Fanny and Alexander (2-Disc Blu-ray)

Ingmar Bergman’s dreamlike chronicle of an extended family in early 20th-century Sweden

Despite its grand settings and substantial cast, Ingmar Bergman’s final – and most expensive – film for the cinema is also among his most personal and intimate.

Mystical, joyous, dark, at times exuberant and at others doomladen, Fanny and Alexander follows the transformation of the young Ekdahl children’s fortunes after the death of their easygoing father and their mother’s remarriage to a joyless local bishop.

The director draws on his own childhood as well as Dickensian elements and festive fairytales to create a moving, magical portrait of family and childhood.

*****  The Guardian

***** Empire