georgec said:

zombie84 said:

Watched the first two parts of Fanny and Alexander, the mini-series version. I always thought the film was a bit slow to start, since the first 90 minutes are really nothing more than a Christmas dinner that does little or nothing to advance the plot. However, this film is about characters, and when you re-watch the film, the first part gets better and better each time as you start getting more familiar with various quirks of the cast. And you get a peak of Pernilla August's breasts, which has always been weird to me since I so strongly associate her with Phantom Menace. The final parts really pick up the pace with surprising speed, looking forward to finishing this tonight.

"Oops, the rocket went off too soon!" Maybe my 3rd favorite Bergman film (behind Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries)

I'd probably rank Persona slightly ahead of Wild Strawberries. I haven't watched Fanny and Alexander since 2005 when I first bought this Criterion box set and it's every bit as magical as I remember. I LOVE the fantasy elements of the miniseries version. Bergman complained that the theatrical cut--despite winning the Oscar for foreign film--cut the veins and arteries that were the lifeblood of the original vision. I agree. It turned an adult's fantasy film involving children into a Dickens-like period piece. A fantastic one, but the original version was much more interesting.