Erland Josephson did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Alexander in The Sacrifice.
The Sacrifice in some ways is Tarkovsky's version of a Ingmar Bergman film, as we have a self-reflective character facing a crisis of faith. One obvious feature of connection is within the use of Erland Josephson, a common Bergman actor, utilized here as our main character that we follow through his unusual journey. The film begins seemingly simply enough as we find Alexander playing with his young son affectionately known as "Little man" and pondering some tale. Josephson's performance is as a seemingly largely content man in this state of being as he ponders as he does and as he interacts with his son. There is a bit of joy, but also just a relaxed quality. The man seems concerned with greater matters in what he speaks of; however Josephson's delivery even of these words isn't of immense concern rather very much this observational quality. Eventually this is interrupted by the arrival of their neighbor and mailman Otto, who gives Alexander a birthday card from friends and their conversation continues though with Otto mostly taking the lead. Again Josephson's performance is a man going through the motions of this interaction, not really in a negative way of a man weighed down by the conversation but rather just a man who exists within certain confines of living, a living that doesn't seem to break beyond a certain point. For example when asking about Alexander's relationship with God, which he replies is non-existent, isn't spoken as either a pained truth or a purposeful dismissal, just as a fact of the man's existence no more no less. The only example where we see kind of a break from that observational quality is with the little man, when he lassos the mailman's bike that causes Otto to fall in good nature. Josephson's reaction is very much the loving father which portrays a stronger connection in that moment, which is a bit different from the rest of the interaction where we see the man just observing as he does. This continues as he gathers with his wife, his step-daughter, his maid, his doctor and Otto in their house where conversations continue on various subjects, including Otto's fascination seeming with the otherworldly, and even the background of Alexander as an actor who became a critic. When speaking even of his own past, Josephson's delivery is somewhat passive, there is a history there but a history of seeming the man having a natural calm within his existence despite this purposeful choice of the past to separate himself from a craft he once cared about. Josephson's performance maintains that of the observer, even though this is the man's life that speaks of, it is in his house that Otto seems to have a minor breakdown, yet Alexander remains as he is without concern.
The strength of Josephson's performance in the early scenes is that Alexander doesn't become lost within the frame, or the other characters, despite being observational for so long. Josephson, just as he did in his earlier collaboration with Tarkovsky, manages to pull you into his work even as he supports the overall vision wholly naturally. Here Josephson carefully expresses the needed sense of history within his observing expressions, there is much the man has thought about and even his physical manner exists as someone who purposefully detaches, to the point almost seeming like a ghost in his own house. The film makes its first brilliant twist when jets are heard from above and much of the household are horrified to hear an announcement of potentially World War III starting. Something that Alexander even doesn't initially react to as strongly as others, even coming into the broadcast late, leaving the doctor to drug his hysterical wife and others as they panic over their seeming impending doom. Josephson at first still being the observer for some time till he is left with his own thoughts. During this time Josephson's performance so quietly yet potently shows the sense of building understanding and despair in the man seemingly haunted by this horror explicitly. Leading to Alexander's first act as he prays to God offering a prayer to end the horror of their situation though with an offer that he will sacrifice all that he loves if God makes the horror end. Josephson is extraordinary in this scene as he breaks that observational distance and becomes completely alive in the scene. Josephson in his deteriorating expression reveals so much pain, sorrow and existential dread, combined with in his voice this wavering hope as he speaks his prayer. There is so much power to every word, and his decaying state of emotional distance is lost and we see someone completely in contact with the idea of this horror. Josephson finds within all of this quiet yet incredibly powerful conviction as he offers his sacrifice of everything he loves, as a promise of sacrifice as a fundamental truth. It is an extraordinary scene made so by Josephson's performance that embodies this all with such tangible emotional might that is devastating to behold.
The next twist in the situation comes from Otto who suggests Alexander seek out their neighbor Maria, who he claims is a witch and that she is in some way the key to escape. Leaving Maria's with a pistol and an unknowable intention. Something that comes out within Josephson's performance that grafts onto this bizarre situation an honesty by projecting this quiet fearfulness and more so this lost quality as he seems to be seeking something from Maria, but he really doesn't know. We have yet another tremendous monologue from Josephson as he describes a "gift" he brought to his mother's garden, where he articulates with such a quiet sense of nostalgia that mixes in this sense of the past though with the uncertainty of the future. As he continues speaking of the garden though he notes how by "fixing" his mother's garden by ordering it, it removed any of the beauty from the garden. Josephson's way of losing that nostalgia and bringing out instead such painful regret filled with such a sense of what he sees as a mistake and almost a grievous act against his mother. He exudes such quiet heartbreak that is so powerful because in his delivery and his expression he builds towards such a building state of being a man utterly lost within his current dismay. Something that progresses to taking out the pistol, a moment without conviction rather Josephson plays the moment as though he has no awareness of what he is doing with it, or what he is doing here, just the potent sense of a man completely lost at this time. Something that is only broken as Maria embraces him and comforts him to the point of becoming sexual with him, a scene that only gets stranger as it proceeds because it appears as though Otto's mythical depiction of her holds more than a little credence. Something that Josephson grounds by presenting just a man completely lost in this moment, lost in this time, and lost in himself as he goes along with Maria though in a near catatonic state. Eventually Alexander awakens and the world seems to have not ended and peace to whatever extent it is has come back. Which some might take as a false alarm, but a man who had said his prayer in the way Alexander has, leaves him to go through with his sacrifice to atone. The final act of the film, Josephson doesn't really have lines and is seen largely at a distance. Yet Josephson is always captivating as we follow Alexander as he evades his family in order to set-up burning down his house with everything in it. His sneaking around is played with almost a childlike manner of not fully mischievousness yet there is a glint of it, as Josephson seems to portray some arrested state as he progresses around in his plan with a curious conviction. It isn't the emotional man speaking of his love, now it is filling some bargain with a logic only he could fully understand in the moment. When his family finally "catches" him, his reaction is of a man completely lost, though now in a new way as he reacts unintelligibly emotionally, if not even randomly, yet in Josephson's performance you do believe in this break, of the strange yet tangible journey we've seen him progress through. Josephson delivers an idiosyncratic yet tremendous performance. One that is about a few key moments verbalization combined with remarkable silences, to successfully explores a mental state that seems wholly unique, yet never feels less than universal in an emotional sense.
