The five-part limited series “Scenes from a Marriage” is an American drama television miniseries produced by HBO, directed by Hagai Levi and starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. The original series, released in 1973, was blamed for a spike in divorce rates. However, the 2021 version of the show re-examines the original’s iconic depiction of love, hatred, desire, monogamy, marriage, and divorce through the lens of a contemporary American couple.
The series explores the dilemmas probed by the original, focusing on the nature of performance for the camera and partner. The characters themselves never hide their focus on the nature of performance, either for the camera or for a partner. The 2021 version of the show opens with a scene that is not from a marriage, focusing initially on the back of Jessica.
The series is loosely adapted from director Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 Swedish miniseries, but bears a close resemblance in style and tone to “In Treatment,” another HBO miniseries. The series is a study of intimacy, examining the alternations of tenderness and irritation, mind-reading rapport, and alienated conviction that one is being taken for granted or completely misunderstood.
The original series captured gender roles and marital politics in the wake of the sexual revolution, and the new version arrives at a time when relationships are being tested by the pandemic. The series explores the themes of love, hatred, desire, monogamy, marriage, and divorce through the lens of a contemporary American couple.
📹 What’s so great about Scenes from a Marriage? (Bergman, 1973)
A video essay on Bergman’s “Scenes from a Marriage” (Theatrical version), where the cultural impact of the film is assessed, …
Is Mira the villain in Scenes from a Marriage?
“Scenes from a Marriage” is also a feminist exploration. Levi changed the gender roles in the show. In this modern adaptation, Mira is the main breadwinner, the one who has the first affair, and the one who eventually leaves the marriage. Mira is impatient and often cruel to Jonathan. Some might say this makes women look bad. But making a complex, often bad woman is a feminist thing to do. Mira is allowed to be flawed, but she is not one-dimensional. “Scenes from a Marriage” is about power, dialogue, and human connection. The show is thoughtful but also divisive. It’s for one person, and that person may not be you. If you liked this review, watch the show. If this review made you uncomfortable, it might not be for you. “Scenes from a Marriage” offers a fresh and nuanced view of relationships.
What is the twist of the story?
What is a plot twist? A plot twist is an unexpected change in a story that surprises the reader. Twists don’t follow the story the author set out. Plot twists are a common way to keep readers interested in fiction. A twist in a story makes readers want to keep reading. It makes them think in new ways about what has happened so far. Plot twists make writing more interesting and avoid boring stories. This wiki explains how to create a twist in a story and provides a list of different twists to inspire your own stories. Books with twists. Below are some books with shocking endings. These examples show the most effective events and revelations for surprising readers.
What is the plot of Scenes from a Marriage?
The new HBO series Scenes from a Marriage is a remake of the 1973 Swedish film of the same name. It was written and directed by Hagai Levi and stars Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. In this version, Jonathan and Mira fight as their relationship falls apart. Facing their end forces them to confront their history, partnership, and themselves as they try to disentangle from the identity they have built together. If TV is voyeuristic, Scenes from a Marriage is the ultimate thrill. Watching a love story is fun, but watching a couple get to the heart of their relationship is even better. The series shows the most intimate moments of its central couple and reveals what many couples in crisis hide from each other. In Scenes from a Marriage, the entire show is made up of short scenes. The series starts and ends with our characters as actors entering a scene from their marriage. We see Jonathan and Mira rehearse, accept notes, interact with a crew, and move around a set. The set becomes their lives, showing their marriage as a performance. Scenes from a Marriage shows marriage as a performance. It shows how people expect marriages to be and how people act as partners.
What is the ending of scenes from a marriage?
By the end of the series, Mira and Jonathan had sex and were in the attic, which the new owners had made into a bright playroom for their child. This makes sense because Mira and Jonathan now appreciate and share a fairytale love because they are better off apart. What did you think of the Scenes From a Marriage finale? Grade the series in our poll and leave your thoughts in the comments.
Does Mira cheat on Jonathan?
Mira is a villain from the start. The couple is on the couch, talking about their marriage. We see Mira’s pride at being the breadwinner. By the time she physically abuses Jonathan because she doesn’t want to sign divorce papers, we’ve had enough. In a monogamous marriage, cheating because you are unhappy is betrayal. Scenes From a Marriage doesn’t imply anything else. But why change the gender roles in the 1973 original series? There are many female villains in the media today. Levis’s decision to make Mira the unfaithful spouse doesn’t add anything new to the conversation about marriage or gender roles. It’s frustrating to watch for five hours.
How does Scenes From a Marriage handle Mira’s abortion?
Are scenes from a marriage sad?
Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage is a mix of emotional realism and theatrical artifice. The 1973 miniseries, shown on Swedish TV and in an abridged version internationally, follows a couple from an upper-middle-class background, played by Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson. With a small budget, Bergman didn’t try to make the sets look real. His scenes take place in simple rooms that look like stage sets. The minimal backdrops make the performances, especially Ullman’s, stand out. The characters’ intimate, passionate conversations feel as real as if they were happening in front of you. HBO’s Scenes From a Marriage, a contemporary American remake, also nods to this aesthetic. The first scene of each episode shows Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain walking onto the set, surrounded by crew members wearing face coverings. The house where the main characters live is on a soundstage. Writer-director Hagai Levi (In Treatment, The Affair) makes us forget the artifice of the story. This gambit, like the series as a whole, is neither a total success nor a total failure. When we meet Jonathan and Mira, they are sitting for an interview about their happy marriage with a PhD student from the college where Jonathan teaches philosophy. The young woman explains, “I’m looking at how gender norms affect monogamous marriages.” It’s a clever way of introducing a gender-swapped version of Bergman’s Scenes. While Ullmans family lawyer did housework and childcare, Chastains tech executive lived at the office. The male half of the couple is an academic in both versions. Where Josephson’s character spent his off-hours out of the house, Isaacs’ introverted professor does the domestic labor. Is this a comment on the decline of a career in academia? Maybe! Jonathan is at home and with his family, while Mira is at work.
Are scenes from a marriage worth watching?
This show shows romantic relationships well. The way it is shot lets the audience feel the emotion. Isaac Chastain is great. They have great chemistry. The show is engaging without being boring. Watch Scenes From A Marriage to see how relationships are nuanced. 15 out of 22 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote. Link to this review.
What was the plot twist after the wedding?
At the wedding, Isabel is surprised to see Teresa’s husband is her teenage sweetheart, Oscar Carlson, now a famous artist. Grace isn’t Teresa’s biological daughter. She’s Oscar’s. Isabel learns that Grace is her biological daughter. Isabel goes back to the house the day after the wedding. She learns that Oscar changed his mind and reclaimed Grace without telling her. Isabel makes Oscar and Theresa tell Grace that her biological mother died. Theresa encourages Isabel to get to know Grace and reconnect with Oscar. She also decides to give more money to the orphanage, which makes Isabel stay in New York longer. Theresa makes her donation and a fund in Isabel and Grace’s name, but only if Isabel moves to New York. Isabel is angry with Theresa and learns that she is dying. Theresa says she knew about Isabel’s connection to Oscar and Grace and set up the ruse to make Isabel a new mother figure to Grace and her own eight-year-old twin boys. Oscar finds out about his wife’s illness at the same time and tells Grace, who is already struggling with doubts about her marriage and the news that Isabel is her mother.
Does Mira have an abortion in Scenes from a Marriage?
Mira decides to have an abortion because her marriage is falling apart. Jon goes with her to the clinic, where she takes a pill to end the pregnancy. In the next episode, she tells her husband she loves someone else. She had the abortion thinking it would save their marriage, but she realized she had it so she could leave.
Do scenes from a marriage have a happy ending?
In the last episode of Scenes from a Marriage, the couple is divorced. Jonathan is at his dad’s funeral at the start of the episode. Mira tells her new boyfriend Poli that she can’t go out because she has to watch her daughter. We learn this is a lie. Jonathan and Mira are having an affair. They visit their old house, which is being rented out by its new owners as an Airbnb. The couple is back together, but only in some ways. They each have other relationships, but both admit they’ll never feel the same way about anyone else as they did for each other. Some films or shows show hope for reconciliation, but Scenes of a Marriage suggests that divorced couples’ love will never be the same. There’s no suggestion of getting back together. The series ends on a sad note. The couple falls asleep in each other’s arms, but it’s not a happy ending. Love is complicated. It changes over time.
What was the first twist ending in a movie?
Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the most important films in history. It’s a German Expressionist film and the first movie to have a twist ending. Robert Wienes’ The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a groundbreaking film with a twist ending. It is a pillar of German Expressionism and a pioneer in cinema. The film’s expressionist visuals, including shadows and dark settings, perfectly capture the angst and trepidation of post-World War I Germany. The twist ending was a big deal at the time and has influenced many films since.
Robert Wienes The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the most important films in history. It’s a German Expressionist film and the first movie to have a twist ending. In other forms of fiction, particularly in literature, turning an entire narrative on its head during the ending was common. In movies, it was quite revolutionary. Its influence is clear in modern movies like Shutter Island, Gone Girl, and most of M. Night Shyamalan’s work. If you haven’t seen this kind of ending in a movie, watch it first. Then read on. A young man named Francis is in a garden. He tells a listener about a disturbing story while his fiancée Jane passes by. He and his friend Alan both wanted Jane’s love. They both love her and agree whoever she picks will win. A man named Dr. Caligari applies to be an attraction at the local fair. He has Cesare with him, a man who can see the future. The rude town clerk agrees to his request. The town clerk is found dead in the middle of the night. He was stabbed. The next morning, Alan and Francis visit Caligari and his sleepwalker. Alan is told he will die before dawn. Later that night, Cesare’s prophecy comes true, and Alan is killed.
Is Scenes from a Marriage improv?
This improvised longform narrative is inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s original version and the 2021 HBO remake. It looks at relationships from every angle. Our version of Scenes from a Marriage is bold, powerful, uncomfortable, candid, and surprising. As we explore the relationship between marriage, our audience may see themselves in our improvised emotional landscape. Ben Verhoeven, Gilles Delvaulx, Kelly Agathos, Peggy Pexy Green, Billy Kissa.
📹 SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE EP. 2 | EXPLAINED
This video details my perspective of the film in question. I’m using my own thoughts in order to interpret an opinion of the work.
Please educate yourself before calling me sexist & misogynistic. This website is for deep thinkers and people who love film analysis. Thanks to all my supporters who are like-minded and understand how to think for themselves. For the constructive criticism I have received, I will be more mindful not to categorize things so strongly in the future. This feedback truly means a lot. articles from WOMEN: WAGE GAP DEBUNKED youtube.com/watch?v=JBFfI9925Q4 DISNEY RUINING RELATIONSHIPS youtube.com/watch?v=LRpug2Nawns&t=45s HYPERGAMY youtube.com/watch?v=RwyWjQZbua0
That’s interesting your perspective is totally different than mine, in the first episode Mara talked about how she had been in a bunch of abusive relationships and I remember in this episode the husband asked her why she has marks on her back. The impression that I got is because of her past trauma she sees a stable happy calm relationship and doesn’t feel like she deserves it or doesn’t feel like it should be that way so she seeks out chaos in her life
The more I watch this show, the more I see myself in Johnathan. He’s a man who strives on logic but suppresses his feelings like many men. If he was honest with himself and his wife about having a child or his deeper rooted issues. I honestly believe that they could’ve made it work. It was absurd to me that she was so fucking selfish, and Johnathan was so in his logic that he didn’t express the truth. Men CAN be emotional, just the filter of logic. It is THE best-kept secret from men. If he had said, “This sucks, I don’t want you to do this. What’s wrong so we can actually dig here? I want to have a child and build a bigger family”. For her, it’s mainly being honest with him. She should’ve just said, “I’m fucked up. I should have never rushed into being a mother without seriously looking into my past and my toxicity.”
Hey! Let me start off by saying I like your reviews, especially episode 1, but I think your insights are slightly misguided on this episode and a bit close minded when it comes to a straight cisgendered relationship. While I do agree that Jonathan has left something to be desired in terms of spontaneity in the relationship, I hardly believe that this was the main reason why she thought their relationship was so unbearable that she had to leave in an abrupt and cruel way, also leaving the fate of visiting her daughter (who she clearly loves deeply) up in the air. I think if you read into their body language and really listen to what she is saying, her turmoil in the relationship comes from Jonathan not being as present emotionally as she needs. He is closed off and boxes his true feelings away, and that leaves her feeling lonely and dead, especially since she has to preform a colder logical persona every day at her job. When she comes home I think she is hoping to be met with a true connection where she can release the tension and stress of her day and be met by honesty, not be bottled up and forced into playing another role as the wife that Jonathan has turned her into (which you can see in episode 1). This is my opinion, of course everyone is different and there are so many different interpretations of this complex portrait of a relationship, however I would refrain from relating to “how men are” and “how women are” when it comes to relationships. There are too many of us to make large assumptions, its far more interesting to look at the character as an individual free of any predetermined characteristics coming from their gender.
Watching this episode was so hard. As a woman I could understand the wife’s desperate desire to feel “alive”, but I knew what a mistake she was making looking for it outside the marriage. Her husband pleading with her to just wait, try therapy and to think of their child was truly heartbreaking. Many women would give anything for a husband to want to fight so badly for their marriage. The wife and I are exactly the same age, yet I noticed a lot of selfishness and maybe even a lack of maturity that I could see myself having in my 20s early 30s. I felt for her, but at the same time was infuriated with her. Very well done episode.
Lol it’s not a good idea to use a movie as an example of your grand theory of how women think. Movies don’t show you the characters actions and thoughts they’re written by somebody what you’re seeing is how the writer interprets the world, and nocturnal animals was written by a man and a gay man at that
I will say it is typical that men are surprised when asked for divorce. My question is could it be because .en like Jonathan are not tuned into the marriage? Marriage is beautiful and honorable but like anything if value requires attention and maintenance. I do not agree with your premise about the reason that Emmy behaves the way she does. Based on episode 2, she is missing the connection to her husband that most women require to thrive.
Thank you for the review!! Very good summarization and details of the episode! One part that stood out to me is the part where Johnathan walks in the bedroom and sees the marks on Mira’s back. Do you have any theory to that? I was thinking back to when she mentioned in the first episode about her being in an abusive relationship and her being addicted to it…your thoughts?
i like the way you visioning it but i think i need to desagree, OFTEN the men is the one who look for more attractive woman (the original series is from sweden and mira actually is the guy). I think that this series is a new version, they wanted to show how if it were the opposite. But obviously woman can be like this as well, but we still living in a machist society. By the way i love how they perform.
You should really watch the original Scenes from a marriage. The wife was a family court lawyer which still excelled her husband. He left her for a younger woman this redebntion on switches the rolls slightly. The husband Johan vs Johnathan they both don’t acknowledge their marriages as what defines them yet Miranne and Mira still considered being wives and mothers as their identity which speaks volume since you went with the new version of the old folklore that a woman is nothing without a man.
People are so much more than their gender. Discrimination towards women or men are the same amount of sad: they just continue the idea that men and women supposedly come from different worlds. To support the idea that women mostly do this (eg. will leave their partner only when they have found a new one so that they feel emotional security) or men do mostly that (are logical and do not necessarily create emotional bonds with a sexual partner) is offensive to, believe me, more people than you think regardless of gender. Studying psychology truly opened my eyes on what is or isn’t a social construct. And assumptions on behaviors based on gender are generally biased and continue really sad stereotypes. In this analysis what I also found sad was the assumption that a man’s job is to keep the marriage “exciting” or else he will have to deal with the consequences of being cheated on or being left behind(?) So if a person, woman or man, fails to be “exciting” enough should be worried they will end up alone? And the idea that if the husband had a better income would be a little less likely to be left behind… Truly sad… As if life is all about comparing what others do better than us in order to follow or leave them behind. Marriages are so complex, and analysing them based on patriarchal stereotypes leaves us only tied to the idea that equality cannot exist, never existed and is not essential anyway. It also continues the idea that a man should be a little wealthier, a little stronger, a little too dominant to have a successful marriage.
Overall good analysis but you sound angry and biased and I think it gets in the way of some of your interpretations, particularly once you started with the whole “any time a woman tells you..” and especially in “this is the classic case of a female..” We’re all human and come from different perspectives, that’s what makes discussions like this interesting but I would just be wary about letting personal views and generalizations cloud what the character’s actions and body language are trying to convey.
I’m a woman and I agree with you. Women think men are mind readers. I had to relearn that. If there’s no passion or sex, then open your mouth and talk to your significant other! Or reignite the passion. Stop silent treatment. Also stop involving the kids. If you have issues work it out together 😉 Don’t make kids your counsellor.
Your personal comment about woman encourage other woman that she deserve better is not applicable in other cultures and countries. In India the first thing will happen is to sort out the issue and fight for it, rather than breaking the family. Divorce is not even a concept in majority of the countries. The person with Selfish, deceiving and cruel mentality would leave their children for another spouse.
I’m a man from Egypt, and i have question about this episode.. is that how the American man act or do when he hears from his wife that she is in love with another man and she still wants him and having sex with him ? Why he is not more angry about it .. she talked about he got angry many times before with her, why he was so fucking frozen
Speaking as a married man, I think their ideas & ideals are so out of whack with reality that they were destined to fail. I hardly know where to begin… neither of them understand that there is no meaning to be found in a job (it is simply a means to an end), so prioritising work over motherhood is insane. He should never have let that happen, muchless married such a woman. He’s lost in the source anyway, reading nonsense articles about the virtues of being the primary caregiver – despite the fact that women are physiologically designed to be the best caregivers. Like a teenager, he came inside her when neither of them were prepared to have another child 🙄 and, of course, went and did the worst, which is abort the baby. They’ve not invited God into their marriage. I don’t even mean that religiously – though there’s a tremendous amount of wisdom to be found in the Bible – I mean they have no relationship with the source. The one. With nature. What is the point of their marriage? What kind of sphere are they aspiring to establish and expand?