theatrical release in late January 2001.
Lyrical, passionate, and enigmatic, FAITHLESS begins with a writer named Bergman (Erland Josephson, who co-starred with Ullmann in Bergman’s 1974 Scenes From a Marriage) summoning his muse in the form of a memory. Marianne (Lena Endre) appears to Bergman as he sits down to write a script about a love affair of long ago. As she discusses ideas for the story with Bergman, she is transformed into the main character of the film that he is now writing.
Marianne Vogler is a successful actress happily married to Markus (Thomas Hanzon), an orchestra conductor much in demand for overseas concerts and devoted to her young daughter Isabelle (Michelle Gylemo). Into this easy equation steps family friend David (Krister Henriksson), a film director notorious for his reckless attitude toward relationships. Marianne’s friendship with David develops into passion, and they yield to temptation, traveling to Paris to indulge in an affair that then continues upon their return to Sweden.
Eventually Markus, who has suspected the affair all along, confronts the faithless couple, his wife and friend, in the very bedroom they have been meeting in. He demands divorce and custody of Isabelle. Marianne begs Markus to let her have Isabelle, but he refuses. What began as a casual affair threatens to destroy a marriage, a friendship, a family, and a man.
Despite the film’s dark themes, Lena Endre triumphs with her radiant performance. Onscreen for most of the film, Endre’s Marianne is a woman whose passion and intelligence makes her choices a story of unforgettable emotional power.
Liv Ullmann’s second film based on a Bergman screenplay (1997’s Private Confessions was the first), FAITHLESS is the latest of many collaborations between Bergman and Ullmann. Ullmann has been featured as an actress in nine of the director’s greatest films including Persona (1966), Scenes From A Marriage (1974), and Autumn Sonata (1978). Filled with references to Bergman’s films and to his life as a man and an artist, FAITHLESS is timeless meditation upon relationships between women, men, art and love.
2.
A timeless meditation upon relationships between women, men, art and love
Lyrical, Passionate and enigmatic. Faithless begins with a writer named Bergman summonig his muse, in the form of a memory. Marianne (Lena Endre) appears to Bergman as he sits down to write about a love affair of long ago. As she discusses ideas for the story, she is transformed into the main character of the film he is now writing.
Marianne is a successful actress happily married to Markus (Thomas Hanzon) and devoted to her young daughter. A friendship with a film director develops into passion as the two yield to temptation and indulge in an affair in Paris that continues back at home. Eventually Markus, who has suspected the affair confronts the faithless pair and their marriage, a friendship and a family are threatened to be destroyed.
Despite the film's dark themes, Endre triumps with the radiant performance... a woman whose passion and intelligence makes for a story of unforgettable emotional power.
3.
Reputedly based on an incident in the life of its screenwriter, Ingmar Bergman, Faithless is a powerful film that investigates the consequences of adultery, betrayal and grief and the long-term implications for everyone involved. Directed by Bergman's former muse and actress-turned-director, Liv Ullman, the story begins when an old man who lives by the sea, just like Bergman himself, ransacks his memories for material for his writing. He conjures up the beautiful Marianne (Lena Endre) who recounts a major turning point in her life: her affair with her husband's best friend. Her story is captured both in flashback and through Marianne's dialogue, as the camera lingers on her expressive face and his rapt, silent countenance. Not surprisingly the story is an intense and convoluted one and what ensues is a tale of guilt, pain and enduring damage as "simple things become complicated". The remote shore-side confessional location adds to the mystery: just what is their relationship? Is Marianne a figment of his imagination? As the film progresses, the truth begins to dawn.
Lena Endre gives a vividly emotional performance, particularly during the poignant scenes concerning her beautiful but increasingly withdrawn daughter (luminescently acted by Michelle Gylemo). Without seeming to judge her, Endre brilliantly portrays a woman who knows that what she is doing is wrong, but does it all the same. The rawness of the erupting emotions is reinforced by an almost total lack of background music and the film becomes ever more involving to watch, even if the key characters seem to have brought about their misfortune themselves. If there is a weakness here it is that the performances of the men are somewhat overshadowed. Lover David, enigmatically portrayed by Krister Henrekssen, looks older than his allocated years and his motivations are unclear; Thomas Hanzon, playing Markus the charismatic husband, seems too restrained in his role and the viewer longs for him to do something wrong to justify his wife's affair. When he eventually does, the ramifications are enormous. Faithless is riveting and very much in keeping with the Bergman oeuvre, here expressed through the sensitive, restrained direction of Liv Ullman. --Christina McLoughlin
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