Trolösa

82-year-old Ingmar Bergman takes one of the most painful, shameful episodes of his own life and, writing for director Liv Ullmann, transmutes it into magical, brilliant artistry.

It makes us realize, suddenly, and with immense regret, what the rest of contemporary cinema so sorely lacks.

The sometimes fatiguing slow flow in hour one is worth the labor because the power in this 2-hour triumph reveals itself gradually.

Liv Ullmann, directing her second Bergman screenplay (after 1997’s “Private Confessions”), extracts every nuance from the tantalizing material.

Faithless, filmed mostly during Sweden's endless winter, will chill you to the bone.

Much of what Faithless contains happens off-screen, told and retold as stories within stories, and so the actors typically work like oxen.

As far as I'm concerned, the fact that Bergman is finally getting around to asking himself questions he now realizes he should have asked long ago is not sufficient enough premise for a movie. The answers may be news to Bergman, but the rest of us might just want to opt for divorce.