Scener Ur Ett Aktenskap (Scenes From A Marriage)

Bergman's 1973 endless meditation on marriage and relationships, with only two real characters. Very popular, highly lauded as a masterwork in certain circles. Nearly three hours long, and felt every second.
We're not going to deny that technically it is very well shot. The huge quantity of material is well paced and wonderfully edited. The performances are often note perfect depictions of naturalistic acting, the script has a couple of profound moments.
But we gave three cheers at its conclusion, were counting down the seconds before. Visually, it's just bourgeois drawing rooms shot with a focus on the face. Nice enough, but are attention span can't cope. The screenplay is so utterly humourless and lacking in consequence as to be absurd. Yes, these people are in a relationship like many others, no, we don't care. This is just some rich Swedes mooning over their relationship, yes we're all a bit like that, but do we have to be told? It is all magnificently boring, the character's supposed great self-refelction actually hides a lack of awareness of how broing they are. Talk about something else. Even better, stop talking and go outside.
The talking just goes on and on and on, quite deliberately going around in circles. It isn't too embarrassingly undergraduate (save for a couple of moments) but only piques the interest once every five minutes or so.
This is too boring people being boring for three hours. An excercise of techinical and historical interest perhaps, but about as fun as crouching in a ditch.