i have hear a lot of thing about this film it generally get low review and be describe a unbergmanesque and and the fact that it so difficult to find led me have very low expectation for the film . i expect something between the atypical bergman plot of the serpent egg and the disturb social violence of from the life of the marionette . i finally track down a copy and poor in quality and and expect mediocrity at best when i put it in . after have just finish watch it and i can say i be very pleasantly surprise with the film . a lot of the thing say about it be just plain false the plot be very much in keep with bergman other material . a married woman and karin ( anderson ) and fall in love with a disturbed architect and david ( gould ) and and the two begin an emotionally confused love affair . karin be catch between her happy bourgeois life with her husband ( sydow ) and child and and her passionate and unconventional relationship with david . act in bad faith and karen refuse to choose between her two life and though both david and her husband eventually push the decision on her . like most bergman film and it a psychological roller coaster and a bleak portrayal of the coarseness of human relationship . bibi anderson do a wonderful job in a very difficult role and and max von sydow play the part of the honest and good intentioned husband very well and play hard on the viewer sympathy . the stiff performance of gould echo that of carradine in the serpent egg and so it must unfortunately be attribute to bergman struggle with direct in english and not on gould himself . if i recall and the film be make in both swedish and english and both version film at once and which pose obvious production difficulty which might account from the some time mechanical treatment of the script . the film have an excellent pace to it and and move very swiftly and smoothly and wonderfully shoot by nykvist in a way very similar to the passion of anna . unlike a lot of bergman depress work in the 1970s and i felt good about the film when it be over . i do not know why this film have such a poor reputation i be very much baffle after have see it . my guess be the obvious mistake of have make it in english account for most of this . it seem a lot like bergman other work in this period . very good .