HBO’s ‘Scenes From a Marriage’ doesn’t work. Bergman’s original shows what’s missing

Much of contemporary screen drama seems designed not to enthrall but to stun viewers into submission before they turn their fickle attention elsewhere. “Scenes From a Marriage,” Bergman’s six-part 1973 television drama starring Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, had a seismic impact when it first aired in Sweden. HBO’s remake of “Scenes From a Marriage,” a five-part limited series starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, awakened hope that the Bergman aesthetic might live again. Obituaries From the Archives: Ingmar Bergman, Cinema’s Brooding Auteur Of the Psyche, Dies at 89 Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish auteur whose visionary work in early masterpieces such as “The Seventh Seal” and “Wild Strawberries” and later films such as “Persona” and “Cries and Whispers” probed the depths of the human psyche with existential dramas that redefined cinema, died Monday. Mira and husband Jonathan in “Scenes From a Marriage.” It’s a pity that HBO didn’t use this opportunity to reinvent “Scenes From a Marriage” from a female point of view.