... or at least until one of us has had enough, although that will more than likely be reciprocated. There's a good chance you'll recognise a lot of the characteristics, dialogue and awkwardness on show here although everybody's story is different, but it's the craft of the actors moulding the directors words and wisdom that creates a near perfect marriage made in heaven - as so many of Ingmar Bergman's films do, and as such, you'll struggle to divorce your eyes and ears from the conversation, your mind and memory from reflection.

I saw Scenes of a marriage recently and have never stopped thinking about it since. The way it deals with the relationship story revolving around divorce is masterful. This unlike marriage story (similar type) isn't sad or emotional, this is depressing and it's beauty lies in the dialogues. The realistic take on love and relationships is never easy but this despite having a foreign language absorbed me in a way I hadn't imagined.

The camera work is really nice and the close-up shots made the film feel less like a movie and more like a scene happening in front of you.

I was really hyped for the latest hbo show which is a remakes of this but now after watching this, I don't think it will be as good as this, maybe an American style will be different but this is otherwordly.

Bergman's true essence lies in a deep study of the human condition which was very clear from Winter Light (my first Bergman) and his films are known to be depressing and leave a deep impact on the viewer and this is exactly what this did.

Both the characters were brilliantly written and how they react to their circumstances was really outstanding. The pacing is handled really well it just doesn't feel like a 3 hour long story about a couple talking.

After watching this, I could see how much of an inspiration it has served to some of my favourite movies of the same type.

Before Midnight took a realistic turn by escaping from the fantasised romance, Marriage story was also inspired from this and I am glad that I finally saw this movie.

The acting also was flawless by both the leads and it surely needs masterclass to portray such complex characters.

The movie opens with a brilliant scene where Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) are being interviewed by an elegant journalist straight out of some Swedish version of Cosmopolitan. Her cliché questions are answered mainly by Johan with cliché answers. A dinner with another couple follows. The visiting couple abuse each other in elegant, sadistic, low key Bergmanesque put-downs that would make Martha and George blush. The visitors laud Marianne and Johan as the perfect couple, which telegraphs the director's intentions.

Sure enough, in an hour or so we learn that the Marianne/Johan couple is in the process of dissolution, ostensibly due to Johan's latest unfaithfulness but actually the result of multiple deep seated grievances towards each other. The process is put in motion in pretentiously titled episodes, and for the test of the movie (almost two hours) we are witnesses to disagreeable conversations between the couple. Ullmann is required to emote endlessly in extreme close-up while Josephson delivers his lines with an irritating, sarcastic self-assurance combined with bursts of self-pitying, whining and fits of violence. I grew tired of both actors after a while, but it's not their fault; they are portraying disagreeable manipulative characters self centered to the point of navel-gazing and devoid of even a vestige of sense of humor or sense of family; the two daughters of the couple appear shortly during the initial dinner, are put to bed and heard of no more. They are only mentioned from time to time by Marianne to blame Johan for forgetting their birthdays.

The end has echoes of previous Bergman movies, in particular Gycklarnas Afton (1953),where couples reach some kind of understanding, security and appreciation of each other through mutual betrayal and humiliation, a process that Johan characterizes as a "textbook on life." Depends on your definition of life.