Ingmar Bergman

Ernst Ingmar Bergman (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɪŋmar ˈbærjman] ; 14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera," he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and influential film directors of all time.

He directed over sixty films and documentaries for cinematic release and for television, most of which he also wrote. He also directed over one hundred and seventy plays. Among his company of actors were Harriet Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in the landscape of Sweden. His work often dealt with death, illness, faith, betrayal, bleakness and insanity.

Early life

Spouses

• Else Fisher
  (m. 1943; div. 1945)
• Ellen Lundström
  (m. 1945; div. 1950)
• Gun Grut
  (m. 1951; div. 1959)
• Käbi Laretei
  (m. 1959; div. 1969)
• Ingrid von Rosen
  (m. 1971; died 1995)

9 Children

• Linn Ullmann
• Eva Bergman
• Mats Bergman
• Anna Bergman
• Daniel Bergman

Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, the son of Erik Bergman, a Lutheran minister and later chaplain to the King of Sweden, and Karin (Åkerblom), a nurse who had Walloon ancestors. He grew up with his older brother Dag and sister Margareta surrounded by religious imagery and discussion. His father was a conservative parish minister with strict parenting concepts. Ingmar was locked up in dark closets for "infractions" like wetting the bed. "While father preached away in the pulpit and the congregation prayed, sang, or listened", Ingmar wrote in his autobiography Laterna Magica:

"I devoted my interest to the church’s mysterious world of low arches, thick walls, the smell of eternity, the colored sunlight quivering above the strangest vegetation of medieval paintings and carved figures on ceilings and walls. There was everything that one’s imagination could desire — angels, saints, dragons, prophets, devils, humans."

Although raised in a devout Lutheran household, Bergman later stated that he lost his faith at age eight, and only came to terms with this fact while making Winter Light. Bergman's interest in theatre and film began early: "At the age of 9, he traded a set of tin soldiers for a magic lantern, a possession that altered the course of his life. Within a year, he had created, by playing with this toy, a private world in which he felt completely at home, he recalled. He fashioned his own scenery, marionettes, and lighting effects and gave puppet productions of Strindberg plays in which he spoke all the parts."

In 1934, aged 16, he was sent to Germany to spend the summer vacation with family friends. He attended a Nazi rally in Weimar at which he saw Adolf Hitler. He later wrote in Laterna Magica (The Magic Lantern) about the visit to Germany, describing how the German family had put a portrait of Adolf Hitler on the wall by his bed, and that "for many years, I was on Hitler's side, delighted by his success and saddened by his defeats". Bergman did two five-month stretches of mandatory military service.

In 1937, he entered Stockholm University College (later renamed Stockholm University), to study art and literature. He spent most of his time involved in student theatre and became a "genuine movie addict". At the same time, a romantic involvement led to a break with his father that lasted for years. Although he did not graduate, he wrote a number of plays, as well as an opera, and became an assistant director at a theater. In 1942, he was given the chance to direct one of his own scripts, Caspar's Death. The play was seen by members of Svensk Filmindustri, which then offered Bergman a position working on scripts. In 1943, he married Else Fisher.

Career

Film work

Bergman's film career began in 1941 with his rewriting of scripts, but his first major accomplishment was in 1944 when he wrote the screenplay for Torment/Frenzy (Hets), a film directed by Alf Sjöberg. Along with writing the screenplay, he was also given position as assistant director to the film. In his second autobiographical work, Images: My Life in Film, Bergman describes the filming of the exteriors as his actual film directorial debut. The international success of this film led to Bergman's first opportunity to direct a year later. During the next ten years, he wrote and directed more than a dozen films including The Devil's Wanton/Prison (Fängelse) in 1949 and The Naked Night/Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas afton) and Summer with Monika (Sommaren med Monika), both from 1953.

Bergman first achieved worldwide success with Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) (1955), which won for "Best poetic humor" and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes the following year. This was followed by The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet) and Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället), released in Sweden ten months apart in 1957. The Seventh Seal won a special jury prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes and Wild Strawberries won numerous awards for Bergman and its star, Victor Sjöström. Bergman continued to be productive for the next two decades. From the early 1960s, he spent much of his life on the Swedish island of Fårö, where he made several films.

In the early 1960s he directed three films that explored the theme of faith and doubt in God, Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en Spegel – 1961), Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna – 1962), and The Silence (Tystnaden – 1963). Critics created the notion that the common themes in these three films represented trilogy or cinematic triptych. Bergman initially responded that he did not plan these three films as a trilogy and that he could not see any common motifs in them, but he later seemed to have adopted the notion, with some equivocation. In 1964 he made a parody of Fellini with All These Women (För att inte tala om alla dessa kvinnor).

In 1966, he directed Persona, a film that he himself considered one of his most important works. While the shockingly experimental film won few awards many consider it his masterpiece. Other notable films of the period include The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan – 1960), Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen – 1968), Shame (Skammen – 1968) and A Passion/The Passion of Anna (En Passion – 1969). Bergman also produced extensively for Swedish television at this time. Two works of note were Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap – 1973) and The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten – 1975).

After his arrest in 1976 for tax evasion, Bergman swore he would never again make films in Sweden. He shut down his film studio on the island of Fårö and went into self-imposed exile. He briefly considered the possibility of working in America and his next film, The Serpent's Egg (1977) was a German-U.S. production and his second English-language film (the first being 1971's "The Touch"). This was followed a year later with a British-Norwegian co-production of Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten – 1978) starring Ingrid Bergman. The one other film he directed was From the Life of the Marionettes (Aus dem Leben der Marionetten – 1980) a British-German co-production.

In 1982, he temporarily returned to his homeland to direct Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander). Bergman stated that the film would be his last, and that afterwards he would focus on directing theatre. Since then, he wrote several film scripts and directed a number of television specials. As with previous work for TV, some of these productions were later released in theatres. The last such work was Saraband (2003), a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage and directed by Bergman when he was eighty-four years old.

Repertory company

Bergman developed a personal "repertory company" of Swedish actors whom he repeatedly cast in his films, including Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom, Bengt Ekerot, Anders Ek, and Gunnar Björnstrand, each of whom appeared in at least five Bergman features. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, who appeared in nine of Bergman's films and one televisual film (Saraband), was the last to join this group (in the 1966 film Persona), and ultimately became most closely associated with Bergman, both artistically and personally. They had a daughter together, Linn Ullmann (born 1966).

 

Ingmar Bergman with his long-time cinematographer Sven Nykvist during the production of Through a Glass Darkly (1960)

 

A great number of Bergman's interior scenes were filmed at the Filmstaden studios north of Stockholm.

 

Bergman began working with Sven Nykvist, his cinematographer, in 1953. The two of them developed and maintained a working relationship of sufficient rapport to allow Bergman not to worry about the composition of a shot until the day before it was filmed. On the morning of the shoot, he would briefly speak to Nykvist about the mood and composition he hoped for, and then leave Nykvist to work lacking interruption or comment until post-production discussion of the next day's work.

Financing

By Bergman's own account, he never had a problem with funding. He cited two reasons for this: one, that he did not live in the United States, which he viewed as obsessed with box-office earnings; and two, that his films tended to be low-budget affairs. (Cries and Whispers, for instance, was finished for about $450,000, while Scenes from a Marriage, a six-episode television feature, cost only $200,000.)

Technique

Bergman usually wrote his own screenplays, thinking about them for months or years before starting the actual process of writing, which he viewed as somewhat tedious. His earlier films are carefully constructed and are either based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors. Bergman stated that in his later works, when on occasion his actors would want to do things differently from his own intention, he would let them, noting that the results were often "disastrous" when he did not do so. As his career progressed, Bergman increasingly let his actors improvise their dialogue. In his latest films, he wrote just the ideas informing the scene and allowed his actors to determine the exact dialogue. When viewing daily rushes, Bergman stressed the importance of being critical but unemotive, claiming that he asked himself not if the work is great or terrible, but if it is sufficient or if it needs to be reshot.

Subjects

Bergman's films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and religious faith. While these topics could seem cerebral, sexual desire found its way to the foreground of most of his films, whether the setting was a medieval plague (The Seventh Seal), upper-class family activity in early twentieth century Uppsala (Fanny and Alexander) or contemporary alienation (The Silence). His female characters are usually more in touch with their sexuality than the men, and unafraid to proclaim it, sometimes with breathtaking overtness (e.g., Cries and Whispers) as would define the work of "the conjurer," as Bergman called himself in a 1960 Time Magazine cover story. In an interview with Playboy in 1964, he said: "...The manifestation of sex is very important, and particularly to me, for above all, I don't want to make merely intellectual films. I want audiences to feel, to sense my films. This to me is much more important than their understanding them." Film, Bergman said, was his demanding mistress.

Bergman's views on his career

 

Bergman and actress Ingrid Thulin during the production of The Silence (1963)

 

When asked about his films, Bergman said he held Winter Light, Persona, and Cries and Whispers in the highest regard, though in an interview in 2004, Bergman said that he was "depressed" by his own films and could not watch them anymore. In these films, he said, he managed to push the medium to its limit. Bergman stated on numerous occasions (for example in the interview book Bergman on Bergman) that The Silence meant the end of the era in which religious questions were a major concern of his films.

Theatrical work

Although Bergman was universally famous for his contribution to cinema, he was also an active and productive stage director all his life. During his studies at Stockholm University, he became active in its student theatre, where he made a name for himself early on. His first work after graduation was as a trainee-director at a Stockholm theatre. At twenty-six years, he became the youngest theatrical manager in Europe at the Helsingborg City Theatre. He stayed at Helsingborg for three years and then became the director at Gothenburg city theatre from 1946 to 1949.

He became director of the Malmö city theatre in 1953 and remained for seven years. Many of his star actors were people with whom he began working on stage, and a number of people in the "Bergman troupe" of his 1960s films came from Malmö's city theatre (Max von Sydow, for example). He was the director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm from 1960 to 1966 and manager from 1963 to 1966, where he began a long-time collaboration with choreographer Donya Feuer.

After Bergman left Sweden because of the tax evasion incident, he became director of the Residenz Theatre of Munich, Germany (1977–84). He remained active in theatre throughout the 1990s and made his final production on stage with Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2002. A complete list of Bergman's work in theatre can be found under "Stage Productions and Radio Theatre Credits" at Ingmar Bergman filmography.

Tax evasion charges

On 30 January 1976, while rehearsing August Strindberg's Dance of Death at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, he was arrested by two plainclothes police officers and charged with income tax evasion. The impact of the event on Bergman was devastating. He suffered a nervous break-down as a result of the humiliation and was hospitalized in a state of deep depression.

The investigation was focused on an alleged 1970 transaction of 500,000 Swedish kronor (SEK) between Bergman's Swedish company Cinematograf and its Swiss subsidiary Persona, an entity that was mainly used for the paying of salaries to foreign actors. Bergman dissolved Persona in 1974 after having been notified by the Swedish Central Bank and subsequently reported the income. On 23 March 1976, the special prosecutor Anders Nordenadler dropped the charges against Bergman, saying that the alleged crime had no legal basis, saying it would be like bringing "charges against a person who has stolen his own car, thinking it was someone else's". Director General Gösta Ekman, chief of the Swedish Internal Revenue Service, defended the failed investigation, saying that the investigation was dealing with important legal material and that Bergman was treated just like any other suspect. He expressed regret that Bergman had left the country, hoping that Bergman was a "stronger" person now when the investigation had shown that he had not done any wrong.

Even though the charges were dropped, Bergman became disconsolate, fearing he would never again return to directing. Despite pleas by the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, high public figures, and leaders of the film industry, he vowed never to work again in Sweden. He closed down his studio on the island of Fårö, suspended two announced film projects, and went into self-imposed exile in Munich, Germany. Harry Schein, director of the Swedish Film Institute, estimated the immediate damage as ten million SEK (kronor) and hundreds of jobs lost.

Return

Although he continued to operate from Munich, by mid-1978 Bergman had overcome some of his bitterness toward the government of Sweden. In July of that year he visited Sweden, celebrating his sixtieth birthday at Fårö, and partly resumed his work as a director at Royal Dramatic Theatre. To honor his return, the Swedish Film Institute launched a new Ingmar Bergman Prize to be awarded annually for excellence in filmmaking.

Still, he remained in Munich until 1984. In one of the last major interviews with Bergman, conducted in 2005 at Fårö Island, Bergman said that despite being active during the exile, he had effectively lost eight years of his professional life.

Bergman retired from filmmaking in December 2003. He had hip surgery in October 2006 and was making a difficult recovery. He died peacefully in his sleep, at his home on Fårö, on 30 July 2007, at the age of 89, the same day that another renowned film director, Michelangelo Antonioni, also died. He was buried on the island on 18 August 2007 in a private ceremony. A place in the Fårö churchyard was prepared for him under heavy secrecy. Although he was buried on the island of Fårö, his name and date of birth were inscribed under his wife's name on a tomb at Roslagsbro churchyard, Norrtälje Municipality, several years before his death.

On 6 April 2011, the Bank of Sweden announced that Bergman's portrait will feature on the new 200 kronor banknote, beginning in 2014–15.

Unrealised projects

When Bergman died, a large archive of notes was donated to the Swedish Film Institute. Among the notes are several unpublished and unfinished scripts both for stage and films, and many more ideas for works in different stages of development. A never performed play has the title Kärlek utan älskare ("Love without lovers"), and has the note "Complete disaster!" written on the envelope; the play is about a director who disappears and an editor who tries to complete a work he has left unfinished. Other canceled projects include the script for a pornographic film which Bergman abandoned since he did not think it was alive enough, a play about a cannibal, some loose scenes set inside a womb, a film about the life of Jesus, a film about The Merry Widow, and a play with the title Från sperm till spöke ("From sperm to spook"). The Swedish director Marcus Lindeen went through the material, and inspired by Kärlek utan älskare he took samples from many of the works and turned them into a play, titled Arkivet för orealiserbara drömmar och visioner ("The archive for unrealisable dreams and visions"). Lindeen's play premiered on 28 May 2012 at the Stockholm City Theatre.

Family

 

The grave of Ingmar Bergman and his last wife, Ingrid von Rosen

 

Bergman was married five times:

• 25 March 1943 – 1945, to Else Fisher, choreographer and dancer (divorced). Children:
  • Lena Bergman, actress, born 1943.
• 22 July 1945 – 1950, to Ellen Lundström, choreographer and film director (divorced). Children:
  • Eva Bergman, film director, born 1945,
  • Jan Bergman, film director (1946–2000), and
  • twins Mats and Anna Bergman, both actors and film directors and born in 1948.
• 1951 – 1959, to Gun Grut, journalist (divorced). Children:
  • Ingmar Bergman Jr, airline captain, born 1951.
• 1959 – 1969, to Käbi Laretei, concert pianist (divorced). Children:
  • Daniel Bergman, film director, born 1962.
• 11 November 1971 – 20 May 1995, to Ingrid von Rosen (maiden name Karlebo) (widowed). Children:
  • Maria von Rosen, author, born 1959.

The first four marriages ended in divorce, while the last ended when his wife Ingrid died of stomach cancer in 1995, aged 65. Aside from his marriages, Bergman had romantic relationships with actresses Harriet Andersson (1952–55), Bibi Andersson (1955–59), and Liv Ullmann (1965–70). He was the father of writer Linn Ullmann with Liv Ullmann. In all, Bergman had nine children, one of whom predeceased him. Bergman was eventually married to all of the mothers except Liv Ullmann, but his daughter with his last wife, Ingrid von Rosen, was born twelve years before their marriage.

Praise and influence

 

 

Many filmmakers have praised Bergman and some have also cited his work as an influence on their own:

• Woody Allen referred to Bergman as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera."
• Pedro Almodóvar
• Robert Altman
• Olivier Assayas
• Francis Ford Coppola stated: "My all-time favorite because he embodies passion, emotion and has warmth."
• Guillermo del Toro stated: "Bergman as a fabulist—my favorite—is absolutely mesmerizing."
• Asghar Farhadi
• Todd Field stated: "He was our tunnel man building the aqueducts of our cinematic collective unconscious."
• Krzysztof Kieślowski stated: "This man is one of the few film directors—perhaps the only one in the world—to have said as much about human nature as Dostoyevsky or Camus."
• Stanley Kubrick stated: "I believe Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio De Sica and Federico Fellini are the only three filmmakers in the world who are not just artistic opportunists. By this I mean they don't just sit and wait for a good story to come along and then make it. They have a point of view which is expressed over and over and over again in their films, and they themselves write or have original material written for them."
• Ang Lee stated: "For me the filmmaker Bergman is the greatest actor of all..."
• François Ozon
• Park Chan-wook
• Éric Rohmer stated: "The Seventh Seal is 'the most beautiful film ever."
• Marjane Satrapi
• Mamoru Oshii
• Paul Schrader stated: "I would not have made any of my films or written scripts such as Taxi Driver had it not been for Ingmar Bergman. What he has left is a legacy greater than any other director. I think the extraordinary thing that Bergman will be remembered for, other than his body of work, was that he probably did more than anyone to make cinema a medium of personal and introspective value."
• Martin Scorsese stated: "I guess I'd put it like this: if you were alive in the 50s and the 60s and of a certain age, a teenager on your way to becoming an adult, and you wanted to make films, I don't see how you couldn't be influenced by Bergman. You would have had to make a conscious effort, and even then, the influence would have snuck through."
• Steven Spielberg stated: "His love for the cinema almost gives me a guilty conscience."
• Andrei Tarkovsky held Bergman in very high regard, noting him and Robert Bresson as his two favourite filmmakers, stating "I am only interested in the views of two people: one is called Bresson and one called Bergman." Such was Bergman's influence, Tarkovsky's last film was made in Sweden with Sven Nykvist, Bergman's longtime cinematographer, and several of Bergman's favoured actors including Erland Josephson. Bergman likewise had great respect for Tarkovsky, stating; "Tarkovsky for me is the greatest director."
• Satyajit Ray stated: "it's Bergman whom I continue to be fascinated by. I think he's remarkable. I envy his stock company, because given actors like that one could do extraordinary things."
• André Téchiné
• Liv Ullmann

Popular culture

A Bergman-themed parody spoofs the allegory of cheating death (Bergman's The Seventh Seal) in the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live season 1: ep.23 (7/24/1976). The sketch, titled "Swedish Movie", is somberly narrated in the third-person by a Swedish-speaking Death (Tom Schiller) with English subtitles scrolling. The baleful voice-over dialogue, revealed to be emanating from the apparition of Death personified, imposes upon dreamily preoccupied lovers Sven (Chevy Chase) and Inger (Louise Lasser) who send a not-so-silently jeering Death out for pizza.

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey includes a further spoof on the theme of playing games with Death from Bergman's The Seventh Seal. Bill and Ted are set to play a game with Death. Rather than chess, they play checkers. When Bill and Ted win, Death challenges them to a best of three match, wherein they play battleship and other games from popular culture.

The Muppets franchise had a spoof of Bergman's style in a segment entitled "Silent Strawberries" from the TV special, The Muppets Go to the Movies.

 

Filmography

Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish screenwriter and film director. Between 1944 and 2003 he directed more than 40 feature films and wrote multiple screenplays for others. He was also a playwright and simultaneously worked extensively in theatre.

Awards

Academy Awards

In 1971, Bergman received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards ceremony. Three of his films won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The list of his nominations and awards follows:

• Won: Best Foreign Film The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (1960)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel) (1961)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1983)
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) (1957)
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (1974)
• Nominated: Best Picture, Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (1974)
• Nominated: Best Director, Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (1974)
• Nominated: Best Director, Face to Face (Ansikte mot ansikte) (1977)
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten) (1979)
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1983)
• Nominated: Best Director, Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1983)

BAFTA Awards

• Nominated: Best Film from any Source, The Magician (Ansiktet) (1960)
• Nominated: Best Foreign Film, Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1984)

Berlin Film Festival

• Won: Golden Bear for Best Film, Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) (1957)
• Nominated: Golden Bear for Best Film, Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel) (1961)
• Won: OCIC Prize, Through a Glass Darkly (1961)

Cesar Awards

• Nominated: Best Foreign Film, The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten) (1976)
• Nominated: Best Foreign Film, Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten) (1979)
• Won: Best Foreign Film, Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1984)
• Nominated: Best European Film, Saraband (2005)

Cannes Film Festival

• Won: Best Poetic Humor Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) (1955)
• Nominated: Golden Palm Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) (1955)
• Won: Jury Special prize The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) (1957)
• Nominated: Golden Palm The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) (1957)
• Won: Best Director Brink of Life (Nära livet) (1958)
• Nominated: Golden Palm Brink of Life (Nära livet) (1958)
• Won: Special Mention The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (1960)
• Nominated: Golden Palm The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (1960)
• Won: Technical Grand Prize Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (1972)
• Won: Palm of Palms (1997)
• Won: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (1998) (Special award for his whole works.)

Golden Globe Awards

• Won: Best Foreign Film Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) (1960)
• Won: Best Foreign Film The Virgin Spring (1961)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Scenes from a Marriage (1975)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Face to Face (1976)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Autumn Sonata (1978)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Fanny and Alexander (1984)

• Nominated: Best Foreign Film Shame (1968)
• Nominated: Best Foreign Film Cries and Whispers (1973)

Other awards and honors

• Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1961)
• The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (1995)
• Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur (1985)

Exhibitions

• 2012, Ingmar Bergman.The Image Maker, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
• 2012, Ingmar Bergman: The Man Who Asked Hard Questions, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow