# Trolösa (2000)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    FAITHLESS
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  *** 1/2

FAITHLESS (TROLÖSA), a 2-1/2 hour angst-filled drama in Swedish about the everlasting trauma caused by infidelity, might sound like something you would look forward to about as much as getting your teeth drilled. But this film, based on a script by Ingmar Bergman and lovingly directed by his long-time collaborator Liv Ullmann is absolutely mesmerizing. With an astonishing central performance by Lena Endre as Marianne, the woman who strays, the film relies on long, talking-head shots of her relating her story. Watching it on television, you might be inclined to flip the channel, but, in a movie theater, the experience becomes so engrossing that your eyelids may stop blinking.

The screenplay's structure is quite imaginative. We meet an older writer named Bergman (Erland Josephson) who is preparing a script in his study. For material he calls upon an actress, Marianne, with whom he has worked extensively. Like someone relating one of the turning points in her life, Marianne begins to create the story from scratch. Although most of the story is told in flashback, Ullman keeps cutting back to the study for Marianne to talk directly to the camera. Since these long narrative scenes are just as memorable as the flashbacks, it is hard to pick a favorite, as both are so exquisite and hauntingly composed.

Marianne's story, which Ullman in the press notes says is based on an incident in Ingmar Bergman's life, stars Marianne as an attractive, 40-year-old woman torn between two men. Like the unusual structure of the script, the love affair doesn't follow the conventional cinematic formula. With a palpable honesty, the story follows an affair that starts innocently and is more about intimacy than sex. Indeed, were it not for a couple of scenes with explicit sexual discussions, the film might have gotten a PG-13 rating. Don't be confused, however, for this is a serious adult film.

The story-within-the-story, which, of course, is the real story, concerns an actress, Marianne, who is married to an internationally known conductor, Markus (Thomas Hanzon). The strikingly handsome Markus is so attentive to Marianne that she confesses that she sometimes so loses her head during sex that she passes out. In short, he is not the type of guy who inspires his wife to go looking for greener pastures.

David (Krister Henriksson), on the other hand, is the solid looking type who wouldn't turn any heads but is ruggedly handsome. He is a stage director with whom Marianne has worked closely for years. She tells us that he is like her brother. One night when Markus is gone, David and Marianne enjoy a late night dinner at her house. Too tired to drive, David suggests, innocently enough it seems, that he spend the night there in her bed. He is emotionally troubled so he'd like her to hold his hand. After much giggling and awkwardness, she agrees, insisting to us that this will not be incest. And she is right -- for a time -- since nothing happens that night.

Their decision that fateful evening sets them on a trajectory which is as certain as a rocket's. They will eventually come crashing down to earth, and it won't be pretty. Bergman's script is so full of grace and subtlety that the picture almost completely avoids incendiary polemics. The few times when emotions do run out of control are the picture's low points.

As the tragedy heightens, Markus and Marianne's 8-year-old daughter, Isabelle (Michelle Gylemo), moves more to the foreground. She becomes a victim of the actions of the adults in her life. No KRAMER VS. KRAMER tale, the movie keeps the focus on the adults even if it is the child who most deserves our sympathy.

"Our affinity lay in our memory," Marianne, towards the end, says to Bergman about David. "We grieved for what we had lost." Deeply touching, the movie will stay long in your memory, especially Lena Endre's absolutely unforgettable work in it. It is Oscar worthy acting and certainly light-years better than Juliette Binoche's Oscar nominated part in CHOCOLAT.

FAITHLESS runs 2:25. The film is in Swedish with English subtitles. It is rated R for sexual content, some nudity and language and would be acceptable for older teenagers.

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