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| Ingmar Bergman | 1980 |
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 Aging Domestic Abuse Fashion Germany  |
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From the Life of Marionettes is a movie made by Bergman while exiled to Germany. It doesn't feature the typical "Bergman players". The prologue begins with a half naked woman comforting an exhausted Peter {Robert Atzorn}. Suddenly, and quite out of the blue, Peter begins to pound on the woman then throws her to the floor. The woman runs to the bathroom to hide but Peter follows close after, drags her out into the room and begins to kiss her quite passionately. The woman breaks away, runs to the bedroom and hides beside the bed. Peter follows her here as well; he strangles her until she passes out then drags her onto the bed where he begins to kiss her again and the color fades to black and white.
Cut to a title screen which reads "Twenty hours following the murder, Mogens Jensen" and a second screen which reads "Professor of psychiatry speaks with the inspector". For several minutes we're shown a detailed account of the events on the night of the murder. Peter called Professor Jensen {Martin Benrath} on that night and had him come to the crime scene where he found the murdered woman's body. The Professor goes on to describe Peter in some detail.
Cut to a screen that reads "14 days before the disaster". Peter calmly explains to the doctor that he has wanted to kill his wife Katarina {Christine Buchegger} for the past two years. Strangely, he really doesn't know why he wants to do this. The doctor prescribes long walks and coffee or cognac. Peter stops as he's leaving, turns, explains that he's not finished and sits back down at the professor's request. He then goes on to describe his relationship with Katrina in a little more depth. Apparently, the couple's relationship is occasionally violent with the violence frequently providing the same outlet that sex would in a normal relationship. Cut to a stylized fantasy sequence in which Peter describes the way he envisions the murder and to a few moments conversation, as the doctor explains a few things to Peter, then schedules their next appointment.
As he's leaving, Peter overhears the doctor as he calls Katarina and asks her to come see him. Rather than leave, Peter decides to wait in the dark entranceway and see what's going on behind his back. When Katarina arrives, the Professor asks her to have sex with him. Apparently, these two have something of a relationship going. Katarina and Peter have a "modern", "open marriage" but, she refuses and goes on to explain the way she feels for Peter. Cut to a screen that reads "A week after the murder, Inspector speaks with Peter Eggerman's mother".
Basically, this movie uses the interviews and conversations, along with flashbacks, to give us a fairly in-depth look at Peter, Katarina and the relationship the two share as well as their relationships with a few people outside of the marriage. This is more character study than murder mystery and the plot reflects that; there's very little plot. You're basically told the way this will end and then told why. Much of the dialogue here reads like poetry and most of it has a fairly deep and philosophical bent. Overall, From the Life of Marionettes is pretty typical of Bergman though the film has a slightly darker, cold and more clinical feel. Rather than making this less watchable, it tends to push things to the point of surrealism and gives the movie a vague and dreamlike feel. Technically, this film is top notch. The cinematography is exceptional as is the direction.
This has a nice "art-noir" feel to it and it moves along fairly slowly. It does attempt to tackle some fairly in-depth issues and succeeds in varying degrees. If you're not interested in art films, this will definitely not appeal to you. On the other hand, if you enjoy things with a bit of bite and an intellectual bent you'll most likely enjoy this. Keep in mind that it's not an easy film.
You will need a fancy DVD player to play the disk that's advertised here. It's PAL format and region coded. It won't play on a standard U.S. DVD player. you should be fine with the VHS tape though. {Unless I missed something} Read the notes on the Amazon pages before you order either.
