History Film / FannyAndAlexander

* HateSink: Edvard is hated by ’almost all characters and for very good reasons. He is a [[LackOfEmpathy remorseless]] [[DomesticAbuse abuser who has no problems with subjecting his step-children to near-torture (both physically and psychologically)]], and barely receives any real punishment for it [[spoiler: [[AssholeVictim until the very end of the film]].]]

* TheSociopath: Guess who??

''Fanny and Alexander'' is a 1982 film by Creator/IngmarBergman. The story centers around the filthy rich Ekhdahl family in UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}}, from 1907 to 1909. Matriarch Helena Ekhdahl is a widow, who has maintained a long term relationship with Jewish shopkeeper Isak Jacobi. Helena's son Carl is unhappily married and deeply in debt. Her son Gustav is in a happy open marriage with Alma and is also seeing Maj the maid. Helena's son Oscar has the simplest home life, married to the lovely Emelie, with two children, Fanny and Alexander (the film is from Alexander's point-of-view). Unfortunately Oscar and Emelie's happiness is cut short, when Oscar suddenly dies from a stroke. Emelie winds up marrying the local Protestant bishop, Edvard Vergerus -- a marriage that both she and her children quickly regret.

* BigFancyHouse: The Ekhdahls live in an absurdly ornate mansion filled with fancy furniture, art, and statuary. If SceneryPorn is possible in an indoor drama, this is it. Inverted with the bishop's house, which is deliberately kept as spartan as possible.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They seem content to just hang around. Oscar's ghost appears periodically in the Ekhdahl mansion, and talks to both his mother and his son. Edvard's ghost appears at the end, knocks Alexander down, and promises to haunt him.

* TableSpace: Used for a gag. As the extended Ekhdahl clan is having dinner, Helena beckons to a maid and says: "Tell the children they may leave the table." The maid then walks down the long, long table to a second maid, and delivers the message. That maid then walks down to a ''third'' maid, who goes to the other end of the table (which may be in UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}), and tells Fanny and Alexander they may leave. Doubles as a TearJerker since it's their father's funeral.

* ManipulaiveBastard: Edvard, which is why he managed to marry Emelie and avoid justice for a rather long time.

* EvilOldFolks: Edvard.

* HateSink: Edvard is hated by almost all characters in-universe and for very good reasons. He is a [[LackOfEmpathy remorseless]] [[DomesticAbuse abuser who has no problems with subjecting his step-children to near-torture (both physically and psychologically)]], and barely receives any real punishment for it [[spoiler: [[AssholeVictim until the very end of the film]].]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Just in case you didn't dislike the Vergeruses enough, they're also the only characters who are openly antisemitic towards Isak.

* BigBad: Edvard is the main antagonist pf the film.

* MiddleNameBasis: At their wedding, Edvard and Emilie state their full names while exchanging vows. They are "Olof Hendrik Edvard Vergérus" and "Elisabeth Emilie Josephine Ekhdal".

* DueToTheDead: Deconstructed. On his deathbed, Oscar asks Emilie to promise to give him "A simple funeral...Nothing majestic in the cathedral with the band playing Chopin's "Funeral March" and the bishop giving a pompous oration by the bier. Promise me!", adding "I rely on you but not on Mama. She'll want all the theatrical trimmings." Emilie promises and says that she will speak to Helena. But after he dies, one thing leads to another; everyone who's anyone in town wants to pay their respects and Oscar is given a funeral precisely opposite to that which he requested - a cathedral service officiated at by Edvard the bishop, with respects paid by soldiers from the local regiment and many others, and a military band playing the "Funeral March". While walking in the procession, Alexander mutters swear words, as if to critique the situation.

* DueToTheDead: Deconstructed. On his deathbed, Oscar asks Emilie to promise to give him "A simple funeral. Nothing
majestic in the cathedral with the band playing Chopin's "Funeral March" and the bishop giving a pompous oration by the bier. Promise me!", adding "I rely on you but not on Mama. She'll want all the theatrical trimmings." Emilie promises and says that she will speak to Helena. But after he dies, one thing leads to another; everyone who's anyone in town wants to pay their respects and Oscar is given a funeral precisely opposite to that which he requested - a cathedral service officiated at by Edvard the bishop, with respects paid by soldiers from the local regiment and many others, and a military band playing the "Funeral March". While walking in the procession, Alexander mutters swear words, as if to critique the situation.

* DueToTheDead: Deconstructed. On his deathbed, Oscar asks Emilie to promise to give him "A simple funeral...Nothing

* WeddingEpisode: An appropriately ominous one between Edvard and Emilie, right before the intermission.

* WeddingDay: An appropriately ominous one between Edvard and Emilie, right before the intermission.

** Alexander pisses in a flowerpot while exploring an unknown building, like Johan in ''Film/TheSilence''.

* AuthorAvatar: Alexander for the young Bergman, though he denied this:

** For no obvious reason, but possibly to make the character even more creepy, the role of Mr. Jacobi's disturbed nephew Ismael is played by a woman.

''Fanny and Alexander'' was the last theatrical film of Bergman's career, although he wrote and directed for television for another 20 years. In fact, it was originally conceived as a television mini series, and exists as both a 188 minute theatrical cut (the first to be released), and a 312 minute television cut. It is commonly regarded as one of his masterpieces.

* KarmicDeath: The police makes sure to note that Bishop Vergerus' death was ''very'' painful.

* NameAndName: Although somewhat of an odd example of this trope, since the whole film is from Alexander's point of view, and his sister Fanny is insignificant.

* TableSpace: Used for a gag. As the extended Ekhdahl clan is having dinner, Helena beckons to a maid and says: "Tell the children they may leave the table." The maid then walks down the long, long table to a second maid, and delivers the message. That maid then walks down to a ''third'' maid, who goes to the other end of the table (which may be in UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}), and tells Fanny and Alexander they may leave.

-->It has been suggested ... that 12-year-old Alexander is my alter-ego. But this is not quite true. Fanny and Alexander is a story, the chronicle of a middle-class, perhaps upper-middle-class family sticking closely together...There's a lot of me in the Bishop, rather than in Alexander. He is haunted by his own devils

** For no obvious reason, but possibly to make the character even more creepy, the role of Mr. Jacobi's disturbed young son Ismael is played by a woman.

* GrayRainOfDepression: Opens the second part, as Emilie and her children are trapped in the grim Vergerus home, while Helena sits at home alone, depressed.

* HateSink: Edvard is hated by almost all characters In-universe and for very good reasons. He is a [[LackOfEmpathy remorseless]] [[DomesticAbuse abuser who has no problems with subjecting his step-children to near-torture (both physically and psychologically)]], and barely receives any real punishment for it [[spoiler: [[AssholeVictim until the very end of the film]].]]
* HollywoodAtheist: The children suffer quite a bit in Bishop Vergerus's prison like home. After they finally escape, Alexander muses: "If there is a God, then he's a shit, and I'd like to kick him in the butt."

* MagicRealism: Mostly a realistic setting, but with fairy tale aspects. Alexander sees a statue move, and sees ghosts. A mummy somehow breathes. Mr. Jacobi casts a spell to make images of Fanny and Alexander appear, when smuggling them out of the Vergerus home. Mr. Jacobi's disturbed son Ismael seems to bring about the death of Edvard and his aunt, by some sort of psychic link, with the events transpiring in RealLife, just as Ismael describes them to Alexander.

* TheMistress: Maj is this to Gustav. Alma is perfectly OK with it, even going so far as to have a pleasant conversation with Gustav and Helena, about what to do with Maj after Gustav knocks her up.

* {{Polyamory}}: Gustav's wife Alma is aware that Gustav is having regular sex with Maj the maid, and Alma is perfectly OK with it.

* TableSpace: Used for a gag. As the extended Ekhdahl clan is having dinner, Helena beckons to a maid and says: "Tell the children they may leave the table." The maid then walks down the long, long table to a second maid, and delivers the message. That maid then walks down to a ''third'' maid, who goes to the other end of the table (which may be in UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}), and tells Fanny and Alexander they may leave.
* ATasteOfTheLash: Edvard canes Alexander after Alexander makes up that story about seeing the ghosts of Edvard's first family.