From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

From the Life of the Marionettes (1980) – I. Bergman

Not unlike Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972), Bergman reconstructs a horrible sex murder and explores the events immediately before and after the “disaster” (which is shown in shocking and vivid colour at the film’s start, while the rest is in clinical black and white, shot stunningly by Sven Nykvist).  Of course, the result is very unlike Hitchcock (where the wrong man, our ambiguous hero, is suspected) – although there is a chance that Bergman expects that some viewers could feel some identification with murderer Peter Egermann (Robert Atzorn) who feels increasingly antagonistic toward his wife of ten years, Katarina (Christine Buchegger) and confesses that he fantasizes about killing her to his psychiatrist (Martin Benrath).  We see Katarina and Peter’s life before the event, as he becomes increasingly despondent and even threatens suicide and she pulls away from him asserting her independence (while both are drinking a lot – indeed the names of these characters are the same as the bitter alcoholic couple who are friends with Johan and Marianne in Scenes from a Marriage, 1973).  Peter’s mother and Katarina’s gay co-worker also provide their views, both in flashback and as statements to the police after the murder.  The highpoint of the film is probably the co-worker Tim’s exploration (in a monologue, in front of a mirror) of matters of identity, both as a gay man and as an aging adult who still feels his younger self (even as a child) inside. One senses Bergman reflecting on his own mortality (he was 62) and the effects of time on a person as well as relationships. But, for all the dark self-analysis here, it is hard to grasp why Peter did it – some final Freudian suggestion about latent homosexuality does not cut it.  Instead, it may be better to see the film as another portrayal of the patriarchal environment that women are trapped in, suffering at the hands of men (again and again), particularly when they dare to assert themselves.  Indeed, all three of the film’s female characters have been subjected to unfair control and domination by men; the title of the film itself implies that women are therefore the “marionettes”.  However, Bergman doesn’t provide any solution to the problem, leaving it up to viewers to ponder whether he thinks that men too are marionettes who struggle and despair but cannot break free of the grip of patriarchy.  Say it isn’t so.