After the Rehearsal is essentially a three-actor performance. An older, renowned director (Henrik) rests on the stage after the rehearsal and reflects on the theater, only to be interrupted by Anna, the actress playing the lead in Henrik's latest production, who appears under the sham pretext of searching for a lost bracelet. The two talk, discussing the play, acting, the theater, and Anna's now-dead alcoholic mother Rakel, who was a famous actress with whom Henrik had a relationship. Later, Rakel herself appears, late in the stages of physical decay and with her acting powers compromised, pleading with Henrik to be with her again.
One take on this short film is that it's essentially a Bergman retrospective. Having completed the much-acclaimed Fanny and Alexander the year before, it's easy to view After the Rehearsal as Bergman himself looking back at his almost-four-decade directorial career, one that included many relationships with his leading actresses. Read from that autobiographical framing, you can take the voiceovers from Henrik, the discussions of a life spent in dedication to the arts, and the relations between director and actor in a specific way, an auteur's retrospective on his work and life.
But, I have a particular dislike for needing outside knowledge to "appreciate" a film. I prefer to take it in as though you found it in the wild. You turn on the television knowing nothing and this movie is on. What do you think of it then?
It's sparse, often-pretentious dialogue or monologue about life spent in acting and directing, the world of creating make believe and the blurring of reality and the stage that comes along with it. That's fine, frankly; there's nothing wrong with an intellectual film, but this one's not particularly enjoyable to watch. You get a lengthy scene that's either a dream sequence or a visually represented reminiscence and a man who decides against an affair with a person who may actually be his daughter, not because of any moral qualms, but instead because Henrik narrates the future of the imagined affair along with Anna and apparently decides he's simply too tired for what promises to be a short-lived drama.
For what it's worth, the person I watched the film with fell asleep, and it's only a seventy-minute run time.
One take on this short film is that it's essentially a Bergman retrospective. Having completed the much-acclaimed Fanny and Alexander the year before, it's easy to view After the Rehearsal as Bergman himself looking back at his almost-four-decade directorial career, one that included many relationships with his leading actresses. Read from that autobiographical framing, you can take the voiceovers from Henrik, the discussions of a life spent in dedication to the arts, and the relations between director and actor in a specific way, an auteur's retrospective on his work and life.
But, I have a particular dislike for needing outside knowledge to "appreciate" a film. I prefer to take it in as though you found it in the wild. You turn on the television knowing nothing and this movie is on. What do you think of it then?
It's sparse, often-pretentious dialogue or monologue about life spent in acting and directing, the world of creating make believe and the blurring of reality and the stage that comes along with it. That's fine, frankly; there's nothing wrong with an intellectual film, but this one's not particularly enjoyable to watch. You get a lengthy scene that's either a dream sequence or a visually represented reminiscence and a man who decides against an affair with a person who may actually be his daughter, not because of any moral qualms, but instead because Henrik narrates the future of the imagined affair along with Anna and apparently decides he's simply too tired for what promises to be a short-lived drama.
For what it's worth, the person I watched the film with fell asleep, and it's only a seventy-minute run time.