Open Writing

Several Ghosts

Part 3 of Ingmar Bergman's 'Fanny and Alexander' is ominously titled 'The Ghost'. Like so many other things in this film, the title carries more than one meaning. The Ekdahl family's theatre is a simple affair, but Oscar, father of Fanny and Alexander, is not afraid of staging Shakespeare. In the rehearsal scene, we are given subtle insight into the theatre itself.

The scenery comprises three temporary screens representing the castle wall. Oscar, as the ghost of Hamlet's father, is standing on a wooden platform behind the central screen. Someone has forgotten to put steps in place for him to climb down at the appropriate time. Another actor sits quietly reading his newspaper throughout the scene, which we notice him doing in other parts of the film.

The smallness of the stage is emphasised by the closeness of the plain brick wall behind it, the rear of the building. This is indeed 'the little world' which is referred to elsewhere in the story. However, the intimate joy of this little world of actors escaping from the pressures of the outside world is suddenly and dramatically changed — Oscar forgets his lines, and collapses on the stage.

There are touching moments as he lies on his bed at home, inexorably moving towards death. In the 5-hour version of the film, 'moments' can last for quite a long time. Speeches continue for several minutes. Interactions between people are measured and slow. In this sense, it is not an 'easy' film to watch. It is not light entertainment for a rainy afternoon. It requires concentration, which will turn out to be well worthwhile by the time the story finishes. Bergman plumbs the depth of human experience and opens it up to us in unforgettable and sometimes enigmatic ways.

From playing the ghost of Hamlet's father, Oscar himself appears as a ghost, at least in Alexander's eyes, or is it in his imagination? Not entirely his imagination, because his sister Fanny also sees it. Their ghostly father does not frighten or threaten, but is simply there as a familiar presence to remind them of his love and his care. He is for ever keeping a gentle watchful eye on them.

In Part 3 of the film, 'Break-up', Oscar's widow Emilie, mother of Fanny and Alexander, leaves the theatre, allowing herself to succumb to the apparent charm of the handsome white-haired bishop, Edvard Vergerus, who has conducted Oscar's funeral service. She soon marries him and moves with the children to his bleak, sparsely furnished house and his Puritanical lifestyle. The sumptuous interiors of the Ekdahl family home are replaced by stark white walls and barred windows. There are immediate signs of conflict. The children are forcefully deprived of all that they love, apart from their mother. Bishop Vergerus is to Alexander what Mr Murdstone was to David Copperfield in the autobiographical novel by Charles Dickens.

There are murmurs of what really happened to the bishop's first wife and his two daughters, who drowned in the nearby river. There is talk of ghosts. Whether or not all this exists only in Alexander's imagination, or arises from psychic events, or even magic, is perhaps up to the viewer to decide.

The boy is betrayed by one of the bishop's servants and summoned to confess that he has lied, to apologise, and to seek forgiveness. It is in this scene that we witness the brutal hypocrisy of the smiling bishop as he literally beats the boy into submission and sends him bleeding to the lonely attic, where other more frightening ghosts come to taunt him.

How Emilie and the children will escape is a problem yet to be resolved.

© Copyright Brian Barratt 2008