Bergman Island (2021)'s activity

In Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve 2021's film, not the 2006 documentary), Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth are film makers doing a residency on Fårö Island, where Bergman shot many of his most famous films (and lived). Hansen-Løve uses Krieps' character Chris as a stand-in for herself in a kind of Russian doll situation. Chris is having trouble writing a script, but as she tells her partner what it is, we see a film within a film, in which HER stand-in is Amy, played by Mia Wasikowska, also a director visiting Fårö (though for a wedding). Problems relating to Amy's love life might then relate to problems in Chris', which in turn may or may not relate to what's happening in Hansen-Løve's (her own partner was Olivier Assayas, who may or may not be lampooned in Tim Roth's character). In Chris' case, is she risking playing out Scenes from a Marriage? Bergman's existential work haunts the film through its locations, of course, but never makes it so bleak. The first half is practically a travelogue, made interesting to me by the idea that Chris is always just a few steps behind, and feels like she's being abandoned even when she did the abandoning. Or perhaps Tim Roth's character is always a few steps ahead, giving her an autonomy she doesn't really want in the moment. A lot is left unsaid, and that ending isn't particularly satisfying even if it might act as a DOUBLE-ending (perhaps). Magically, we invest in the Amy story quite a lot despite it being an interlude, but the rest (an extended frame tale) is too subtle a character study to connect as strongly with the audience.