The story starts with Johan (Erland Joshepson) and Marianne (Liv Ullman) being interviewed by a women's magazine on their tenth anniversary. Their marital bliss seems too perfect but when Marianne is asked what is happiness, she answers, "Happiness is contentment." It seems there is a compromise somewhere within.
Following this, they are visited by their close friends Peter and Katarina for dinner. The marital troubles of Peter and Katarina come out in a vulgar and toxic manner. It seems Johan and Marianne enjoy quite a contrasting relationship. By the end of this episode, troubles start in paradise as Marianne gets pregnant and has an abortion. Both Johan and Marianne's approach to the pregnancy makes them ask different questions about their relationship. In the next episode, we find out about their problems in their sex life and how an undercurrent of bitterness has been growing over these years. In the third episode titled Paula we find out that Johan has been having an affair with a young woman called Paula and he wants to leave for Paris with Paula. Marianne is devastated and begs him to stay, but it falls on Johan's deaf ears. This seems to be the turning point in both their lives. In the next episode when Johan visits Marianne after several months we find that Marianne has used this opportunity for self-discovery and Paula has been a disappointment for Johan. The fifth episode The Illiterates is about them finalising their divorce. It is one of the most moving and painful portrayal of the depths human toxicity can sink to when the individual is stifled. The sixth episode takes us ten years after the first episode. Both Johan and Marianne are married but they are cheating on their respective spouses with each other. They discuss how time has made them bitter and unfulfilled but yet they try to be content with the lives they have. There is this scene in this episode where Marianne gets a nightmare and then she feels she has never loved or felt loved by anyone. Johan says, "We love each other in an earthly and imperfect way".
I feel this line kind of encompasses what Bergman wanted to show. That love and relationships come with its own imperfections. But most important thing is the communication of the emotions how hurting they are. It is so easy to symapthise with Marianne more than Johan. Marianne is a much more strong and life-affirming character. But Johan is a result of societal constructs about masculinity and expectations. This academic is so riled with insecurities, fears, disappointments of life that his loneliness defines him in a highly painstaking way.
Scenes from a Marriage is a highly realistic description of how life treats us all in a cruel way and how it's no different even if you are in the labyrinth of traditionally secure institutions as marriage. It is tough not to associate some part of yourself with either Johan or Marianne. Go ahead, watch this masterstroke and delve into all the questions and doubts you have about the highly complex event of "being together with someone".
