After the Rehearsal

"After the Rehearsal" (Efter repetitionen, 1984) is an Ingmar Bergman chamber film you can watch online on iFILM. Theater director Henrik Vogler (Erland Josephson) is alone on the empty stage after a run-through. Then the lead actress Anna (Lena Olin) comes back, claiming she left a bracelet behind.

There was no bracelet. What unfolds is a conversation that keeps shifting ground — cautious at first, then increasingly exposing. Anna speaks about her mother, a dead alcoholic actress who had been Vogler's star and his lover. The more they talk, the more the past bleeds into the present: Vogler begins to see Raquel (Ingrid Thulin) and relive what he can no longer change. Three people in one room. Two of them still alive.

Made for Swedish television and screened in Cannes' official selection, this is Bergman at his most stripped down — one set, three actors, dialogue doing all the work. Olin's performance here launched her internationally. Stream "After the Rehearsal" (1984) online on iFILM.