Faithless

Written by Ingmar Bergman and directed by his ex-lover Liv Ullmann, this deeply intimate drama (with its undeniable autobiographical subtext) is about a beautiful middle-aged actress named Marianne (Lena Endre) subverting her marriage to a celebrated and often touring orchestra conductor (Thomas Hanzon) by beginning an affair with a struggling film director (Krister Henriksson). Passionately acted and inventively structured, the story is told through a series of screenwriting sessions in which a frail, aged filmmaker (Erland Josephson)--not so coincidentally named Bergman--imagines long, emotionally charged conversations with Marianne in which she painfully recalls the turbulent demise of her marriage. An enthrallingly original work of highly personal fiction. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)