It was in response to a request from Daniel Bergman, son of Ingmar, that Hagai Levi embarked on this crazy business, the adaptation of Scenes of married life. Produced in 1972, the original was first a six-part series broadcast the following year by Swedish public television (and immediately blamed for the explosion in the number of divorces) before being a (very) long- footage. Half a century later, or almost, what remains of the patriarchal institution which locked up and separated Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson under the lucid gaze of Ingmar Bergman? Everything and nothing, replies the creator of BeTipul (the original ofIn therapy) and of The Affair, over five episodes that draw the portrait of a heterosexual couple of the XXIe century while developing a relevant and melancholy commentary on the original.
To avoid both the theoretical posture and the decal, Hagai Levi brought together Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac. A recent viral video, taken at the Venice Film Festival where Scenes From a Marriage has been presented, has just exposed to the eyes of the world (with the consent of those concerned) the degree of harmony and intimacy reached by the two actors, who had already convened in fair (and cataclysmic) nuptials in A Most Violent Year by JC Chandor. It was undoubtedly necessary this synchronicity so that the marriage of Jonathan and Mira is not only a battlefield but also the ground on which flourish somehow two existences, irreconcilable but inseparable.
We’re in Boston today. In their living room, a senior executive from a tech company and a philosophy professor meet a student who questions them about what, in the eyes of the young girl, is anachronistic: their marriage. In a neighboring room, their little girl refuses to let herself be forgotten. Jonathan enjoys the exercise, which allows him to display his status as a modern man, who takes all his part in the stewardship of the household, while Mira struggles to tear herself away from the screen of her phone. We think she is distracted by her work, but it will soon be known that what concerns her touches the very essence of her relationship with Jonathan.
Here we come to the place where this review must reveal the path that Hagai Levi chose to escape the overwhelming shadow of his model. If you’d rather find out for yourself, stop reading there. Otherwise: we quickly realize that Mira occupies the space that was assigned to the male fifty years ago. It is she who ensures the material prosperity of the home, it is she who decides on the size of it (pregnant, she terminates her pregnancy, against the wishes of her husband) and its very existence. Mira will soon announce to Jonathan that she is leaving him for another man (half a century ago, in Sweden, Johan left Marianne behind him). The scenario records the aftershocks and the aftermath of this explosion for three years.
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