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The Best Intentions
Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Scripted (but not directed) by Ingmar Bergman, Best Intentions is a multilayered backwards glance at the courtship of Bergman's own parents. Henrik Bergman (Samuel Froler) is a struggling theology student in the year 1909. His intended, Anna Aakerbloom (Pernilla August, who married director Bille August while the film was in progress) is from a well-to-do family. Despite the expected class differences and personality clashes, love-or at least mutual understanding-prevails. But after a harsh, spare few years as the wife of a clergyman, Anna yearns for the more bountiful pleasures of her family home. Bergman writes himself into the proceedings as a mewling infant. The current three-hour theatrical version of Best Intentions (original title: Den Goda Viljan) was simultaneously prepared as a six-hour TV miniseries, which ran in Europe, Scandanavia, and Japan.

Similar Works
Fanny & Alexander  (1982, Ingmar Bergman)
Francisca  (1981, Manoel de Oliveira)
Les Destinées  (2000, Olivier Assayas)
Gabrielle  (2005, Patrice Chéreau)
Babette's Feast  (1987, Gabriel Axel)
Soendagsbarn  (1992, Daniel Bergman)
Sofie  (1992, Liv Ullmann)
Other Related Works
 Is followed by:    Enskilda Samtal  (1997, Liv Ullmann)
 Is related to:    Pelle the Conqueror  (1988, Bille August)