229 Scenes from a Marriage

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JSC
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 9:17 am

Re: 229 Scenes from a Marriage

#26 Post by JSC » Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:16 pm

I'm also happy that they decided to go with their original artwork for
the cover.

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solaris72
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:03 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: 229 Scenes from a Marriage

#27 Post by solaris72 » Sat Jun 16, 2018 10:56 am

Excited for this, though it's a pity they didn't get Saraband to package with it.

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MoonlitKnight
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:44 pm

Re: 229 Scenes from a Marriage

#28 Post by MoonlitKnight » Sat Jun 16, 2018 11:07 am

I wonder if they'll put the entire miniseries on one disc they way they did "Fanny and Alexander"...

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Morbii
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2004 3:38 am

Re: 229 Scenes from a Marriage

#29 Post by Morbii » Sat Jun 16, 2018 1:05 pm

solaris72 wrote:
Sat Jun 16, 2018 10:56 am
Excited for this, though it's a pity they didn't get Saraband to package with it.
This didn’t even occur to me, but it seems so obvious. I hope they at least tried.

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Clarence
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2016 1:18 am
Location: Orlando, FL

Re: 229 Scenes from a Marriage

#30 Post by Clarence » Tue Aug 28, 2018 8:10 pm


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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: 229 Scenes from a Marriage

#31 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Aug 28, 2018 8:22 pm

Glad they kept the grain. And man, that fast-exposure 16mm film stock really makes a Seurat painting out of some of those still frames. (Which is GOOD. Please, keep the hands away from the DNR controls.)

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Magic Hate Ball
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:15 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: 229 Scenes from a Marriage

#32 Post by Magic Hate Ball » Sun Nov 04, 2018 10:52 pm

Was very lucky to catch a screening of the full-length version at TIFF here tonight. I haven't seen it in a long time, so there were plenty of surprises, though the themes of time passing and revisiting really hit at the end. As usual with these kinds of marathon screenings it was fun to get to know my seatmates - the long version wasn't edited for screening in the theater, so every episode ended with both sets of credits, and by the end of the third episode everyone was babbling in the interim about the characters. Actually, the overall vocalness of the audience was a really pleasant experience, everyone was very into it, particularly as the numbers dwindled with each intermission. Lots of groaning and mumbling during certain bits, and the beating scene got a huge response. Plenty of laughter, too, which was really nice - I forgot how funny this movie is.

Something I particularly appreciated was the destruction of our expectations of the characters, and how this plays into the film's themes. We dislike Johan for his pompous masculinity,and pity and admire Marianne, right from the very beginning, for her struggle to be noticed as her own person (the interruption during the interview got a big laugh). But they're both unmoored, both destroying what connects them with their obsession with contrasting themselves and what they percieve their path to be with the other, with how they percieve the other to be holding them back. It's so interesting that they're not wrong, particularly not Marianne, but their rightness is never clarified, which is its own theme. You can see all the faults, everything that can be pointed out in negative, which can be so easily coalesced into a concrete reason to flee, but it's so hard to see all the things that make it good, and the ways that, even if it's not sweeping-away-love, a certain connection might be the ground of your life.

I always remember this movie/series for the blazing intensity of its most difficult-to-watch scenes, but the lovely empathy and sense of shifting, ungraspable, and organic love made the biggest impression on me tonight.

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RPG
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2015 6:05 pm

Re: 229 Scenes from a Marriage

#33 Post by RPG » Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:05 pm

I first watched this with my then-girlfriend around 8 or so years ago. Now I just finished a rewatch (alone) while going through a divorce with that same woman. It's certainly a different experience from those two perspectives.

Magic Hate Ball hit the nail on the head, Johan and Marianne spend so much time focusing on what they're missing that they fail to recognize the incredible bond they do have. Honestly, I'm a little surprised that divorce rates supposedly increased after this was released. I would think that encouraging couples to express their grievances/differences/problems would lead to more resolution than dissolution. In this movie, Johan and Marianne's problems are ignored or put off ("The Art of Sweeping Things Under the Rug") and THIS is what leads to the breakdown in their relationship. When they finally confront their issues and openly discuss them, they experience a greater connection and a rekindling of their passion and love. But by then it is too late. Every relationship has conflict that requires open discussion, compromise, or at the very least acknowledgement and acceptance. If you feel like you're in the "perfect" marriage, trouble is a-brewing.

I guess the increase in divorces were in scenarios where people just floated by in an existence without love/passion like the woman who visits Marianne to file for divorce early on, or like Marianne's own mother, until this film inspired them to break free.

I thought it was telling that in the scene where they are signing the divorce papers, Johan is expressing his regret over his decisions, and Marianne, empowered and finally free, feels pity for him and hope for her own future. Then in the final scene, we see that they are both in inferior marriages to their first, meeting up to cheat on their new spouses with each other, feeling a connection with each other that quite frankly they have not and likely cannot experience with someone else. I guess this revelation really hit home for me.

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