Scener ur ett äktenskap
Scenes from a Marriage - Movie Quotes
Memorable Quotes
Vi är känslomässiga analfabeter.
— Johan
Context:
This is said during one of their many post-mortems on their relationship, as they try to understand what went wrong. It's a moment of devastating clarity, where the intellectual professor admits that all their knowledge and sophistication has left them completely unequipped for the complexities of love.
Meaning:
Translated as "We're emotional illiterates." This line is the thematic core of the film. It's Johan's diagnosis of their inability, and perhaps society's at large, to understand and articulate genuine feelings, despite being educated and articulate in every other aspect of life. It encapsulates their failure to communicate and connect on a truly intimate level.
Trygghet, ordning, trivsel, lojalitet.
— Johan
Context:
This is stated during the opening interview where Johan and Marianne are presented as an ideal couple. The reporter asks about their seemingly perfect marriage, and this sterile, business-like list is Johan's response, betraying the emotional emptiness at the heart of their relationship before any conflict has even begun.
Meaning:
Translated as "Security, order, contentment, loyalty." This is Johan's description of his marriage to the magazine reporter in the first scene. The quote is profoundly significant for what it omits: love, passion, and excitement. It reveals that from the very beginning, their marriage was built on a foundation of comfortable, bourgeois stability rather than deep emotional connection, setting the stage for its eventual collapse.
Ibland, när jag ligger här och du sover, får jag en känsla av att vi är två ensamma människor som gett varandra i uppdrag att gemensamt vaka över, försvara och vårda någonting som vi genast skulle förlora om vi släppte taget.
— Marianne
Context:
This is an internal thought from Marianne early in the film, revealing the undercurrent of anxiety and loneliness that exists even within the seemingly stable marriage. It's a moment of quiet introspection that foreshadows the fragility of their connection.
Meaning:
Translated as "Sometimes when I lie here and you're sleeping, I get a feeling that we are two lonely people who have been given the task of jointly watching over, defending, and caring for something that we would immediately lose if we let go." This quote beautifully captures the film's theme of interdependence and the fear of loneliness. It suggests that their bond is less about love and more about a shared, fearful duty to maintain a structure that protects them from the void of being alone.