Some exciting news: I recently had the opportunity to write for The Guardian after emailing them in late November 2022 about the upcoming 40th anniversary of the classic Ingmar Bergman film ‘Fanny and Alexander’. F&A is a wonderful film: moving, complex, and artistic. It’s also unusually long, clocking in at 312 minutes – but no scene feels wasted.
I’m particularly happy about how the article turned out because it is (in my opinion) a little different from a standard film review. In considering how to approach this piece, I talked with several Scandinavian friends about how the film is perceived today in Swedish popular culture. A Swedish friend also offered some useful anecdotes related to Swedish yuletide broadcasting practices, which corroborated my impression that F&A is widely understood as a Christmas film. Seeking to draw out why the film matters to so many people, and to share a little about its cultural impact in Sweden, was a rewarding experience.
You can read the article on The Guardian’s website here.
