That was an excellent one.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A very touching and human film about the 40 some odd year relationship between one of the greatest directors and greatest actresses of the last hundred years. This is probably not a ideal film for those not familiar with Bergman and Ullman's work together. The film seems to assume a knowledge of that work, it's depth and importance. It's also not for film scholars looking for insight into either artist's working methods. This 85 minute film is solely about the course of a relationship that started when Ullman was 25 and Bergman 46 (and married), grew into a passionate affair, produced a child, ended up falling apart, only to be reborn in a new way – lasting until Bergman's death in 2007. A lot of the film is an extended interview with Ullman who is candid, charming, funny and moving. We hear an actor read some of Bergman's letter's to Ullman (a slightly awkward device), but there's no question that the film is her perspective on the experience of a complex relationship between two great, vulnerable and sometimes very neurotic geniuses. There is some interesting occasional use of clips from the films that show how their off screen relationship was clearly influencing the work between them. But if you go in expecting some overview of their great collaborations you'll be disappointed. But as a human story of a love that lasted a lifetime, it's very rewarding.

World Cinema has seen its fair share of long-term director and actor pairings, from Kurosawa/Mifune to Fellini/Mastroianni to Scorsese/DeNiro. (Please don't put Scorsese/DiCaprio in the same list.) Rare has been the director/actress pairing, but there have been a few - Marlene Dietrich and Joseph Von Sternberg to go way back, or Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz to be a bit more current. Perhaps the most celebrated director/actress teaming was Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, and the new documentary "Liv & Ingmar" tells the story of this artistic and personal collaboration. And what a story it is, as told by Ullmann herself. The film is built around an interview conducted with Ullman at the gorgeous seaside estate she shared with Bergman for five years. From their first meeting when she was 26 and he was 47, through their five year relationship (and the birth of a child) and their continuing professional collaborations, Ullmann allows us a personal glimpse into the man responsible for such classics as "The Seventh Seal" and "Cries & Whispers".Sometimes it is not a pretty picture, and credit should go to Ullmann for giving us a "warts and all" look at their relationship. Granted, it is a one-sided presentation (Bergman died in 2007) which uses Ullmann's autobiography as its main source, but one can't help but feel Ullmann is being honest, particularly when one looks at Bergman's work. The film is even broken down into "Bergman-esque" chapters, with intertitles such as "Love", "Loneliness", "Rage", and "Pain" to highlight the subject matter."Cold", "aloof", and "cruel" are terms often used when discussing the work of Ingmar Bergman, particularly his male characters. His female characters were far more open and emotionally expressive, especially with their sexuality. One leaves this film feeling that a great deal of Bergman's work was autobiographical. The film is populated with clips from their films, and one gets the sense that Ullmann was often playing Ullman, while actors like Max Von Sydow took the "Bergman" role.But there was real love in this partnership as well. Evidence of Bergman's humanity and affection come from the reading of several pieces of personal correspondence that Ullmann shared with writer/director Dheeraj Akolkar which are effectively narrated, as well as excerpts from Bergman's autobiography. Most telling is Bergman's comment to Ullmann that he considers her "his Stradivarius" - the beautiful, perfect instrument through which he communicates and makes beautiful music. But make no mistake about it, this is Ullmann's tale to tell. It is a tale told well.www.worstshowontheweb.com

Loved this film this evening at Vancouver International Film Festival, while my partner says it's okay, he wouldn't mind if he hadn't seen it. What planet are (emotionally repressed) men from? Please don't say Mars— Martians would be more moved than he was by this gem of a documentary.A different film than I was expecting: I didn't know anything about Ullman and Bergman's personal past, and was expecting something more focused on their long (almost 50 years) of collaboration in making extraordinary films. This was only partly about their shared film history together and dwelt more on their relationship, the account rendered extraordinary by Ullman's candour and towering spirit. I would look for more films from this director, though, without another such woman of character, as comfortable before the camera as Ullman, could such touching and real stuff be served up? But the film's capture has warmth and sparkle, like that old song that asks if we want to carry moonbeams home in a jar—an apt metaphor, I think, for the trick which the most artful films pull off.Just as Bergman has bewitched and bedevilled us with his films, one's jaw drops hearing what he was like as a lover and husband in her words—both dreadful and also Ullman's gloriously prized treasure of a human connection, delivered to us in lovely to watch and listen to footage. Bravo.

Indian screenwriter, cinematographer and documentary director Dheeraj Akolkar's debut full-length documentary feature which he wrote, is based on excerpts from Liv Ullmann's autobiography "Changing" (1977), her private letters to Ingmar Bergman, his letters to her and his autobiography "The Magic Lantern" (1988). It premiered at the 40th Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund in 2012 and is a Norway-Sweden-UK-India-Czech Republic co-production which was shot on location in Oslo, Norway and Fårö, Sweden and produced by Norwegian film producer Rune T. Trondsen. It tells the story about the personal and professional relationship between Norwegian screenwriter, director and actress Liv Ullmann and Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007), which began in 1965 during the production of one of Ingmar Bergman's masterpieces "Persona" (1966), their first collaboration, on the Baltic Sea Island of Fårö in Gotland, Sweden when Liv Ullmann was in her mid-twenties and Ingmar Bergman in his late forties.Finely and subtly directed by Indian filmmaker Dheeraj Akolkar, this somewhat biographical remembrance which is narrated by Swedish actor Samuel Fröler and by and from Liv Ullmann's point of view, draws an intimate portrayal of the renowned romance between a distinctive filmmaker from Sweden and an internationally acclaimed actress from Norway. While notable for its atmospheric cinematography by Norwegian documentary director and cinematographer Hallvard Bræin and pictures of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman, this vivid portrait which examines the love, loneliness, rage and friendship within a 42-year-long relationship and twelve film collaborations contains a good score by Swedish composer Stefan Nilsson.This at times romantic and unsentimental flashback love-story which appreciatively depicts a lifelong connection regarding two prominent icons of cinema history whom has made an everlasting contribution to cinema, is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure, rhythmic pace and the fine editing by Indian film editor Tushar Ghogale. A reverent and mindful homage to two human beings whose stories one may never have known if it wasn't for their achievements and the worldwide recognition they have received from filmmakers, actors and actresses, authors, film critics and cinema audiences.