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DISCOVER OUR PLACE ON EARTH THROUGH EXISTENTIAL CIRCUMSTANCES THAT PLAGUE EVERYDAY PEOPLE IN THE FILMS OF INGMAR BERGMAN.
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I NG M A R B E RG M A N S L I F E AND ARTISTIC VISION
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I NG M A R B E RG M A N S LIFE AND ARTISTIC VISION
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YO U NG E R Y E A R S Ernst Ingmar Bergman, born on the 14th of July, 1918 in Uppsala, died on the 30th of July, 2007 on Fårö, was a Swedish film and theatre director, writer, theatre manager, dramatist and author. Ingmar Bergman wrote or directed more than 60 films and 170 theatrical productions, and authored over a hundred books and articles. Among his bestknown works are the films The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and Persona, as well as his autobiography The Magic Lantern.
WORLD-FAMOUS FILMMAKER, LEGENDARY DIRECTOR Throughout Bergman’s many works, one finds variations on a central theme: dysfunctional families, blood-sucking failed artists and an absent Almighty all become manifestations of our collective inability to communicate with each other. Shakespeare, Molière, Ibsen, and Strindberg were all enormously important influences on Bergman, not only in his theatrical work, but indeed the entirety of his artistic career. Bergman’s films are set almost exclusively in Sweden, and starting with 1961’s Through a Glass Darkly, they were filmed primarily on the small island of Fårö, northeast of Gotland. The international reception of Bergman’s films reflects a not inconsiderable fascination with a Scandinavian exoticism: inscrutable language, primeval nature and flaxen-haired women. The depiction of nudity and a “natural” sexuality in Bergman’s films contributed to their success. Looking over Bergman’s career, another hallmark of both his work for stage and film is the recurrent company of loyal collaborators. Some notable examples from this ensemble include the cinematographer Sven Nykvist, the actors Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson, and the costume designer Mago.
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F I L M M A K E R , T H E AT R E DI R E C T O R A N D AU T H O R .
Bergman once remarked that death is “a very, very wise arrangement”—it offers a bookend to our lives, which we can infuse with meaning through love. There is suffering in the world, and we must try to comprehend it, even in its senselessness, but above all we must seek to mitigate it with mercy and generosity. Bergman would like us to remember Agnes’s diary entry: “I have received the best gift anyone could have in this life. The gift has many names: affinity, fellowship, human contact, affection. I believe this is what is called grace”.
BERGMANS OWN UNIQUE ARTISTIC VISION The history of the cinema has seen directors whose works have been more “original” or “groundbreaking” (such as Eisenstein, Ozu or Godard). And there are plenty of directors who have made as many, if not more films (Griffith, Hitchcock or Chabrol). Yet the question remains: is there anyone who so epitomises the concept of the auteur —a filmmaker with full control over his medium, whose work has a clear and inimitable signature—as Ingmar Bergman? One of the reasons one immediately recognises a Bergman film is that he is one of those rare filmmakers who has created his own cinematic world. (This is also the reason that we have a section on this website under the heading Universe.) Through recurring environments, themes, characters, stylistic devices, actors and film crews, Bergman has created his own kind of film, almost a genre in itself. If Alfred Hitchcock is the epitome of the psychological thriller (despite the fact that he also made films in other genres), Bergman has become the hallmark for the existential/philosophical relationship drama (although he, too, has made other kinds of films).
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Bergman’s enormous contribution to the arts– besides the many works he wrote and directed for the cinema and television, he consistently maintained a hugely successful and influential parallel career in the theatre—is considerably more varied than any miserabilist caricature might suggest. Furthermore, for all its iconic notoriety, The Seventh Seal is atypical; though Bergman did set a handful of his stories in the past, most of his films had contemporary settings, and he generally steered well clear of allegory. Indeed, though it has its good points, Bergman’s best known film is far from his best film, and those unfamiliar with his work who would like to find out what the fuss is all about would do well to begin by exploring elsewhere.
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While it would be absurd and misleading to downplay Bergman’s interest in the more painful and problematic aspects of everyday existence (at least as it is experienced by those for the most part unaffected by economic hardship in the affluent West), it is important to emphasise the fact that his films are not in themselves ‘depressing’. True, many of them deal with characters undergoing some kind of crisis, and do so in a way which is often remarkable for its unflinching honesty. (Few if any filmmakers have been so adept at depicting the subtle but savage acts of verbal and mental cruelty humans can inflict on one another.) Yet Bergman’s cinematic and dramaturgical skill is such that one is often utterly engrossed in a film from beginning to end, and emerges from it invigorated by his artistry, exhilarated by his audacity, and strangely heartened by his keen, compassionate understanding of what it means to be alive.
CHARACTERS ARE FACED WITH AN EXISTENTIAL CIRCUMSTANCE THAT FACES THEM TO CONSIDER WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ALIVE AND WHAT COMES AFTER.
Of course, over a career that spanned more than half a century, Bergman’s achievements were uneven, and certainly his earliest films as a director feel like apprentice works compared to the extraordinary achievements of the late 50s and thereafter. Nevertheless, those immature works reveal a rapidly developing talent of no little intelligence, ambition or promise. Even the first of his scripts made into a film–Torment (1944), directed by Alf Sjöberg —is notable for its astute grasp of the dark, sadomasochistic undercurrents that may shape human relationships. As for his own directorial efforts, after a number of films displaying the influence of Italian neorealism, around the start of the 1950s he began to reveal his own distinctive sensibility with impressive works like Thirst (1950), Summer Interlude (1951), Summer with Monika (1953) and Journey Into Autumn (1955).
“ H E R E , AT L A S T, WA S A F I L M M A K E R W H O S E R E A DI N E S S T O C O N F RO N T T H E B I G Q U E S T I O N S M A DE H I M T H E E Q UA L O F T H O S E T OW E R I NG F I G U R E S WO R K I NG I N O T H E R , M O R E W I DE LY R E S P E C T E D A R T F O R M S NOV E L I S T S , P O E T S A N D P L AY WR I G H T S , C O M P O S E R S , PA I N T E R S A N D S C U L P T O R S . ”
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THE MYTH, THE MAN Bergman may have been reflecting on his own inability to change because 1957 was a year of wild affairs, during which he met Käbi Laretei and Ingrid von Rosen, who would go on to become his fourth and fifth wives. During the making of The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, he was also enjoying an intense affair with 22-year-old Bibi Andersson, the lead actor in both films. At the time, his marriage to the journalist and linguist Gun Grut was starting to unravel.
R E L AT I O N S H I P S Bergman may have been reflecting on his own inability to change because 1957 was a year of wild affairs, during which he met Käbi Laretei and Ingrid von Rosen, who would go on to become his fourth and fifth wives. During the making of The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, he was also enjoying an intense affair with 22-year-old Bibi Andersson, the lead actor in both films. At the time, his marriage to the journalist and linguist Gun Grut was starting to unravel. His personal relationships with women seem at odds with his respect for them on screen. “Some people who watch my films say, ‘what a horrible sexist, how could you make a film about someone so unfaithful and abusive to women?’” Magnusson says. “This certainly is a valid point when you consider Bergman’s private life. And it is truly strange that he, at the same time, gave his actors such amazing roles. In films like Persona, The Silence, Cries and Whispers and Autumn Sonata we have two female leads, sometimes more. In this aspect Bergman is ahead of his time, even today. He was born in 1918—maybe his attitude to women in his personal life reflects his generation.”
“I WANTED TO BECOME A GOOD DIRECTOR BECAUSE AS A HUMAN BEING I WAS A FAILURE. IN THE STUDIO AND THE THEATRE, I COULD LIVE HAPPILY. I STILL FEEL THAT WAY.” —I N GM A R B E RGM A N
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FILMS ARTISTIC VISION
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FILM PERIODS 1 9 4 4 - 1 952
WO R K I NG C L A S S A N D YO U NG L OV E R S 1944 Torment
1946 Crisis
1946 It Rains on Our Love
1947 Woman Without a Face
1947 A Ship Bound for India
1948 Music in Darkness
1948 Port of Call
1948 Eva
1949
1952-1955
Prison
M A R R I AG E A N D WO M A N
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1953
Thirst
Summer with Monika
1950
1953
To Joy
Sawdust and Tinsel
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1954
This Can’t Happen Here
A Lesson in Love
1950
1955
While the City Sleeps
Dreams
1951 Summer Interlude
1951 Divorced
1956-1964
1952
M ETAPHYS ICS AN D MAN
Secrets of Women
1956 Last Pair Out
1957 The Seventh Seal
1957 Wild Strawberries
1958 Brink of Life
1958 So Close to Life
1958 The Magician
1960 The Virgin Spring
1960 The Devil’s Eye
1961 Through a Glass Darkly
1961 The Pleasure Garden
1963 Winter Light
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1966-1981
T H E RO L E O F T H E A RT I S T A N D WO M A N 1966 Persona
1967 Stimulantia
1968 Hour of the Wolf
1968 Shame
1969 The Rite
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1969 The Passion of Anna
1970 The Lie
1971
DI R E C T E D F I L M S
The Touch
1972 Cries and Whispers
1972 Scenes from a Marriage
1975 The Magic Flute
1976 Face to Face
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1977 The Serpent’s Egg
1978 Autumn Sonata
1980 From the Life of the Marionettes
198 2- 20 0 3
E P I L O G U E A N D AU T O B I O G R A P H Y 1982 Fanny and Alexander
1984 After the Rehearsal
1985 The Blessed Ones
1986 The Best Intentions
1992 Sunday’s Children
1987 Private Confessions
1988 In the Presence of a Clown
2000 Faithless
2000 The Picturemakers
2003 Saraband
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A knight, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), and his squire Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand) return disillusioned from the Crusades to the hysteria of plague-infested fourteenth-century Sweden. On the shore Block encounters Death and, in one of the most effective reverse-angle exchanges ever filmed, challenges him to a game of chess, playing for time to perform one significant act in life.
Production country: Sweden
What is timeless about this existential passion play is the humanity of its characters, who seem to shun allegory like a kind of narrative death: Block, whom the Crusades took away from the real-the only proof of God—to the abstract, and torment; Jöns, cynical sensualist who articulates the void; Death himself, a picture of inconclusiveness; and the dreamer Jof and his wild-strawberry wife (Bibi Andersson), actors traveling into light.
Sweden (1956-07-02-1956-08-24)
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Distributor: Swedish Film Institute Laboratory: FilmTeknik AB Production company: Svensk Filmindustri Original work: Wood Painting by Ingmar Bergman
L O C AT I O N Filmstaden, Råsunda Hovs hallar, Torekov, Båstad Östanå in Roslags-Kulla, Österåker Viby by, Sigtuna Skeviks grotta in Gustavsberg, Värmdö Skytteholm, Ekerö
MUSIC Title: Hållas mellan rona Composer: Erik Nordgren (1957) Lyrics: Ingmar Bergman (1957) Singer: Gunnar Björnstrand Title: Det sitter en duva Composer: Erik Nordgren (1957) Lyrics: Ingmar Bergman (1957) Singer: Nils Poppe
EPILOGUE Shooting came to an end on 24 August 1956. The job of editing was given to Lennart Wallén, in Bergman’s eyes, a safe pair of hands. Wallén edited four of his films in total, though none of them with such reverence as The Seventh Seal. Despite its low budget, The Seventh Seal had turned into something of a prestige project for SF, where 50th anniversary celebrations were set to coincide with its premiere. Bergman has painful recollections of the event.
Title: Ödet är en rackare Composer: Erik Nordgren (1957) Lyrics: Ingmar Bergman (1957) Singer: Gunnar Björnstrand Title: Hästen sitter i trädet Composer: Erik Nordgren (1957) Lyrics: Ingmar Bergman (1957) Singer: Nils Poppe, Bibi Andersson Title: Dies iræ, dies illa Lyrics: Tomas of Celano (Latin lyrics) Severin Cavallin Arrangement: Johan Bergman (Swedish lyrics arrangement 1920) Natanael Beskow (Swedish lyrics arrangement 1920)
At Svensk Filmindustri, The Seventh Seal suddenly became part of the pomp and circumstance of an anniversary celebration focusing on the golden age of Swedish film. This was a catastrophe for the film; it was not made for such activities. The gala première held a murderous atmosphere for a serious art film complete with a society audience, a flourish of trumpets, and a speech by Carl Anders Dymling. It was devestating. I did what I could to stop the onslaught but ultimately was powerless. Their boredom and their malice poured relentlessly over everything.
PLAGUE RAVAGES THE LAND AS A KNIGHT ON A SPIRITUAL QUEST PLAYS CHESS WITH DEATH.
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Through a Glass Darkly is the first in a triogy that includes Winter Light and The Silence. The search for God, which is complicated by and confused with lust and madness, is the central theme of this trilogy. Karin (Harriet Andersson), daughter, wife, and recently released mental patient, convalesces at her family’s seaside summer cabin, where the men in her life have hardly a clue what emotional sustenance the confused and delusional woman might require.
Production country: Sweden
Her father (Gunnar Björnstrand) and husband (Max von Sydow), both cold, self-absorbed intellectuals, distance themselves from the recovery process while Karin increasingly fixates on her vulnerable and sexually susceptible younger brother. That Karin is to be consumed in the search for God is the film’s ever-controversial premise, made all the more provocative by the implied eternal detachment of Bergman’s (significantly male) God.
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Distributor in Sweden (35 mm): Swedish Film Institute Production company: Svensk Filmindustri Original work: Wood Painting by Ingmar Bergman
L O C AT I O N Sweden Filmstaden, Råsunda Fårö
QUOTES “You’re hunting for themes. Your own daughter’s mental illness. What a great bloody idea!” “You’re empty but capable. And now you’re trying to fill your void with Karin’s extinction. But how will God fit into that? It must make him more inscrutable than ever!” “I don’t know whether love is proof of God’s existence, or if love is God.” “For you, love and God are the same?”
EPILOGUE The ending of the film has been criticised as being unconvincing in its attempt to provide hope and reconcile Minus and David. David’s words do come across as being a bit forced. Bjornstrand is very solemn in his simple explanations, and this is easy to mock. There is a camera pan towards his face that emphasises the solemnity of the occasion. Bergman himself is said to regret the ending, that it makes the film belong to the decade of the 50’s rather than the 60’s. Yet, despite all this, the message is still beautiful in its own way, even though it is simplistic. It is this new found love in his heart that will enable David to go on living. And it is a fantastic thing that Minus can share in the authenticity of it and have his own obliterated hope renewed. Unfortunately the final words spoken in the film (from Minus) are: ‘Papa talked to me.’ So much better if we were just left with no words, just that boyish enlightened face!
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P L O T S U M M A RY Cries and Whispers depicts the final day ofAgnes (Harriet Andersson), who lies in bed with cancer. Her most dear ones, her sisters, Maria (Liv Ullmann) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin), and a companion, Anna (Kari Sylwan) watch over her. In a film as formal as a clock’s tick, Bergman restricts his palette to colors of blood, his close-ups to the image of the soul. The four women want strength to face life, to overcome fear, to remove the curtain from behind which they look and admire, but do not go forth to touch. They are the same person in different stages of realizing that to love is to empty oneself of desire; to forgive oneself; to hear fully the cry of the present through the searing whispers from the past; to imagine a love that gives without knowing how to heal or provide rest, yet is vast and vigilant, because that is life’s meaning: to be saved by giving one’s body and soul.
EPILOGUE Cries and Whispers was screened outside the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973, and Bergman gave his first ever press conference outside Scandinavia. It was a polite affair in which he fielded questions such as which part of himself he devoted to the theatre, and which part to films. ‘I’m a complete person’, was his response. The film’s US distributor was, oddly enough, Roger Corman, the legendary and prolific producer of B- and horror movies. But it was a fortunate move for both parties, since the film was such an amazing success. The money invested by Bergman, his colleagues and the Swedish Film Institute’s reaped major dividends. A few years later Bergman was asked just how much money he had earned from Cries and Whispers, but he was unable to be precise. ‘All I know is that it was like playing a one-armed bandit. You put a coin in the slot, the wheels started spinning, and suddenly three oranges lined up in front of you. Money just gushed out of the machine...
P RO D U C T I O N Production country: Sweden Swedish distributor: Svenska Filminstitutet Laboratory: FilmTeknik AB Production company: Cinematograph AB Release date: 1972-12-21, Cinema, New York, USA
L O C AT I O N Sweden Filmstaden, Råsunda Fårö
QUOTES “I don’t know whether love is proof of God’s existence, or if love is God.” “For you, love and God are the same?” “Can you hold my hands and warm me? Stay with me until the horror is past. It’s empty all around me.”
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Wild Strawberries unites two strands in Bergman’s work: here, the examination of male vanity finds its apex, and the protagonist is introduced to a rather severe comeuppance in the face of death. Bergman does it with mirrors, and with dreams, which are the mind’s mirror. Interestingly, the film’s Dali/Kafkaesque dream sequences have proved less memorable than the scenes in which natural settings are brilliantly transformed into dreamscapes by virtue of their flashback context.
Production country: Sweden
Honoring his debt to the early Swedish cinema and the oneiric quality of its nature cinematography, Bergman cast the great silent film director and actor Victor Sjöström as the aging pedant, Isak Borg, who dreams his own death, revisits his youth as a spectator, and learns amid the forgiving wild strawberries (symbolic in Sweden of a favorite spot or sanctuary) that he had always denied desire.
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Swedish distributor: Svensk Filmindustri Swedish distributor: Svenska Filminstitutet Laboratory: FilmTeknik AB Production company: Svensk Filmindustri Aspect ratio: 1,37:1 Colour system: Black and white Sound system: Optical mono Original length (minutes): 91 Censorship: 091.290 Date: 1957-12-16 Age limit: 15 years and over Length: 2490 metres
L O C AT I O N Filmstaden, Råsunda, Stockholm. Gyllene Uttern near by Gränna. Slussen, Stockholm. Dalarö in the Stockholm archipelago. Universitetsplatsen, Lund.
PROFESSOR ISAK BORG RE-EVALUATES HIS LIFE DURING A ROAD-TRIP BETWEEN STOCKHOLM AND LUND.
EPILOGUE Filming came to an end on 27 August 1957, and the technical work started almost immediately. Oscar Rosander was the principal editor. The film was premiered in seven Swedish cities on 26 December 1957. The reviews were keenly enthusiastic, with one or two exceptions. Wild Strawberries remains Bergman’s most successful film in terms of the number of awards it has received, and it firmly established Bergman’s reputation as a filmmaker on the international stage.
S O U RC E S O F I N S P I R AT I O N Of all Bergman’s works, Wild Strawberries is one of the most widely imitated and referred to (see below). It is also one of only a few films in which Bergman’s own sources of inspiration and creative borrowings are most clearly discernible. The influences of August Strindberg–widespread in Bergman—are immediately apparent. Strindberg’s introduction to A Dream Play (which is later quoted openly in Fanny and Alexander) might also appear to be the credo of Wild Strawberries: “Time and space do not exist. Upon an insignificant background of real life events, the imagination spins and weaves new patterns; a blend of memories, experiences, pure inventions, absurdities and improvisations.” Of all Bergman’s works, Wild Strawberries is one of the most widely imitated and referred to (see below). It is also one of only a few films in which Bergman’s own sources of inspiration and creative borrowings are most clearly discernible. The influences of August Strindberg–widespread in Bergman—are immediately apparent. Strindberg’s introduction to A Dream Play (which is later quoted openly in Fanny and Alexander) might also appear to be the credo of Wild Strawberries:
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I NG M A R B E RG M A N F I L M F E S T I VA L Few artists have created their universe through the use of recurrent themes, with such clear and inimitable signature, as Ingmar Bergman. Whether it is the medieval knight on a final quest before death or the marital struggles of a couple supposedly marred by infidelity, the broader search for what life is really about plays out over and over again. The festival will highlight the hallmarks of Ingmar Bergman films. Philosophical dramas in which the characters are faced with existential circumstances that force them to consider what it means to be alive and what comes after.
THE FESTIVAL FEATURES BERGMANS WELL KNOWN WORKS, FILM VIEWINGS AND GUEST SPEAKERS.
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19°08’32.9”E 57°56’39.1”N GOTLAND The location of the festival shows homage to Bergman’s home on the Swedish idyllic summer island Fårö. Fårö is a small, 113 km-square island in the Baltic Sea, linked by ferry to its larger neighbour, Gotland. Its landscape is distinctive: the entire island is made up of limestone rock, with areas of agricultural land interspersed with areas of scrubland.
WHEN BERGMAN FIRST CAME TO THE ISLAND HE FELT HE HAD FOUND HIS REAL HOME. Before his arrival on Fårö, Ingmar Bergman was somewhat sceptical. Looking for a location to shoot Through a Glass Darkly, he had decided that the Orkney Islands might be suitable. His production team dismissed his idea as too expensive, suggesting that Bergman ought at least to take a look at Fårö, a place he had never previously visited. His encounter with the island was life-changing. “If one wished to be solemn, it could be said that I had found my landscape, my real home; if one wished to be funny, one could talk about love at first sight.” Including Through a Glass Darkly, Bergman was to shoot six films and one television series on Fårö. The first was intuitive. This is your landscape, Bergman. It corresponds to your innermost imaginings of forms, proportions, colors, horizons, sounds, silences, lights and reflections. Security is here. Don’t ask why. Explanations are clumsy rationalizations with hindsight. In, for instance, your profession you look for simplification, proportion, exertion, relaxation, breathing. The Fårö landscape gives you a wealth of all that. Bergman also made two documentary films about the island and its inhabitants: Fårö Document and Fårö Document 1979. When filming Persona he discovered an area of land that he subsequently purchased and built a house on. He stayed there as often as his Stockholm duties would allow until 2003, when he sold his apartment in Stockholm and moved permanently to Fårö. He has very seldom left the island ever since. In the early 1970s Bergman almost realised his plans to build his own film production centre on Fårö, but those plans were thwarted by the highly-publicised trouble he had with the tax authorities which forced him into exile. He did, however, build a fully functional studio there, where Scenes from a Marriage was filmed.
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W E DN E S DAY Festival Presentation // 10.00-10.45 Ingmar Bergman // presentation 10.45-11.30 Liv Ullmann // guest speaker 11.45-12.30 Persona // presentation + viewing 12.45-14.00
T H U R S DAY Through a Glass Darkly // presentation + viewing 11.00-11.45 Kristina Adolphson // guest speaker 12.45-13.30 Cries and Whisperer // presentation + viewing 13.45-15.00
F R I DAY Lasse Hallström // Guest Speaker 12.45-13.30 Wild Strawberries // Presentation + viewing 13.45-15
SAT U R DAY The Seventh Seal // Presentation + viewing 10.00-11.45 Lena Endre // Bergman Monologues 12.45-13.30 Cries and Whisperer // presentation + viewing 13.30-15.00
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S U N DAY Scenes from a Marriage // presentation + viewing 10.00-11.45 Inga Landgré // Bergman Anecdotes 12.45-13.30 Persona // presentation + viewing 13.30-15.00
M O N DAY Fanny and Alexander // presentation + viewing 10.00-11.45 Ingmar Bergman // Unpublished Dreams 12.45-13.30 The Magic Lantern // presentation + viewing 13.30-15.00
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“ NO FORM OF ART GOES BEYOND
ORDINARY CONSCIOUSNESS AS FILM DOES, STRAIGHT TO OUR EMOTIONS, DEEP INTO THE TWILIGHT ROOM OF THE SOUL. ” —I N GM A R B E RGM A N