Imperfect Love
Bergman's film is about a couple who on the outside believe that they have everything that anyone could desire from a marriage. But, as the story unfolds we see that their ideas of perfection are just an allusion they hide behind as Johan feeling no affection from Marianne begins an affair with Paula. And Marianne begins to fall in love with another man she wants to remarry who she enjoys having sex with. Once they both acknowledge their affairs they begin an affair together behind their new partners' backs. There were walls between them that they were incapable under their capacity during marriage to break down, that they allowed other people to tear down. It was only then that they possibly began to see one another, to connect in a deeper way.
Marriage
Yes the title gives it away. The film, edited from a six-part television program deals with marriage in both an acute and poignant way in the hands of the master, Bergman. Johan and Marianne's marriage looks picture perfect, thus the interview with the magazine and the photographer in the very first scene. But under the posed photographs we see subtle indications of issues in their marriage, in particular when Johan has his arm around Marianne's waist for the picture and then we see her very simply remove his touch from her body. Bergman, in this film, is showing us the nuances of marriage, the results of years of neglecting one another in various ways whether it be emotionally, mentally, spiritually: they all are part of this film's desire to reveal the horrors of interior neglect perpetrated by the one person that loves us most.
The Subtlety of Neglect
Scenes from a Marriage reveals to us the audience, the subtlety of neglect. Johan desires more physical intimacy and when he doesn't get it, he has an affair. Marianne can't find a way to be connected to Johan beyond the intellectual, and thus Johan shuts off and doesn't attempt to work through it with her, instead focusing on how 'good' their relationship is in every other area while paving over the rest. Marianne and Johan don't speak about their issues in the same way their friends Katarina and Peter who are outward with their loathing of one another while Johan and Marianne conceal. But, it is their concealment that leads to their pain.
