From the Life of the Marionettes
7.8 /10 1 Votes7.8
Music director Rolf Wilhelm Duration Country West GermanySweden | 7.6/10 IMDb 56% Rotten Tomatoes Genre Drama Writer Ingmar Bergman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 3 November 1980 (German TV)7 November 1980 (German cinema) Cast (Katarina Egerman), (Mogensjensen), Rita Russek (Ka), (Tim), (Arthur Brenner), Ruth Olafsdottir (l'infirmière)Similar movies Related Ingmar Bergman movies |
From the life of the marionettes breaking down bergman episode 39
From the Life of the Marionettes (German: Aus dem Leben der Marionetten) is a 1980 film directed by Ingmar Bergman. The film was produced in West Germany with a German language screenplay and soundtrack while Bergman was in "tax exile" from his native Sweden. It is filmed in black and white apart from two colour sequences at the beginning and end of the movie. It is set in Munich. The title is a quotation excerpted from a passage in The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi:
Contents
- From the life of the marionettes breaking down bergman episode 39
- Mert karabey from the life of the marionettes
- Production
- Cast
- Response
- References


Unlike Collodi's story, however, Bergman's is unremittingly bleak in tone.
The film charts the disintegration of the relationship of Katarina and Peter Egermann, the feuding couple seen briefly in Bergman's earlier Scenes from a Marriage. As Katarina seeks other lovers, the emotionally repressed and despondent Peter descends into neuroses, eventually leading him to tearfully murder a prostitute (played by Rita Russek), with the same name as his wife, at a Munich peep show before sodomising her dead body. In the closing sequence he is incarcerated in a mental asylum. An odd counterpoint to the depressing tone of the film is the sprightly disco soundtrack over the end credits.
Mert karabey from the life of the marionettes
Production
The film was shot in the Bavaria Film Studios in Munich from October to December 1979, with the exception of the bar scene, which was a later addition, filmed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in early 1980. The film begins in color, but all the flashbacks are in black and white. The film was originally made for television and had its TV premiere on German ZDF on 3 November 1980. The very first showing, however, was at a small film festival in Oxford 13 July 1980, followed by festival showings in Paris and the Netherlands in October 1980. After the German TV premiere the film went on general cinema release, starting with Zoo Palast in Berlin on 7 November 1980.
Cast
In alphabetical order
Response
From the Life of the Marionettes opened to good and occasional cautionary reviews. Many felt Bergman's film was too heavy to be considered real drama, but they did like the performances of the German cast, including Robert Atzorn.
The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the year by the U.S. National Board of Review. It currently holds a 56%, however, on Rotten Tomatoes.
References
From the Life of the Marionettes WikipediaFrom the Life of the Marionettes Rotten TomatoesFrom the Life of the Marionettes IMDb From the Life of the Marionettes themoviedb.org