Scenes from a Marriage

For ten years, fearing the worst of Scandinavian bad love a la Hedda Gabler or Nora what's-her-name, I stayed clear of Bergman's domestic pieces. But I bet that ten years ago, lacking the maturity demanded by this patient, goddamn intense marvel, I would have hated them anyway. Whatever else I got wrong, I grew into this movie, and that, for now, is enough.

Slothrop: I feel about this film the way Mitch Hedberg feels about a donut: there is no need to bring ink and paper into this transaction. This holds true for marriage which is a good friendship ruined by expectation and documentation.

I also didn't like Johan very much. I know that's not the point, but he was a mumbling fool that beat his wife, however frigid she might have been at times. I don't like that one bit and three hours is a long time to spend with Grumpy Bear. So here's how I see it, in the words of Joe Tex:

I've been pushed around

I've been lost and found

I've been given til sundown

to get out of town.

I've been taken outside

and I've been brutalized

and I've had to always be the one to smile and apologize.

But I ain't never

in my life before

seen so many love affairs

go wrong as I do today.

I want you to stop.

Find out what's wrong.

Get it right.

Or just leave love alone.

Koko: You are perilously wrong. And which version did you watch--film, miniseries, or both--because that matters.

Slothrop: The film. Now I know the message of the film is that love isn't Love the way we wish it to be, but really, Grumpy bear was a bit much. Plus, he's Swedish, feel me? He ought to exist as a red candy gummy fish or not at all. As per Joe Tex.