Review: Fanny ja Alexander

Fanny and Alexander is a declaration of love for the theatre

The Fanny and Alexander film and TV series, Ingmar Bergman’s 40-year-old work of art, is its director’s take on his childhood and a charming fairy tale for adults. The story begins when the matriarch of the Ekdahl bourgeois family ( Rea Mauranen, a master of presence) and her son and their families spend a joyful Christmas Eve in their handsome house.

The idyll is shattered when one of the boys dies. The tragedy turns to tragedy when the fierce bishop of Uppsala surrounds his widow Emilie and subdues her and their children, Fanny and Alexander, under his cruel command.

Bergman’s film is iconic, but director Paavo Westerberg’s head is not freezing. He takes on an impossible task and brings Fanny and Alexander to the stage of the Helsinki City Theatre. It’s good to have that! You have to surpass yourself if you want to create something new.

Fanny and Alexander is a story about how the joy of life beats the dementors 6–0. At the same time, it is a declaration of love for the theatre. This is also Westerberg’s interpretation, which sounds brightest when Emilie (the influential Anna-Maija Tuokko) speaks touchingly about the tasks of the theatre. Or when a weary theatre troupe twists its dusty Hamlet. Or when Gustav Ekdahl (the convincing Santeri Kinnunen) gives the closing speech as the characters of the story sink into the twilight of the theatre in the midst of fine lights (William Iles) and a wonderful shower of flowers (set design by Antti Mattila).

Westerberg’s vision is precisely a vision. It makes buildings spin, people and deaths dance. And yes: death is the one familiar from Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal, with a black hem and a white face. Performance is also the art of sounds. Sanna Salmenkallio’s multifaceted music and Jaakko Virmavirta’s excellent sound design are almost imperceptibly present.

The direction has its strongest grip when inventive lightness turns into strong drama: in the gloomy halls of the bishop’s castle and in the magical house of a Jewish merchant. The mysterious Ismael (skilled Emmi Pesonen) who lives there is not as blood-curdling as the original, Stina Ekblad. Eero Aho, who interprets the bishop handsomely, is also not as terrible as Bergman’s priest Jan Malmsjö.

Westerberg has directed the main characters Fanny and Alexander to be much more fascinating, clever and nimble young people than the originals. Elena Leeve and Olavi Uusivirta are as if created for their parts and move the story smoothly forward.