'Scenes From a Marriage'


Does it appear to anyone else that this is Woody's answer to Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes From a Marriage"? The interviews, the upheavals, the younger woman, the disintegration of one marriage when a couple learn their friends are separating ...

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Oh I totally saw this as a scenes from a marriage homage! I was thinking the same exact thing... like, 'hey is woody ripping off his idol again?!', because the two films are so similar. very deep, very dark and more than the sum of its parts. i wonder what bergman thought of all the homages woody made to him, there were so many in all of allen's films....



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFtYpLV4EPo

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From what I've heard, Ingmar Bergman was quite happy to be idolized by Woody Allen. The two actually met for dinner, but apparently neither had much to say. I love both directors, and I think there's enough originality in Woody's films that they stand on their own.

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There is more to this film's DNA than just Scenes From A Marriage - the interviews seem to stem more from another Bergman film, The Passion Of Anna, which is a big influence on this film as well.

Of course, the cinema verite style of documenting a failing marriage in all it's brutalness has a lot in common with John Cassavetes' legendary "Faces". Woody originally wanted to shoot this in gritty 16mm as well.

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You can't say ripping off. Michael Caine even said , "steal from the best, because they stole from the best". It's just influence. Taking someone's idea and making it your own even if on the surface it seems similar.

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