After the Rehearsal (1984) - film review

On a stage set after a rehearsal of Strindberg’s A Dream Play, ageing theatre director Henrik Volger is reflecting on his life and his art.  His peace is disturbed by the unwelcome return of Anna, a young actress who finds herself drawn to the cantankerous old director.  Henrik is reminded of Anna’s mother, who was also an actress as well as his mistress, before alcoholism destroyed her career and her life...

After the triumphant success of Fanny and Alexander (1982), the filmmaking career of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman fell into a slow - some would say pitiful – decline until his sudden and unexpected return to form in 2003 with his final film, Saraband.  During this period, Bergman wrote and directed a number of low budget dramas and documentaries for Swedish television which added little if anything to his reputation, and which some reviewers dismissed as an unedifying descent into self-parody and self-pity.  A fair example of this is After the Rehearsal, in which Bergman reflects, with some pathos, acrimony and not much humour, on the travails of being a director. 

With its stark minimalism, austere Chekovian theatricality and dense prose, the film is demanding even for devout Bergman enthusiasts, yet it reveals much about the director’s state of mind in the twilight years of an extraordinarily creative and productive career.  As in Bergman’s earlier "chamber pieces", the constrained setting and sparse dramatis personæ bring a focus and intensity which seizes the spectator’s attention and draws him or her relentlessly into a very private world. 

What we see is the immense inner-conflict that has accompanied (and very possibly driven) Bergman’s career – the conflict between a director’s attempt to manage his actors with objective detachment, in order to realise his artistic vision, and his emotional engagement with these selfsame people.

After the Rehearsal is perhaps a tad self-indulgent and does make great demands on its audience, but it provides not just a glimpse but an illuminating insight into the mind of one of the great artists of the Twentieth Century.

© James Travers 2008

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