A moving tale of love, obsession and rejection, After the Rehearsal is perhaps Bergman′s most self-referential work. Directed during the latter part of his career the film is, on the surface, a simple tale. However as is typical of Bergman the real truth lies buried under a web of complex emotions.
The film tells the tale of a rational, exacting and self-controlled theatre director who wakes from reminiscing about a former lover to find that her daughter is in his theatre. Jolted into a rare emotional response, the feelings of the director are exposed as he explains in a painful confessional that any relationship he and she may have is doomed to fail.
