Face to Face
A psychiatrist’s carefully managed life fractures into hallucination, buried trauma, and an agonizing confrontation with her will to live.
Overview
A psychiatrist's fragile grip on reality unravels amidst a summer of introspection and emotional turmoil.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Extreme
- Complexity
- Dense
- Violence
- Moderate
- haunting
- oppressive
- intimate
- focused solo viewing
- late night arthouse viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly praised Ingmar Bergman’s precise, haunting psychological direction and Liv Ullmann’s extraordinary central performance, while finding the film occasionally confused or overwrought.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Jenny works as a psychiatrist while suffering hallucinations, repression, and a nervous breakdown.
Jenny's childhood memories and the case of Maria recur in semi-lucid states that blur remembered and immediate experience.
Jenny occupies an emptied childhood house while her husband and daughter are away, making familiar rooms feel estranged and ominous.
The plot centers on Jenny processing childhood trauma, family history, mental illness, and suicidal ideation.
Films like Face to Face, and why
Persona
shared psychological interiority, family trauma, and destabilized reality in a severe Scandinavian art-drama mode
Through a Glass Darkly
shared psychiatric setting, emotional repression, and intimate examination of fractured identity
Repulsion
shared dreamlike psychological horror, childhood trauma, and oppressive domestic unease
Scenes from a Marriage
shared Bergmanesque marital alienation, existential despair, and emotionally rigorous chamber drama
Movie Details
- Director
- Ingmar Bergman
- Release Date
- 1976-04-05
- Runtime
- 114 min
- Rating
- 7.2 / 10 (140)
Cast
- Liv Ullmann
- Erland Josephson
- Aino Taube
- Gunnar Björnstrand
- Kristina Adolphson
- Marianne Aminoff
- Gösta Ekman
- Helene Friberg
- Ulf Johansson
- Sven Lindberg
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Kanopy
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Face to Face about?
- A psychiatrist’s carefully managed life fractures into hallucination, buried trauma, and an agonizing confrontation with her will to live.
- What is Face to Face like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Face to Face as measured, its intensity as extreme and its storytelling as dense.
- Is Face to Face violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in Face to Face as moderate.
- What did critics think of Face to Face?
- Critics broadly praised Ingmar Bergman’s precise, haunting psychological direction and Liv Ullmann’s extraordinary central performance, while finding the film occasionally confused or overwrought.
- Which films are like Face to Face?
- Films with a similar feel include Persona, Through a Glass Darkly, Repulsion, and Scenes from a Marriage.
- How long is Face to Face?
- Face to Face runs 114 minutes.
- Where can I watch Face to Face?
- In United States, Face to Face streams on Kanopy.
