Love, power, and retribution: Ingmar Bergman’s response to Chopin

Autumn Sonata is a mother-daughter drama played out between Ingrid Bergman (a concert pianist) and Liv Ullmann (her daughter). But Bergman (Ingmar) injects a third character into this relationship: Chopin. It is Chopin who delivers the bad news of the unresolvable nature of the mother-daughter conflict. The look of awe and dismay on Liv Ullmann’s face as her mother plays the A minor Prelude says it all.