The Passion of Anna

One of Bergman's best dramatic offerings. The story involves an isolated man starting a friendship with a couple and a romantic relationship with an unsteady woman. The dynamics between all four make for interesting happenings, but Bergman makes the material thrive by having a lack of beginning and conclusion to each character. Emotional heights come in the stories but they aren't concluded. They linger in the characters through out the film. The film also makes a point to tell the stories at precise emotional moments. The stories are chronological, but feature the moments that go in between sadness and revelation. They reach the characters at the point of their confusions. By the end our lonely protaganist played by Max Von Sydow is wandering an isolated road lost in emotions and despair. What to make of everything that happened? He has no clue; it was too intense. Bergman applies the right grain and grit of realism to capture the intensity that jars our senses to comprehend the emotions we feel in tough situations. Even the audience has to catch their breath and stand back from the story to understand it all.