Ingmar Bergman
A master of cinema says "Good Bye":
The
extraordinary and unparalleled career of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar
Bergman can be divided into four periods: his apprenticeship (1946-55),
his first flowering (1955-64), his maturity, during which he produced
several masterpieces (1965-83) and post-retirement (1983- ).
Throughout the years, the prolific director and writer also managed
to stage numerous theatrical and television productions. Acknowledged as
one of the masters of cinema, Bergman concentrated on themes of
spiritual and psychological conflicts complemented by a distinctly
intense and intimate visual style. As he matured as an artist, he
shifted from an allegorical to a more personal cinema, often revisiting
and elaborating on recurring images, subjects and techniques.
The middle child born to a Lutheran minister and his wife, Bergman
became enamored of the theater at a young
age. After seeing his first stage production, he built a puppet
playhouse complete with revolving stage and elaborate lighting system
where he and his sister would produce entertainments. Trips to the
cinema with his older brother instilled a love for film. By the time he
broke with his parents over their restrictions, Bergman had decided to
pursue a career in theater and film.
As an undergraduate, Bergman began directing stage plays and in 1944
began his professional career at the Helsingborg City Theatre.
Over the course of his long and distinguished theatrical career, he
held similar posts at the Goteberg City Theatre and Malmo City Theatre,
culminating in a three year (1963-66) stint as chief director at the
Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. For the next thirty odd years,
Bergman continued to stage acclaimed and innovative productions, several
of which were presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
In 1943, Bergman began his film career when he was hired in the
script department of Svensk Filmindustri. The following year, his first
effort, "Torment" was filmed by director Alf Sjoberg.
He was given his first chance to direct with "Kris/Crisis" (1946),
adapted from a play by Dane Leck Fischer. In this film, the nascent
stylings can be evidenced: There is a trace of latent sadism that runs
through much of his work. Although it was not a box-office success, the
film did launch his directing career.
In the 16 films he directed in this apprenticeship period, one see
Bergman struggling to master the medium, honing his craft, developing
his trademark stylings and introducing themes that he would explore in
detail in later masterpieces (e.g., "Summer Interlude" 1951 and "Monika"
1953, both studies of adolescent love and its disappointments). "Sawdust
and Tinsel/The Naked Night" (1953) introduced the recurring theme of
humiliation and the utter loneliness of the human condition.
With "Smiles of a Summer Night" (1955), Bergman entered into a period
of international recognition which saw him experimenting and solidifying
his technical prowess.
"Smiles of a Summer Night" is an ironic comedy that examines sexual
frustration, lost loves and debasement. Two year later, he won further
acclaim with "The Seventh Seal", a medieval allegory in which a knight
plays chess with Death. The silhouetted long shot of Death leading a
group of peasants across the horizon has become one of the most famous
images in modern cinema. That same year, Bergman wrote and directed the
journey narrative "Wild Strawberries", considered one of his
masterworks.
Following the events of a day in the life of an aging professor
(played by veteran director Victor Sjostrom), the film is a model of
fluidity, with flashbacks and dream sequences creating a penetrating
investigation of life and death, emphasizing the relationships between
desire, loss and guilt contrasted with compassion, restitution and
celebration.
It is not accidental that these two films were made back-to-back;
Bergman has stated he was exploring how an individual may find "peace
and clarity of soul" and concluding a) that God is silent and b) the
individual must examine the truth of his/her existence by careful
consideration of both the past and the present.
Bergman further explored religion symbolically in "The Magician"
(1958) and overtly in "The Virgin Spring" (1960), which earned a Best
Foreign Film Oscar. The former starred Max Von Sydow as a Christ-like
occultist who appears to die and is resurrected while the latter. set in
the Middle Ages, depicts the rape and murder of a virginal maiden and
the avenging of the crime by her father father. God "speaks" to the
farmer through a miraculous spring of water that spouts when the dead
girl's body is moved.
Bergman gradually moved to a more intimate chamber style of
filmmaking as the 60s progressed, beginning with his trilogy that
intensely examined psychological and spiritual themes: "Through a Glass
Darkly" (1961), in which love proves to be a virtue and is an example of
God's presence. "Winter Light" (1962), in which love is depicted as cold
and sterile but where there is possibility, and "The Silence" (1963),
which depicted a world without love and therefore without God.
Over the next decade, Bergman moved to a deeper probing of the human
psyche and a closer examination of male-female relationships. "Persona"
(1966) was the first of his great films that examined how individuals
play roles in their lives.
By using actors or artists at the core of the story, he demonstrated
his beliefs that there is a harrowing separateness between people, even
in the most private relationships.
"Persona" is about an actress who undergoes a psychological breakdown
and refuses to speak. Gradually, she assumes the persona of the
loquacious nurse caring for her, much in the same way she assumed the
identities of the characters she portrayed onstage.
"Hour of the Wolf" (1968) shows a painter gradually descending into
madness despite or because of those around him. "Shame" (also 1968)
depicts the breakdown of a marriage between a musician and his wife as
war rages around them. He further explored the same themes on a grander
scale in "The Ritual/The Rite" (1969).
The 70s saw Bergman at the height of his powers culminating in "Cries
and Whispers" (1973), a Gothic period piece revolving around three
sisters, one of whom, Agnes, is dying, and their maid. Each of the
sisters is symbolic of a particular theological concept and the film
uses overt religious symbolism. Agnes reclines in a cruciform position
and seems to be resurrected.
There is an exquisite shot of her held by the maid that invokes the
Pieta that is a highlight of this masterwork. Bergman returned to
exploring the relations between the sexes in the superb six-part TV
drama "Scenes From a Marriage" (1973) which was edited for theatrical
release.
The well-acted film depicts in a straightforward manner the
disintegration of a seemingly perfect marriage. An anomaly for the
period was his excellent rendering of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute"
(1975). "Face to Face" (1976) was another TV drama reshaped for
theatrical release that followed the psychological disintegration of a
therapist who is driven to attempt suicide.
After helming his first English-language film, the flawed melodrama
"The Serpent's Egg" (1977), Bergman returned to surer ground with "The
Autumn Sonata" (1978). A chamber piece about a woman (Liv Ullmann) and
her neglectful pianist mother (Ingrid Bergman), it was a gem-like
character study of an artist who could not love. In 1982, Bergman
announced his intention to retire and his last feature (actually made
for Swedish TV) was the autobiographical "Fanny and Alexander". Perhaps
the director's most personal film, it was infused with memories of
childhood.
While he has not directed a feature film, Bergman has remained busy
directing for the stage (although in 1995 he announced plans to curtail
that activity). Several of his TV projects ("After the Rehearsal" 1983;
"In the Presence of a Clown" 1998) have received theatrical release.
He has also scripted semi-autobiographical projects helmed by others,
including the Bille August-directed "The Best Intentions" and "Sunday's
Children" (both 1992), directed by his son Daniel. In 1998, he announced
that Liv Ullmann would be directing his script "Faithless" (set to lens
in 1999 for release in 2000), to star Lena Endre and Erland Josephson as
Bergman. |