Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Bergman has never been an ordinary filmmaker, and what he's given us is no genial last hurrah but rather an intensely dramatic, at times lacerating examination of life's conundrums that is exhilarating in its fearlessness and its command.

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

Its leisurely, deliberative style is a perfect complement to the emotions it deals with - emotions so penetrating that I warn you at the outset how jarringly intense you may find Bergman's most brilliant drama in decades.

Film Threat by Phil Hall

One could literally milk a thesaurus in trying to find the right words to lavish on Saraband: brilliant, towering, majestic, challenging, remarkable.

Time by Richard Corliss

Saraband makes for a powerful and poignant final roar from the grand old man of cinema--the movies' lion king.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

Bergman's Saraband is sublime.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

If it's not an actual masterpiece, it's at least the next best thing, a fully characteristic, fully alive work by a master of his art.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

Powerfully, painfully honest.

Washington Post by Tim Page

It would be difficult to identify a single frame in Saraband that is not a distinguished composition in itself; Bergman has the eye of a latter-day Vermeer.

Portland Oregonian by Marc Mohan

A joy to watch.

Boston Globe by Ty Burr

Builds slowly and naturally to an unbearable personal crisis.

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

Ms. Ullmann, now 65, and Mr. Josephson, 81, have a supreme mastery of the Bergman style. Their performances are spiritual and emotional X-rays.

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

Anyone expecting a tender sunset elegy, however, has wandered into the wrong film. Saraband, despite a few wistful moments, is a poison pill of a reunion.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

A rare, unexpected treat.

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

Saraband doesn't ask to be considered prime-cut Bergman, and it isn't, although its slightness may not matter to the art-film starving class.

Variety

A bitter but finally moving story about lost love, hatred between generations and a curious kind of liberation, Saraband officially closes one of the most prestigious and influential careers in the history of cinema.

The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck

If ultimately the highly talky Saraband comes across as a minor entry in the canon, it nonetheless marks a dignified farewell for one of cinema's greatest directors.