Scenes From a Marriage was director Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 six part mini-series with so much ruthless emotion that it has the ability make us question the components of modern day love. Bergman lets the viewer study the finest details of a single relationship in such a way that the intensity between the couple can be the plot of the story. With performances that are so realistic because of their depth facial expressions and their accurate tones of frustration, the audience can identify with Marianne (played by Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) as the two go through the dissatisfaction of each other and the weariness of heartbreak.
Within the chapters of Scenes From a Marriage, there is hardly any background noise or enough visuals to keep the mind engaged, which is perfect for the direct manner of the story. In fact, much of the episodes take place within two rooms of Johan and Marianne’s home. It is events in chapter three, called Paula, that the claustrophobic feeling between those walls plays a significant part when a crucial secret is revealed and Marianne’s view of love collapses on her.
During the first scene of Paula, Johan returns home a day early from a trip and is greeted by Marianne with a warm hug as she offers to make him a sandwich. While the two of them are eating, Marianne casually discusses about being on a diet and how she does not understand why humans deny themselves gratification of food if it makes them happy. She looks upon Johan with eyes full of love like she cannot wait to grow old with him. Johan eats a few bites of his sandwich and stares down at his plate in shame as he discloses to Marianne that he has been having an affair.
She does not react, as if she is unable to understand what her husband of ten years has just told her. Johan continues by adding that he is leaving for Paris with Paula for four to six months. Marianne finally responds, not with the anticipated anger or resentment, but with an act of desperation. The viewer can understand when she is asking questions about Paula that she not only wants to sympathize with Johan, but also Marianne wants to connect with him once more because she does not want to be abandoned.
The sense of desperation is sharpened as Marianne pleads with Johan to spend one last night “as hers” in their bed. She tightly holds him after they fail to make love and Marianne finally acknowledges her heavy sorrow by crying against her husband. When Johan leaves the next morning, she finds herself in need to reach out to someone who will listen to what happened. Marianne discovers through her friend that numerous people knew about Johan’s affair and she at last shows anger by yelling through the phone and slamming it down.
The viewer gets to see the frustration she has towards herself for not even suspecting her husband’s infidelity. With Johan gone and with nobody to speak with, Marianne discovers the meaning of loneliness. Scenes From a Marriage is worth watching because it begs us as a modern society to ask, what does it mean to love?
