12. Autumn Sonata (1978)
Charlotte Andergast is a concert pianist and a bad mother. She has neglected her children and hasn't seen them in 7 years. Presumably fuelled by maternal guilt, Charlotte visits her eldest daughter Eva who lives with her husband Viktor. Charlotte has taken her mentally and physically disabled sister Helena out of hospital (where Charlotte put her in the first place) and is looking after her at home. Charlotte is not happy at this and her rancour gives Eva ample opportunity to lay bare all of the resentment she has felt towards her neglectful mother. As the night goes on, the dynamics of the mother-daughter relationship are changed forever. Ingrid Bergman (Charlotte) and Liv Ullman (Eva) act their socks off in this film - and the performances and careful psychological portraits - make this film one of Ingmar Bergman's finest. It is an in-depth examination of the ways that people can psychologically harm each other - and as such, it is an honest and affecting movie. I think it is one of the more under-rated movies in Bergman's canon. People will speak of the Seventh Seal or Wild Strawberries, but rarely does Autumn Sonata receive its due praise. Uncompromising and painful, it gets to the root of the truth of how human relations sour through selfishness and neglect.