Media gallery for
Scenes from a Marriage

Page from Bergman’s shooting script.

On set photos.

Johan (Erland Josephson): ’ ’Yes. It might sound conceited if I describe myself as extremely intelligent, successful, youthful, well-balanced, and sexy.'

Johan (Erland Josephson) and Marianne (Liv Ullmann).

30 years later Bergman, Ullmann, and Josephson would revisit the two characters, Johan och Marianne, in the TV-film Saraband.

According to Bergman, Ullmann and Josephson’s efforts were ’invaluable, because they never gave up on Marianne and Johan, they stuck up for them. As a result, many of Liv’s and Erland’s suggestions for their lines and some of the scenes were absolutely central to the end result.’

The iconic image of Johan (Erland Josephson) and Marianne (Liv Ullmann) features in almost all promotional material.

Johan (Erland Josephson): ’There's no use crying over spilt milk. Children grow up, relations are broken off. Love gives out, the same as affection, friendship, and solidarity. It’s nothing unusual. It just is so.’

But the filming was not entirely tension free. Bergman and Ullmann had recently ended their relationship, and Bergman was already remarried.

Peter was Jan Malmsjö’s first part for Bergman. Nine years later, he gave a powerhouse performance as Bishop Edvard Vergérus in Fanny and Alexander.

Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan’s (Erland Josephson) two friends, Peter (Jan Malmsjö) and Katarina (Bibi Andersson), make a reappearance seven years later in Bergman’s German-language Aus dem Leben der Marionetten. By then their relationship has soured even further.

Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson).

The preface in the handwritten script of Scenes from a Marriage.

According to Bergman's planner the script was finished on 27 May 1972.

On March 27th, 1972 Bergman writes in workbook no 27: ’It musn’t cost too much, nor involve any financial risks. We’ll have lots of material to work with, as much as possible, I hope there will be an enormous amount. There’ll be plenty of exciting dialouge to get stuck into. Nothing at all out of the ordinary.’

Bergman and Sven Nykvist during the filming of Scenes from a Marriage.

Bergman, Sven Nykvist, Josephson (Johan) and Ullmann (Marianne) on the set of Scenes from a Marriage.

Bergman's hefty shooting script.

Front page of Bergman’s shooting script.

The preface in Bergman’s shooting script.

Swedish film poster.