The Best Intentions resulted from a collaboration between Danish director Bille August and the great Ingmar Bergman. Bergman had retired from directing after his semi-autobiographical Fanny and Alexander (1983), but continued to write filmscripts. After writing a script based on the courtship and early marriage of his own parents, Bergman turned to August for its realization. August had developed a reputation as a director with a taste for sprawling epics and a keen sensitivity for period detail and character complexity. His wealth of experience as a cinematographer ensured that his films could be counted on for visual splendor.

Historical Background: Bille August was born November 9th, 1948 in Brede, Denmark. He graduated from the Danish Film Institute and began his career as a cinematographer working in television. When his interest turned to cinema, he initially continued as a cinematographer for Homeward in the Night (1977), before he took his first shot at directing the very next year with Honeymoon (1978) (a.k.a. In My Life). For the next three years or so, however, he returned to television and cinematography. His next directing effort came in 1983, with Zappa, which earned him recognition as a promising new Scandinavian director. A semi-sequel, Twist and Shout (1984), followed the same lead character during the era when the Beatles were becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Twist and Shout was highly successful in Denmark and got some distribution in the art-house circuit in America as well.

August’s career now moved into high gear with his two most highly regarded films: Pelle The Conqueror (1987) and the film under review here, The Best Intentions (1992), both of which earned the Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival. After those two great successes, The House of the Spirits (1993) was a bit of a set-back for August, being very poorly received despite a talented cast including Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, and Vanessa Redgrave. Jerusalem (1996) was also not well regarded. His next effort, Smilla’s Sense of Snow (1997) earned critical respect but had limited box-office success. August’s top success after his two award winning films came with Les Miserables (1998), but August had begun to develop a reputation as more of a craftsman than an “auteur” and too prone to overblown literary adaptations. August’s standing got a bit of rehabilitation from a nice drama in 2001, A Song for Martin, about an aging couple.

The Story: The first character we meet in this film is Henrik Bergman (Samuel Fröler), who has been called to visit his paternal grandfather, Fredrick Bergman (Keve Hjelm), because his grandmother is dying and wants to ask for her grandson’s forgiveness for the poor treatment he and his widowed mother, Alma (Mona Malm), have received from his father’s parents. Henrik, however, is determined to be unforgiving and offers that Fredrick can tell his dying wife that she will have lived and died as she deserved. This unbending bitterness is not all that becoming for a young man studying theology for a career in the clergy.

After this rather unpleasant business, Henrik at least has the consolation of a dinner engagement at the home of an upper class friend, Ernst Akerblom (Björn Kjellman). The Akerbloms are an extended family, comfortably situated in a mansion in Upsala. Ernst’s parents are the heads of the household, Johan (Max von Sydow) and Karin (Ghita Nørby). Ernst’s full sister, Anna (Pernilla August), is the joy of her father’s life as well as the chief character of the film, along with Henrik. During the evening, Henrik and Anna develop a strong interest in one another, despite the fact that Anna is “intended” for a red-bearded young man named Torsten Bolin and Henrik lives with a waitress named Frida Strandberg (Lena Endre). Other members of the Akerblom household include Anna’s three older half-brothers, Gustav (Michael Segerström), Oscar (Björn Granath), and Carl (Börje Ahlstedt), Oscar’s wife Svea (Gunilla Nyroos), Gustav’s wife Martha (Eva Gröndahl), and a couple of nieces. Fact of the matter is that you don’t need to keep all of these characters straight, because most of the film is about Henrik and Anna, with only Anna’s parents playing an especially significant role among the secondary characters.

Anna’s wealthy parents don’t particularly welcome Henrik’s interest in their daughter, especially the headstrong mother who is snobbish and not above imposing her will on others. She assigns her husband the task of dissuading Henrik’s designs, but Johan cannot get past a bit of conversation about tobacco and existence before tiring and excusing himself. Karin later takes on the task herself, advising Henrik in no uncertain terms that he is to back off, especially because one of her step-sons has been snooping around and knows that Henrik is still living with Frida. Henrik slinks away defeated.

Circumstances, however, interview. Frida decides that her lover, Henrik, is pining away for another woman and that both of them will be better off if he finds his way to his true love. Frida meets with Anna and encourages her to take Henrik back. Before Anna can act on this advice, however, she comes down with a bad case of tuberculosis. Karin takes full advantage of the situation to send Anna to Switzerland for recuperation at a sanitarium, but also to distance her from Henrik. Meanwhile, she sends word to Henrik via Oscar that Anna doesn’t want any communication with Henrik by letter, phone, or in person. Later, Karin intercepts and destroys a letter from her daughter intended for Henrik, with the hope of reconnecting with him. Karin then plans an extended European vacation with Anna to keep her distracted from thoughts about Henrik. Fate intervenes again, however, when Anna’s father Johan suddenly passes away. Karin, feeling that her deceit may have caused her husband’s death, comes clean with Anna. When they return for the funeral, Anna immediately looks up Henrik and offers herself as his wife. He is delighted. “Perhaps,” she says, “we could teach each other what the word [love] entails.”

Though Henrik’s mother, Alma, is more discrete in her feelings about his intended, she has no more use for the idea of these two ill-matched young people marrying than does Anna’s mother. Then again, the objections of mothers seldom carry the day where passionate young love is at work. Henrik and Anna, now engaged, head to the far north of Sweden where Henrik has been assigned his first parish. It is all Anna can do to adjust to the difficult life in this stark, harsh rural environment, especially because she grew up pampered, privileged, and spoiled. Henrik, by contrast, is right at home and perversely invigorated by the austerity of their new circumstances.

The two begin to quarrel periodically over their differing perspectives. He wants a simple wedding in their new church with just a minister and a couple of witnesses. She wants a grand and memorable affair with all of the trappings back in the Upsala Cathedral, as she and her mother have already planned. A major conflict emerges between the two when Henrik is offered a choice position as the clergyman in a new hospital in Stockholm. They are even invited for an audience with the Queen. Henrik, however, decides that it is more important to continue to serve the wilderness community than to cater to the wealthy. Anna very much resents Henrik’s decision and his lack of consultation with her about the matter.

Back at their remote parish, Anna conducts sewing classes for the women of the parish and tends to their medical needs. Henrik conducts conformation classes and gives sermons, but runs afoul of the local factory owner who is ill-inclined to have his daughters receive the religious education that their mother demands. Anna and Henrik give birth to their first child and also take charge of a young orphaned boy who is unhappy with his foster parents. When Anna grows weary of caring for the foster child, she and Henrik quarrel again over whether or not to find him another arrangement. That issue gets settled, however, when the foster child attempts to throw the Bergman boy into an icy river to eliminate his competition for Anna and Henrik’s affection. Anna has had her fill and packs up to return to her family’s mansion in Upsala. She is now pregnant with her second child – which is, incidentally, Ingmar Bergman himself. The marriage is on the rocks and, for several months, neither of the stubborn partners will budge. Finally, Henrik decides to take the position in Stockholm and that concession is enough to glue the marriage back together as the film comes to a close.

Themes: The theme of this film is marriage and what it takes to hold one together. The marriage portrayed in this film was neither an exceptionally idyllic one nor an exceptionally bad one. These were two intelligent, well-meaning people who genuinely love one another but who had to confront the fact that the differences in their backgrounds are so pronounced as to render their needs and priorities in life significantly incompatible. Some marriages fail out of lack of genuine commitment on the part of one or both partners, but some marriages suffer more from a basic incompatibility of needs. Commitment might still hold such a marriage together but at a huge cost to the personal fulfillment of one or both partners in the marriage. Both Anna and Henrik also had some limitations in their ability to communicate with one another, though overall they confronted their problems openly. Henrik had some rigidity in his personality, as one might expect in a person so thoroughly religious. Anna, on the other hand, was somewhat spoiled by growing up in luxury and was as stubborn in her own way as her husband. When the one seemingly insurmountable conflict emerged, it was Henrik who ultimately gave ground, not Anna.

Production Values: The strengths of this film include the period detail and the psychological depth of the character portraits. You will seldom encounter a film in which the characters are so fully drawn, with all of the complexity and ambivalence of real people living complicated, stressful lives. The outdoor cinematography for the portions set in northern rural Sweden is gorgeous. The indoor shots throughout the film are beautifully composed.

The cast of The Best Intentions is magnificent. Foremost, of course, among the performances is that of Pernilla August as Anna. Bergman had specifically insisted that Pernilla have the part of Anna. Bergman had previously used her in the role of a maid in Fanny and Alexander. Bergman’s genius for casting is legendary. His top priority was interesting faces. It is refreshing to watch an actress who is not gorgeous by cinematic standards but whose face nevertheless commands attention by its radiance. Pernilla’s part demanded a wide range of emotions, stages of pregnancy, and degrees of weariness. Pernilla received a Palme d’Or as Best Actress for her portrayal of Anna, in addition to the one that the film itself took home. Pernilla was “rewarded” in another way as well. She began the film as Pernilla Wallgren Östergren but ended it as Pernilla August, having married the director during the course of filming. Another quaint aspect of this film is that the scenes showing Anna pregnant and her expanded abdomen in the flesh required no prosthetic. By the end of the filming, she was pregnant with Bille August’s child. Some viewers may recognize Pernilla August as the mother of Anakin Skywalker in both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

The performance by August was not the only great one in this film. Although Samuel Fröler as Henrik received less tangible recognition, his performance very nearly matches the intensity of his co-star. His character is a complex mix of qualities: solitary, somewhat rigid in his beliefs, perfunctory with his wife at times, yet honest, hard-working, devoted to his parishioners, and idealistic. The third best performance was that of Ghita Nørby as Anna’s mother, Karin. She, too, has to make us despise her at times and respect her at other moments. Max von Sydow delivered another flawless performance as Anna’s father, though the part was smaller than that of the three actors already mentioned.

Bottom-Line: The Best Intentions was made in two formats – a six hour miniseries for Swedish television and a three hour pared down theatrical release for the international market. It is the latter that I’ve reviewed here. This is a work of great power, strong in the complexity of the main characters and in its period authenticity. It is not thematically strong enough to qualify as truly Bergmanesque, however. This is more a psychological study and character portrait than an existential study. The Best Intentions is in Swedish with English subtitles.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Sweden:

Cries and Whispers
The Magician
Miss Julie
Persona
Scenes from a Marriage
The Seventh Seal
The Shame
Smiles of a Summer Night
Through a Glass Darkly
Torment
The Virgin Spring
Wild Strawberries

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age