In late 19th century Sweden, a beautiful teenage circus performer falls in love with a married aristocratic army officer, and they run away together. Count Sparre (Widerberg regular Thommy Berggren) abandons family and career for true love and delirious passion with young Elvira (Pia Degermark, named best actress at Cannes for her performance), but the enormous social pressures arrayed against the pair lead ultimately to tragic consequences. The couple's rejection of stifling Victorian strictures for a romp-in-the-grass idyll in nature, the emphasis on individual happiness over the oppressive forces of conformity, had great resonance in the Summer-of-Love 60s. Rendered with ravishing colour, sun-dappled light, soft focus, and the occasional schmaltzy (and much-parodied) slo-mo sequence, set to the strains of Mozart's Piano Concert No. 21 (2nd movement), Elvira Madigan has been called a "candidate for the prettiest pic ever award" (Time Out). Some critics have compared the painterly cinematography to the art of Renoir and Bonnard. "Elvira Madigan is a tranquil film, an elegiac film, its textural grace tinctured with Scandinavian premonitions of death" (Peter Cowie).

Here at last, the Bergman film most of his fans don't have (and may have never seen it either, if they were not already adults by 1976). This drama about the nervous breakdown of a female psychiatrist, played by the great Liv Ullmann in an unforgettable performance, may not be one of the master's greatest achievements but it's a very interesting, harrowing movie experience. Never released on video on a big scale, and almost impossible to find (Amazon doesn't even lists this title, and ebay only offers a DVD-R copy of a TV-rip), Bergman himself may be responsible of this film's unavailability, since he wasn't very fond of it (see details). Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Film and Oscar-nominated for Best Director and Best Actress.

Once picked by an international jury of film critics as the best film of the 1970's, and winner of seven Cesar awards. Resnais' first and only english language film ranks among his best works.
Screenplay: David Mercer. Producers: Yves Gasser & Klaus Hellwig. Cinematography: Ricardo Aronovitch. Music: Miklos Rosza. Production Design: Charles Merangel & Jacque Saulnier. Production Company: Action-Films/Societe Francaise du Production/FR3/Citel Films. Cast: John Gielgud, Dirk Bogarde, Ellen Burstyn, David Warner, Elaine Stritch.