Cinema Cycle - Autumn Sonata

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE VIEWED: 09/09/2015

TITLE: Autumn Sonata

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 34 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 22.9 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 2613.8 miles

SYNOPSIS: A mother and daughter comes to grips with the emotions and expectations that they have long suppressed.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER:  Dysfunctionality, it is part of every family.

PROS AND CONS: It used to be that every country was associated with a specific director that sort of summed up the mindset of each different culture.  Italy had Fellini, France had Truffaut, American had Cecil B. DeMille, England had David Lean, etc.  Sweden had Ingmar Bergman.  

Bergman films can be hard to watch, sort of like sitting through a long and detailed lecture of psychology, but in the end they are pretty satisfying.  His films are always played out by a small cast (in this case 4 actors) and almost always take place in remote, beautiful locations and involve a lot of dialog.  

This film is not his best, but does carry all his trademarks.  What this film revolves around is the strained relationship between a mother and a daughter and the mother’s abandonment of the a younger sister who has become invalid which that the older sister must now care for.  All this while the mother pursues her career as a concert pianist  

The juxtapositioning of the emotion that the mother pours into her music compared to her frigid relationship with her daughter is odd and unnerving.  In the end it all comes down to the expectations that youth have of their parents for love and support and the expectations that parents have for their children and how some parents resent their off-spring for holding them back and not letting them pursue their dreams.    

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.