Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata

AN 'INCORRIGIBLE MUSIC': INGMAR BERGMAN'S AUTUMN SONATA Despite the wide critical acclaim and discussion of many films directed by Ingmar Bergman, Autumn Sonata (1977) has still not received much detailed critical attention. We shall attempt to redress the balance by discussing different kinds of aesthetic construction, particularly musical forms, presented in Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata. A discussion of the different kinds of music featured in the film will be opened out to examine tensions between different kinds of aesthetic expression within the film generally. Sometimes it is eccentric to discuss the details of one medium (that of film) using templates of another medium (music). However, the very title Autumn Sonata invites analogies between music and film forms, music is of central importance in this film, and Bergman often describes his films in musical terms.(1) First, I shall consider two different modes of expression in music (generally..