Some people claim you can’t touch anything Ingmar Bergman was involved in. Tomas Alfredson is not one of these people.
“Not everything Bergman did was genius, but a lot of it was,” he tells Variety. Swedish director is behind new series “Faithless,” premiering in Toronto and based on the 2000 film directed by Liv Ullman and written by Bergman himself.
“This is his most autobiographical work. Ever. He started writing it several times and couldn’t finish, because he was so tormented by guilt. There was something in this material I felt could tackle in a different way. It would be different if I remade ‘The Seventh Seal’ or ‘Fanny and Alexander,’ but this? It was open for reinterpretation.”
Alfredson, of “Let the Right One In” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” fame, made a show that’s “very free from the original,” he underlines. Even though Lena Endre returns to the role of Marianne, tormented by the affair from the past.
“In the original version, Marianne is dead. She visits David as a ghost, as his creation. We wanted her to be an autonomous person,” he explains. The show was written by Sara Johnsen (“22 July”).
“Marianne tried to commit suicide, but she survived and they meet. It’s fairer this way, but it’s a big change. We’ve also introduced this girl, Isabelle, who becomes very important. Her life is destroyed by all this.”
Produced by Fremantle’s Miso Film Sweden, in co-production with SVT and Arte, “Faithless” was made with the support of DR, NRK, YLE, RUV and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Fremantle manages global sales.
Frida Gustavsson and August Wittgenstein star as young Marianne and her husband Markus, while Gustav Lindh and Jesper Christensen take on David, Markus’ best friend. More time – the show clocks in at six episodes – gave Alfredson a chance to focus on multiple point-of-views.
“The original is 2 hours and 30 minutes or so, and it’s a long time for a feature. But when you think about everything that happens in it, it feels too short. Here, we have [the equivalent of] three features! You can allow yourself to change perspectives.”
But it’s still difficult to understand his characters’ choices sometimes, as love and lust defy logic.
“Very true. When I can look at my own life, I recall the moments when I fell in love or attraction and there’s no specific reason for it. It just happens. This first ignition, this spark? It’s so coincidental,” he says, arguing “Faithless” is “about passion.”
“In the show, they are making a film and it’s supposed to be something erotic, too. But it’s a hard thing to translate into images. It’s like showing food, trying to make people hungry. Sexuality is complicated to portray if you want it to feel true, and not just use the bodies of your actors to make people horny.”
“There are many things that have been shown, but also many that haven’t. It’s embarrassing to do it, it’s hard to get it right. But I suppose you should try,” he says.
Marianne, Markus and David are close to each other, but that only makes it worse. Bergman might have written the story a long time ago, but some things never change.
“When you wake up feeling these feelings, it seems like you are doing the right thing – even if you hurt the ones you betray. That discourse is always very relevant. It’s something to question, this whole bourgeois format of a family and what’s expected of it. But this show is about people betraying each other. And betrayal is something we’re always interested in.”
Especially if the person who lets you down is a friend.
“That’s my experience, too. You never forget about those things, do you,” says Alfredson. He’s done with TV, for now. But he appreciates what it can handle these days, unlike cinema.
“It comes in waves. There have been times when television has been very radical and open-minded, and feature films were for kids, with people in leotards and space heroes. Ridiculous. The balance has been upset, because there aren’t many dramas for grownups at the moment. No one can afford it,” he stresses.
“You know, making shows like this one is exhausting. That could keep me from doing it again and also, my next job is a theatre play. You have to look for things that give you freedom.”
Source Agencies
