It's an absolutely fantastic movie. I've seen it twice before I saw it again for this marathon, and every time I sit in awe of Bergman.
One of the things that I find most fascinating about this movie is its razor-sharp insight into the Swedish soul. The different characters that appear, even very briefly, portray the many facets (and pathologies) of Swedish life. The querulous and deeply unhappy couple, for instance, are part of the deep dark underbelly of the Swedish psyche, a part that we would like to ignore but deep down know is all to common. They are exaggerated, of course, but their relationship is something that most Swedes can relate to.
The portrayal of the different women is also stunning. We Swedes are very proud of our struggle for equality and our strong women, and the movie shows that in many different ways. Young Sara is independent and free in all the same ways as her male friends. Marianne is compassionate, yet strong enough not to diminish herself to her father-in-law or even her husband. Isak's mother is forceful and even cruel to her own son. What I think Bergman does better than anybody is to weigh what is good about Sweden, but also portray the other side of the coin, the deeply disturbing things that it leads to. Evald and Marianne loves each other deeply, but because Evald was raised in a deeply bitter household (containing another forceful woman and an egotistical man), he could never treat be happy in his marriage. And because Marianne cannot subjugate herself to him, she will also never be happy. Their child will grow up in the same environment Evald grew up in, and so the cycle will repeat itself over and over again. Again, the querulous couple shows an all to real portrait of their future, one that Marianne would like to ignore.
I realise that this is sort-of an unfair point to bring up to a non-Swedish group of people, but that is one of the things that resonates hardest with me in this movie. Anyway, it's a masterpiece, there is no two ways about it.