Description:Dr. Jenny Isaksson (Liv Ullmann), the chief character in Ingmar Bergman's excellent film, is an accomplished and attractive professional woman. She is filling in for the summer as chief psychiatrist at a mental hospital, a job which she is more than capable of handling. Her husband is in America for three months attending a scientificDr. Jenny Isaksson (Liv Ullmann), the chief character in Ingmar Bergman's excellent film, is an accomplished and attractive professional woman. She is filling in for the summer as chief psychiatrist at a mental hospital, a job which she is more than capable of handling. Her husband is in America for three months attending a scientific conference. Her teenage daughter is away at camp. In the opening scenes of the movie, Jenny is moving in with her maternal grandparents (Aino Taube-Henrickson and Gunnar Bjorstrand) with who she lived after her parents were killed in an automobile crash; she will stay in her childhood room while her new house is being finished.
On the surface, this disciplined career woman seems the model of mental health and adjustment. But things have begun to feel wrong to Jenny, and her anxieties surface as the days progress. She tells her grandmother that she ahs been "out of sorts" since a bad bout with the flu. At a party, she tentatively makes friends with Dr. Tomas Jacobi (Erland Josephson), only to later abruptly reject his offer of a relationship, then suggest they take in a movie or concert sometime. She is not consistent. Called to her old house to pick up a patient who has sought her there, Jenny encounters two strange me with the girl. One nearly rapes her while the other watches. To Jenny's horror she realizes that she mentally wanted to be raped while she physically blocked her attacker. The near-rape is the last in a series of incidents, which bring Jenny face to face with the anguish throughout her soul. Her outer behavior and her inner awareness of experience often are not related. Her friend Elizabeth (Sif Ruud) talks about being "humbly grateful" because "I know that it's my feelings and sensations, since there's no gap between myself and what I experience." Jenny doesn't feel that way. And she is frequently reminded of her cold, death-like other self by a vision of an old woman (Tore Segelecke), ugly and wrinkled with one dark eye and a blank, black, staring socket for the other.... (more)(less)
"Liv Ullman
Bergman said once about Ullmann “if there are limits I haven’t seen them yet.” Simply put, Ullmann gives one of the best performances ever committed to film in Face to Face, and the role of Dr. Jenny Isakson puts her limits to the test in each riveting scene. This is unsurprising, given she is one of the best performers ever captured on film. The actress has called her Academy Award nominated performance here the most difficult she ever did and one cursory viewing will show why"
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