Having just read about Bergman's theatrical work, I wanted to see some of the films again, not least this, which was also a TV series and famously in Munich in 1981 very successfully a play. Wisely or not, whilst waiting for the Criterion DVD to arrive I found this book. Bergman scholars will know, but this appears to be neither exactly the film or TV script nor the playtext. It has a slightly baffling introduction from Bergman which is ostensibly designed to 'prevent the constrained reader from getting lost in the text'. It is not as if the text is difficult, but in Alan Blair's translation at least it sounds the opposite of naturalistic throughout and I found that does have an odd cumulative effect, a sort of deadening, as if one were reading a work of philosophy or sociology. I have no idea if this is partly the fault of the translation, partly the difficulty of rendering Swedish idioms in English or something else entirely but it proved unexpectedly hard work. ( )

Num casamento, até que ponto o marido conhece a esposa, a mulher conhece o homem? O que os une, e o que os separa? Por que alguns dão certo, e outros não? Que medos, tensões, desculpas e justificativas cercam os rompimentos ou fortalecem a união a dois? Não será o casal ideal uma ilusão da instituição casamento? É possível ser feliz convivendo durante anos sob o mesmo teto? A vida estável, amigável, equilibrada, embora morna, às vezes sem sexo, é a receita correta para relacionamentos duradouros? Não somos todos cegos e carentes quando se trata de amor? Afinal, existe amor eterno? ( )