From the Life of the Marionettes

A businessman goes to a brothel and kills a woman there. The film opens with this scene; the act is shown at the start and who did it is known. Then the narrative goes back. Peter's relations with his wife Katarina are bad; both know it and neither leaves. Peter goes to a psychiatrist and says he has thought of killing her. The doctor does not take it seriously. The narrative proceeds through interrogation records, medical reports and witness statements. Each section opens with a date and a time. Ingmar Bergman writes and directs. Robert Atzorn, Christine Buchegger and Martin Benrath are in the cast. It is a German production and the language is German. Bergman made it in Munich during the period he left Sweden; he had gone abroad because of a tax investigation. The characters Peter and Katarina had appeared as supporting figures in an earlier television series of his. The opening and closing sections are in colour and everything between them in black and white. What the narrative builds is the question of why; what happened is known from the start and the film looks for an explanation and does not find one. The form of reports and records sets its coldness; the film does not approach emotionally. The medical report at the end voids every explanation the narrative has offered. Its limit is the watching; the subject is extremely heavy, sexual violence is taken up directly, and the narrative offers no hope. Who it is for: viewers who like Bergman and films of psychological analysis. Who it is not for: it is dark, cold, and some scenes are hard to bear.