Media gallery for
Fanny and Alexander

The similarity of Alexander (Bertil Guve) to the young Bergman, accentuaded by the actor’s almost uncanny physical resemblance to the director as a child, is beyond doubt. His pastimes (the puppet theatre and the magic lantern) are identical with those of Bergman himself.

The entire film crew that worked on Fanny and Alexander squeezed in for a group picture.

Pernilla Allwin (Fanny) and Bertil Guve (Alexander). Fanny and Alexander would, by far, become the longest shoot of Bergman’s career.

Uncle Carl (Börje Ahlstedt): ’How is it one becomes second-rate, can you answer me that? How does the dust fall? When has one lost? First, I’m a prince, the heir to the kingdom. Suddenly, before I know it, I’m deposed. Death taps me on the shoulder. The room is cold and we can’t pay for the wood. I’m ugly and unkind. I’m unkindest to the one person who cares for me. You can never forgive me. I’m a shitter and a rotter.’

Bergman's shooting script.

Bergman’s shooting script.

Bergman, Allan Edwall (Oscar Ekdahl), Ewa Fröling (Emelie Ekdahl), Sven Nykvist, and Pernilla Allwin (Fanny Ekdahl). Many in the film crew, including Bergman and Nykvist, got knocked out by an influenza outbreak.

A relaxed Erland Josephson (Isak Jacobi) and Bergman on the set of Fanny and Alexander. Josephson is the actor who can boast the longest-running collaboration with Bergman, starting with The Merchant of Venice in 1940 and ending in 2004 with Rosmersholm 2004.

The part of Edvard Vergéus, was originally intended for Max Von Sydow, but things fell through when his agent attempted to negotiate an unreasonably high fee. The role instead went to Jan Malmsjö.

Bergman, Ewa Fröling (Emelie Ekdahl), Allan Edwall (Oscar Ekdahl), and Gunn Wållgren (Helena Ekdahl) on the set of Fanny and Alexander.

Bergman, Ewa Fröling (Emelie Ekdahl, Gunnar Björnstrand (Filip Landhal), Sven Nykvist, and Pernilla Allwin (Fanny Ekdahl) on the set of Fanny and Alexander.

Bergman amuses some of the many child actors who appear in Fanny and Alexander.

Bergman and Sven Nykvist on the set of Fanny and Alexander.

Pernilla Allwin (Fanny Ekdahl) and Bertil Guve (Alexander Ekdahl). Guve, a 'complete rascal' according to Bergman, had landed the role as Alexander thanks in no small measure to the fact that during the screen tests, when all the young hopefuls were asked to come up with something terrible that they had done, he had extravagantly claimed that: 'I murdered my grandfather!'

On the set of Fanny and Alexander.

Prop photographs. These younger versions of Alexander and Fanny never appear in the film.

Prop photographs. Matriarch Helena Ekdahl (Gunn Wållgren) with her husband, who at the beginning of the film, has been dead for many years.

Ewa Fröling (Emelie Ekdahl), Bergman, and Sven Nykvist on set.

Helena Ekdahl (Gun Wållgren): ’You see, now I cry. The happy, splendid life is over, the horrible, dirty life is engulfing. So it is.’

Bishop Vergéus (Jan Malmsjö): ’I always thought people liked me. I saw myself as wise, broadminded and fair. I had no idea, that anyone could hate me.’

The screenplay’s cast list includes fifty-four parts (three were removed later), so in terms of scale alone, Fanny and Alexander was set to become Bergman’s biggest production by far.

The role of Fanny and Alexander’s nursemaid was Pernilla August’s first role for Bergman. She would later play Bergman’s mother no less than three times – The Best Intentions, Private Confessions, and finally in In the Presence of a Clown.

Bergman during the filming of the funeral dinner.

Gustav Adolf Ekdahl (Jarl Kulle): ’Just imagine, we’re together again. Our little world has closed around us safety, wisdom and order. After a period of fear and confusion. Deaths shadows have been routed, winter has been put to fight and joy has returned to our hearts.’

Ismael Retzinsky (Stina Ekblad): ’Perhaps we are the same person, perhaps we have no limits, perhaps we flow into each other, stream through each other, boundlessly and magnificently. You bear terrible thoughts, it’s almost painful to be near you. At the same time it is enticing. Do you know why?’

Prop photographs. The two sons Carl Ekdahl (Börje Ahlstedt) and Gustav Adolf Ekdahls (Jarl Kulle) with their families.

Bishop Vergérus (Jan Malmsjö): ’I don’t hate you, Alexander. I love you’.

Emelie Ekdahl (Ewa Fröling): ’I am tormented by a self-contempt without limit. How could I be so blind? How could I feel compassion for that man? I’m an actress, I should have seen through the pretense. I saw nothing, understood nothing. His conviction was greater than mine and he blinded me.’

Initially, the children regard the housemaid, Justina (Harriet Andersson), as their only ally in the bishop’s house. Bergman would work with Andersson one last time four years later in The Blessed Ones.

Emilie Ekdahl’s (Ewa Fröling) passionate feelings for bishop Vergérus (Jan Malmsjö) stand in contrast to her tender but platonic relationship with Oscar (Allan Edwall).

Uncle Carl (Börje Ahlstedt) entertains the Ekdahl children (Pernilla Alwin, Bertil Guve, and others) during the Christmas celebration.

"No one shall remain in the dark. Merry Christmas everybody."

Gunnar Björnstrand (Filip Landhal), who had a very minor role, was suffering from the onset of Alzheimer’s syndrome during the filming. Fanny and Alexander would be his last film role.

Handwritten script for Fanny and Alexander. Dated Fårö 8 July 1979.

In the shooting script Bergman has noted the last day of filming as Monday "22.3.82."

Page from Bergman's shooting script. ’Funeral procession order.’

Page from Bergman's shooting script. ’Seating plan Christmas dinner.’

Page from Bergman’s shooting script. "The funeral."

Page from the handwritten script of Fanny and Alexander.