From the Life of the Marionettes

From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)

Genres - Drama, Family & Personal Relationships  |   Sub-Genres - Marriage Drama, Psychological Drama, Crime Drama  |   Release Date - Nov 3, 1980 (USA - Unknown)  |   Run Time - 104 min.  |   Countries - Germany, Sweden  |   MPAA Rating - R
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Produced and directed for German television, Ingmar Bergman's From the Life of the Marionettes starts out in color and switches almost immediately to black-and-white. This cinematic self-indulgence is ideally suited to the subject matter: the horrible consequences of a rapidly disintegrating marriage. The husband, Peter Egerman (Robert Atzorn) is unable to articulate his frustration through normal channels. Warped by his repression, Egerman ends up raping and murdering a prostitute. This outrage occurs at the very beginning of the film; the rest of the footage is devoted to a semi-documentary study of the failed marriage, the police investigation, and the husband's twisted psyche. Once again, Bergman's vision is superbly realized by the camerawork of Sven Nykvist.

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Keywords

killing, extramarital-affair, family, family-member, investigation, investigator, mental-illness, murder, obsession, police, prostitute/prostitution, rape