Sofie

As the former leading lady of several classic Ingmar Bergman films (Persona, Cries and Whispers, and Scenes From a Marriage, to name a few), Ullmann here makes her directorial debut. She also co-wrote the screenplay for this deliberately-paced period piece that is adapted from Henri Nathansen's 1932 novel Mendel Philipsen & Son. Covering a span of some 20 years in the life of a woman named Sofie Philipsen (Mynster), the narrative begins in 1886 Copenhagen, where Sofie lives with her parents as a dutiful Jewish daughter. Although she is engaging and cultured with a strong poetic nature, at the ripe-for-marriage age of 28, Sofie's matrimonial prospects are few and far between. Her devoted family longs for a suitable match for her, but she seems doomed for spinsterhood -- just like her three middle-aged aunts who live their lives through books and parakeets. That is, until Sofie and her parents attend an elegant dinner held at her wealthy uncle's mansion, where she catches the attention of a painter who asks if her parents would consider sitting for a portrait. Over time, an intense, mutual attraction blossoms between Sofie and the painter, yet when he attempts to test the limits of her long-slumbering passion, she bolts from him because she knows in her heart that her family would never condone her having a Gentile suitor as a potential husband. Resigned to accept the tradtional and cultural values that her family demands of her, Sofie marries a cousin she doesn't really love, and their passionless union eventually produces a son who becomes her only solace as the years pass. As an actress and writer in her first directorial effort, Ullmann has successfully tapped into a new facet of her longstanding film career, for she manages to take a simple story and make it memorably rich without resorting to predictable solutions. Her film readily brings to life another time and place, where everything has a specific meaning due to generations of tradition exerting a stifling and tremendous sense of seriousness to the preordained path of a 19th-century woman's existence. Although Ullmann's work demands patience from the viewer -- especially in the second half of the film -- she is nevertheless off to a good start in creating potentially great films for the future.