Saraband
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: July 8, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TimeRichard Corliss
Saraband makes for a powerful and poignant final roar from the grand old man of cinema--the movies' lion king. Read full review
100
Film ThreatPhil Hall
One could literally milk a thesaurus in trying to find the right words to lavish on Saraband: brilliant, towering, majestic, challenging, remarkable. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Its leisurely, deliberative style is a perfect complement to the emotions it deals with - emotions so penetrating that I warn you at the outset how jarringly intense you may find Bergman's most brilliant drama in decades. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Bergman has never been an ordinary filmmaker, and what he's given us is no genial last hurrah but rather an intensely dramatic, at times lacerating examination of life's conundrums that is exhilarating in its fearlessness and its command. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Bergman's Saraband is sublime.
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
If it's not an actual masterpiece, it's at least the next best thing, a fully characteristic, fully alive work by a master of his art. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Powerfully, painfully honest. Read full review
100
Washington PostTim Page
It would be difficult to identify a single frame in Saraband that is not a distinguished composition in itself; Bergman has the eye of a latter-day Vermeer. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
A joy to watch. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Builds slowly and naturally to an unbearable personal crisis. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
Saraband portrays a sad vision of aging, yet the film is never depressing. For those inclined to search for psychological twists, the film offers plenty of Freudian situations capable of provoking lengthy discussions. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Ms. Ullmann, now 65, and Mr. Josephson, 81, have a supreme mastery of the Bergman style. Their performances are spiritual and emotional X-rays. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
With Saraband, the great writer-director has stepped back into the ring for one last epic wrestle with his demons. There is, as always, no easy outcome. But no one ever fought for higher emotional and spiritual stakes. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
A pure distillation of the great director's ongoing themes of the frailty of the human psyche and mankind's willful inability to accept the inevitable, whatever that may be. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Anyone expecting a tender sunset elegy, however, has wandered into the wrong film. Saraband, despite a few wistful moments, is a poison pill of a reunion. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
This is as bitter and despairing an exploration of the human spirit as any of Bergman's films, and it is just as vibrantly written and directed. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Saraband -- the term means an erotic dance for two -- is like watching four people take turns trying to swim with one of the others clinging to an ankle. It's grim and gripping. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Bergman has not gone soft, not emotionally, philosophically and certainly not artistically. This is as tough a film as he has ever made. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Bergman's creation of family banter that turns irredeemably cruel remains without peer. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
If ultimately the highly talky Saraband comes across as a minor entry in the canon, it nonetheless marks a dignified farewell for one of cinema's greatest directors. Read full review
70
VarietyGunnar Rehlin
A bitter but finally moving story about lost love, hatred between generations and a curious kind of liberation, Saraband officially closes one of the most prestigious and influential careers in the history of cinema. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Saraband doesn't ask to be considered prime-cut Bergman, and it isn't, although its slightness may not matter to the art-film starving class. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
A rare, unexpected treat. Read full review
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The screenplay of Saraband feels concocted, not absorbed from life in sense and soul like so much of Bergman's work. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Saraband, flat and static both visually and thematically, doesn't begin to approximate the austere beauty of the director's art-house classics. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
This uneven new film, a series of dialogues from the legendary Ingmar Bergman, is assembled like movements of a concerto. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid Parkinson
Insightful as ever but a little dated in the set-up and treatment of the shooting. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Feels like the effort of a tired artist reworking the same themes. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The performances are perfectly distilled, but the traits I dislike in Bergman are all here -- self-pity, brutality, spiritual constipation, and an unwillingness to try to overcome these difficulties. Read full review
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