Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Fanny and Alexander’ at NYC’s IFC Center

The IFC Center in Greenwich Village is one of the nicest multiplexes in New York -- comfy seats, particularly yummy popcorn, pleasantly hip bar and restaurant included -- and it features one of the most eclectic screening schedules in the city. Starting today, and running for two weeks, it is showing Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander in its original, uncut form. I didn’t realize this, but the theatrical version of the film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film was truncated from Bergman’s first version, which was produced for Swedish television. Now, that 312-minute original has been digitally restored and will be shown on the big screen (in a high-def transfer) for the first time ever.

(FYI, the IFC Center is also now running The Killing of John Lennon, which I reviewed when I saw it at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival.)

This ties in with one of my movie resolutions for this year, which is to make a point of seeing a whole bunch of classic movies that I’ve never seen before. I may not write in-depth reviews of them, but I will share my thoughts on them. (I may also include films that I saw for the first time so recently, within the last year or so, that they did not influence my love for movies from an early age.) I know there are huge gaps in my film education, and I want to remedy that. So I’ll start with Fanny and Alexander ASAP.