Hagai Levi, the creator of the series best suited to the world
BeTipul
, offers this Monday on OCS a rereading of Bergman's masterpiece,
Scenes of married life
, entitled
Scenes From a Marriage
.
Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain succeed Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann, to camp this couple in the midst of a marital crisis.
How did Hagai Levi manage to faithfully transpose Bergman's story while modernizing his point?
The shadow of Ingmar Bergman hangs over fiction in 2021! After the arrival of many films by the Swedish director on Netflix, the tribute of “Moments in love” in season 3 of
Master of None
and the wink of Mia Hansen-Løve in his last film
Bergman Island
, Hagai Levi proposes
Scenes From a Marriage.
This miniseries for HBO broadcast in US + 24 from this Monday at 8:40 p.m. on OCS City, is an adaptation of the cult series of the director,
Scenes of married life
, broadcast on Swedish television in 1973 and condensed into a film, released in theaters in 1974, an intimate chronicle of a married couple who love and tear each other apart. Why this American rereading by Hagai Levi, brilliantly carried by Oscar Isaac (
Show Me a Hero
) and Jessica Chastain (Oscar nominee for
Zero Dark Thirty
), is it as relevant as it is confusing modernity?
"The most striking work of art of my life"
In Treatment,
In Therapy
, etc. We no longer count the adaptations of
BeTipul.
Why has Hagai Levi, the creator of the World's Most Adapted Series, embarked on a remake himself? It all started "seven or eight years ago" when Ingmar Bergman's son asked him to adapt his father's masterpiece. “He really liked
BeTipul
… And he heard me talk to the Swedish press about how this series inspired mine,” recalls Hagai Levi, whom
20 Minutes
met during a roundtable discussion at Series Mania. I'm not sure why he chose me, but I can't thank him enough for his incredible confidence. "
And to entrust: "I think that I will not make any other remake of all my life.
But
Scenes from Married Life
is undoubtedly the most memorable work of art of my life, like the book you read as a child and which changes your entire life.
"
"With this idea of role reversal, I knew what to do"
If Hagai Levi waited several years before embarking on this adaptation, it is because he had to find the right approach to attack this monument.
“I didn't want to do a new series.
I had just done
The Affair
, another series about couples and betrayal.
But it was about finding a way to adapt, while remaining faithful, ”he says.
And the click came when he had the idea to reverse the roles of the couple from Bergman.
In
Scenes From a Marriage
, Jonathan, an academic, spends most of his time in the household taking care of his little girl, while Mira, who earns more, ends up cheating on him.
“When I had this idea of role reversal, I knew what to do,” he says.
"Understanding the mechanism of separation"
“What makes a couple work? This is the question asked in the very first minutes of
Scenes From a Marriage
by a student who came to interview Mira and Jonathan, the couple played by Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, for her memory. If Hagai Levi keeps the original question asked by Bergman, his answer, not far from fifty years later, is not exactly the same.
"Bergman wanted to talk about the price of marriage, as an institution, how it kills love and other things," he analyzes.
In Sweden, divorce rates hit record highs after the series aired.
“I end up saying almost the opposite.
I wanted to understand the mechanism of separation, which is becoming so easy these days.
Culture encourages people to move forward, to have a better life, to seek freedom.
But it comes at a price too.
How can a romantic relationship suddenly end?
How painful is it?
», Explains Hagai Levi, who delivers a resolutely modern camera on the couple, love and desire.
An overwhelming work, from which the viewer does not come out unscathed, as it questions in depth the essence of our intimate relationships.
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Movie theater
"Bergman Island": Mia Hansen-Love takes Tim Roth and Vicky Krieps to the Swedish master's island
Series
OCS
HBO
Mania Series