Marriages are overrated, and somehow the vast majority of humanity is interested in committing to such for life.
About 50 years ago, the legendary filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman, created an iconic drama series ("Pictures from a Marriage Life") - which was broadcast on Swedish television and tried to challenge the sacred institution in prime time, when it disintegrated a relationship in which the man leaves the house in favor of a young woman.
Television, from its place as the tribal bonfire, tends to adhere to conservatism and thus also sanctifies the institution of marriage and family values since time immemorial;
Whether it is through reality shows and matchmaking or through silly sitcoms, which will instill in us the convention that singleness equals eternal loneliness, whereas marriage equals happiness and completion.
But in truth, and this is less likely to be told, marriage is a piece of bag with chores and duties, an endless bride after, and a tight schedule that will make it difficult to comfortably end up watching a five-episode series on marriage.
Yesterday (Monday), HBO's remake of Bergman's classic came to Israel.
The series was created by the Israeli Hagai Levy ("In Treatment", "The Novel", "The Boys"), who in order to update it to the present day turned the genders in the original story.
In the updated "Pictures from a Marriage Life" the man is the dependent, while the woman is the treacherous and unbearable, who leaves the house in favor of an affair with a young Israeli guy (Michael Aloni, but who).
In the generations to come, classical marriage will be another way of life for many kinds.
Polyamory, enabling relationships, shared parenting and a host of new forms will continue to gain popularity;
"Pictures" touches on some of them and examines whether they can be a substitute for a traditional marriage, with a social reality hovering in the background that forces us to achieve more than anything else - a career, property or spouses.
The original series was considered groundbreaking, in part because it touched on what was almost taboo on screen - bad marriages.
Today it is normal to get divorced, so Levy was unable to achieve the same effect from his work - which, in the end, behind art, nudity and deep dialogues, is another series about divorce.
No one asks anymore why couples separate, but rather what keeps people inside a married life, when outside all the possibilities are open to them.
Pictures from married life (mini-series), yes, HOT and Cellcom
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