Fanny & Alexander
(DVD)

Originally released as a motion picture in 1982.

Special features: New high-definition digital transfer; audio commentary by film scholar Peter Cowie; a new essay by novelist Rick Moody; includes a bonus disc featuring new introductions by director Ingmar Bergman to eleven of his films, as well as a selection of theatrical trailers.

Cinematography, Sven Nykvist ; art director, Anna Asp ; editor, Sylvia Ingemarsson ; music, Daniel Bell, Frans Helmerson, Marianne Jacobs ; costume designer, Marik Vos.

Bertil Guve, Ewa Fröling, Pernilla August, Erland Josephson, Harriet Andersson, Allan Edwall.

Told through the eyes of Alexander and his sister Fanny, we see the exuberant and colorful Ekdahl household in a Swedish town early in the twentieth century. Their parents, Oscar and Emilie, are the director and the leading lady of the local theatre company. Oscar's mother and brother are its chief patrons. After Oscar's early death, his widow marries the bishop and moves with her children to his austere and forbidding chancery. The children are immediately miserable, but befriend a local Jewish merchant whose odd household becomes the children's refuge.

DVD format, region 1, widescreen (1.66:1) presentation; Dolby Digital mono, RDSL dual-layer.

Swedish dialogue, with optional English subtitles.

Academy Awards, USA, 1984: Oscar - Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Anna Asp, Susanne Lingheim); Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist); Best Costume Design (Marik Vos-Lundh); Best Foreign Language Film (Sweden).