'This time, his name was Andreas Winkelmann'
Any takers?
What is the significance of this final line?
Sure.
There's definitely a 'wow' factor for me when I heard/read that line.
Marc Gervais' thought as presented during the documentary in the DVD extras is that its Bergman saying that this is a movie is about the disintegration of the ultimate modern man, artist, who is impenitent and its Bergman making a reference to himself here (and other men like him.)
Bergman's way of saying that there are many men like this who are in disintegration and decay, (and maybe even referencing other movies of his own as well) but, "THIS, time, his name was Andreas..." ie, LAST time, his name was something else (insert another tormented man or artist here) and next time it will be someone new. The line adds to the film being presented as a psychological study of disintegration of man and helps lifts the character study away from its particular setting, time and place... it was only about Andres this time, because that's where the camera happened to be pointed.
The characters' conversation against black also back up this idea of the universal, as do the actor interviews...
Yes to all of the above but it's a more prosaic reason that starts you on the path to realizing all that.
Andreas is both the name of our protagonist and the name of Anna's dead former husband. "This time his name was Andreas Winkelmann. Last time his name was Andreas Fromm." And so on.
I wonder what their child's name was. He was only identified as "the boy" if I remember correctly. Could he have been another Andreas?
Yes, like that as well.
Are there any other movies that you have seen that give a depth of feeling and simpleness as these ones?
Bergman was so influential, many of today's films, especially independents, owe a strong debt to him and it would be hard to pick one or two movies.
I don't see simpleness in Bergman so I don't quite know what you mean, but if you liked the way he develped Winkelmann's charater, by all means check other Max von Sydow roles for Bergman, especially from the 1960s. No one gave better expression to Bergman's inner workings that he did.
If it's genuine simpleness you want, try "The Virgin Spring." It's Bergman's simplest and it stars von Sydow. Bergman didn't write the script, though, which maybe accounts for its simplicity. The DVD includes a featurette by Ang Lee, who says the film had profound influence on him.
Thanks for the suggestion.
When I mentioned 'simpleness' I meant more like 'free form.' A cinema that is not contrived and sentimental where the viewer has room to watch and come to opinions of humanity independently.
Cheers.
jlent, your explanation is correct.
Bergman was summarizing that 2 men with the same first name (but, different last names) suffered the same fate at the hands of Anna. and, many years apart.
Jack,
That is true on a somewhat more literal level, a level that is not the only way to understand the words spoken by the narrator. There is also, and I think more importantly, the available interpretation in existential terms of general application. This time, the man left alone in the landscape, the human connection taken away, is the character this film has named and focused on. But the depiction stands as a metaphor for the human condition.
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