Ingmar Bergman

Swedish filmmaker and theater director

• Born: July 14, 1918
• Birthplace: Uppsala, Sweden
• Died: July 30, 2007
• Place of death: Sweden

Despite fluctuations in the critical appraisal of his many films, Bergman dominated the Scandinavian filmmaking industry from the mid-1940’s until the early 1980’s, and his films earned international acclaim. His rapport with actors and his innovative stage techniques also earned for him a reputation as one of the world’s foremost theatrical directors.

Early Life

Ingmar Bergman (BURG-mihn) was born in Uppsala, Sweden, to Erik and Karin Bergman and was reared in the country home of his maternal grandmother. A Lutheran pastor, Erik Bergman believed in strict discipline for his family, which consisted of Ingmar and his brother and sister. Many of Bergman’s childhood memories revolve around episodes of punishment by humiliation, such as being made to wear a skirt after wetting his pants; however, not all of his experiences were negative. His grandmother discussed important issues with the boy daily and encouraged his storytelling abilities. Though Bergman’s early years were spent in relative poverty, a rich aunt did provide him with inspiration for his future career in filmmaking. She gave his elder brother a magic lantern film projector, which Bergman so coveted that he traded his collection of toy soldiers for it.

When his father became chaplain to the Royal Hospital, young Bergman was fascinated by the nearby mortuary and cemetery, gaining there a gruesome introduction to death. In 1934, Erik Bergman was appointed parish priest at Hedvig Eleonora Church and the family moved to Stockholm. As an exchange student in Germany, Bergman developed a youthful passion for Nazism. His later disillusionment with Nazi atrocities led him away from politics altogether, although his love for Berlin remained so strong that he tried several times to portray the city in film. Following a brief period of military service, Bergman attended the University of Stockholm but became involved with writing and directing plays and did not complete his degree.

After many successful stage productions for various theaters in Stockholm, Bergman became a screenwriter for Svensk Filmindustri. His first screenplay, Hets (1944; Torment, 1947), about a young student’s battle with his repressive schoolmaster (based on his own experiences at Palmgren’s School), was directed by his mentor, veteran director Alf Sjöberg. The best film of his early career is probably Fängelse (1949; The Devil’s Wanton, 1962), which he both wrote and directed for Terrafilm, a company run by independent producer Lorens Marmstedt, to whom Bergman attributed much of his own filmmaking education.

During this early part of his career, Bergman directed plays for the Helsingborg, Malmö, and Gothenburg city theaters while at the same time working on films for Svensk Filmindustri and Terrafilm. While his professional life flourished, his tumultuous personal life was marked by financial problems, illness, divorces, and romantic affairs with his leading actresses. His marriages were to Else Fischer (1943-1945), Ellen Lundström(1945-1950), Gun Grut (1951-1959), Käbi Laretei (1959-1969), and Ingrid von Rosen (1971-1995).

Life’s Work

Bergman’s international reputation was established in the 1950’s with a series of dramatic films that explore the complexity of human relationships. The difficulty of establishing and maintaining emotional bonds inside and outside marriage is investigated in Sommarlek (1951; Illicit Interlude, 1954), Kvinnors väntan (1952; Secrets of Women, 1961), Gycklarnas Afton (1953; The Naked Night, 1956), En lection i kärlek (1954; A Lesson in Love, 1960), and Sommarnattens leende (1955; Smiles of a Summer Night, 1957), which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and first brought him international attention. Bergman’s affair with actress Harriet Andersson, who stars in several of these films, affected his early portrait of Nordic eroticism. Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Björnstrand, key members of Bergman’s stock film-theater company, played the witty married couple in his lighter films. His repertory of actors who appeared in five or more of his films also included Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, and, most famously, Liv Ullmann. Moreover, he came to depend on the skill of cinematographer Sven Nykvist after 1953.

In what Peter Cowie calls his “golden years,” Bergman posed philosophical and moral questions about the nature of humankind’s existence and the problem of evil. Det sjunde inseglet (1957; The Seventh Seal , 1958), a medieval allegory set during the Great Plague, contemplates the meaninglessness of life in the face of irrational death. In Smulltronstället (1957; Wild Strawberries , 1959), Bergman studies one of his favorite character types, the cold intellectual who distances himself from common humanity. Both of these films employ the journey motif favored by Bergman to chart the emotional evolution of his characters, and they feature the sunny presence of Bibi Andersson, the actress/lover with whom Bergman made his most idealistic statements. The battle of rationality and emotion, of science and art, continues in Ansiktet (1958; The Magician, 1959). One of Bergman’s favorite themes during the 1950’s was the conflict between what Max von Sydow describes as “the very sensitive, highly emotional individual who cannot bear his own feelings” and “the one who is inhibited by his intellect.”

After this intensely personal portrait of the artist, Bergman next adapted a fourteenth century legend about a young girl’s brutal rape and her father’s revenge in Jungfrukällan (1960; The Virgin Spring , 1960). Though Bergman would later criticize this film as an imitation of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950), The Virgin Spring won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film. Returning to very subjective films about faith and doubt, Bergman wrote and directed what he termed his “Chamber Plays”: S†som i en spegel (1961; Through a Glass Darkly , 1961), Nattvardsgästerna (1963; Winter Light, 1962), and Tystnaden (1963; The Silence, 1964). The bleak settings, small cast, and the spare visual/narrative style (what Cowie calls “austere and improvisatory”) underscore the themes of alienation and despair that permeate this important trilogy. Though Through a Glass Darkly won for Bergman another Academy Award, The Silence had to fight censorship boards around the world to preserve its carnal depiction of sexuality.

In 1963, Bergman was appointed as director of the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm, a position he held for only three years, although he continued to direct plays there. His stark production of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (1890; English translation, 1891) in 1964 was one of his most significant stage contributions. Bergman’s next phase of filmmaking featured actress/lover Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow as his alter ego, and his beloved island of F†rö, a bleak Scandinavian landscape that corresponded to his “innermost imaginings of forms, proportions, colors, horizons, sounds, silences, lights and reflections.” One of his most obscure artistic endeavors, Persona (1966; English translation, 1967), probes the enigma of human identity through a heavily symbolic style that marks this period. Vivid hallucinations haunt the tortured artist in Vargtimmen (1968; Hour of the Wolf, 1968), blurring the boundaries between dream and reality. In his most overtly political film, Skammen (1968; Shame, 1968), war disrupts the lives of two artists who would remain detached from the events of the world. In En passion (1969; The Passion of Anna, 1970), the characters’ inability to break through their essential isolation leads to frustration and violence.

After the failure of his first English-language film, The Touch (1971), Bergman staged Ibsen’s Vildanden (1884; The Wild Duck , 1891) and filmed Viskningar och rop (1973; Cries and Whispers , 1973), two of his finest artistic achievements. Filmed with the startling use of red and white images, Cries and Whispers powerfully recounts a family’s response to a sister’s agonizing death.

After years of independent filmmaking, Bergman began to explore new territory in the 1970’s with his lengthy productions for Swedish television. Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973; Scenes from a Marriage , 1974), Bergman’s analysis of a couple’s evolution through years of marriage, separation, and divorce, based on Bergman’s own relationship with his third wife, appeared in six weekly episodes; Ansikte mot ansikte (1976; Face to Face , 1976), his psychological dissection of a woman’s confrontation with death and madness, was presented in four parts. Bergman’s lifelong love of music, inspired in part by his marriage to musician Käbi Laretei and fostered by the success of his lavish stage production of Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow (1905) in 1954, culminated in the television production Trollflöjten (1975; The Magic Flute, 1975), an adaptation of the Mozart opera. The autobiographical study of his childhood, Fanny och Alexander (1982; Fanny and Alexander , 1983), and his portrait of a theatrical director, Efter repetitionen (1984; After the Rehearsal, 1984), both appeared first on Swedish television. All of these productions were later distributed as films, some in edited or condensed versions.

Success was not without its costs for Bergman. Besides the physical toll that filmmaking exacted from him (chronic insomnia and nervous stomach disorders), his financial success in the 1970’s led to his arrest and prosecution for tax evasion in 1976. Though he was cleared of the charges in 1979, Bergman endured public humiliation and exile from the landscape that had inspired him after a nervous breakdown caused him to seek refuge in a mental health clinic for more than a month. Despite these personal problems, he continued his career in Germany, producing two German-language films, Das schlangenei (1977; The Serpent’s Egg, 1977), a pessimistic look at Berlin in transition before the rise of Adolf Hitler, and Herbstsonat (1978; Autumn Sonata, 1978), an exploration of a mother-daughter relationship starring Ingrid Bergman and Ullmann. In Aus dem leben der marionetten (1980; From the Life of the Marionettes , 1980), a psychiatrist tries to untangle the emotions that led a Munich businessman to murder a prostitute. The film remained one of Bergman’s personal favorites, though it failed to receive critical or popular success. While in Germany, Bergman also successfully produced August Strindberg’s Ett drömspel (1902; A Dream Play, 1912) in 1977, a provocative interpretation of Anton Chekhov’s Tri sestry (1901; The Three Sisters, 1920), and his third approach to Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. From 1977 until 1984 he served as stage director of the Resienz-Theater in Munich.

During the filming of The Touch, Bergman first announced his plans to retire from filmmaking. He reiterated his determination to restrict his creative activity to the stage after the successful production of Fanny and Alexander, which won for him four Academy Awards. In this joyous film, he was finally able to confront and exorcise some of the demons of childhood that plagued him over the years; it was a fitting tribute to a lifetime of artistic experimentation and personal exploration. That notwithstanding, he continued to work on films. In 1991 he wrote a screenplay version of his novel Den goda viljan (The Best Intentions, 1992) about the troubled marriage of his parents before he was born. In 1997, he directed Lamar och gör sig till (in the presence of a clown), a made-for-television production set in the 1920’s. His last film was Saraband (2003; Saraband, 2004), a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage, again starring Ullmann and Josephson.

Bergman continued to direct theatrical productions, ignoring doctors’ warnings to rest from his busy work schedule. He astounded audiences with his imaginative productions of William Shakespeare’s classic plays King Lear and Hamlet in 1984 and 1986, respectively; of Strindberg’s Fröken Julie (Miss Julie) in 1986; of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in 1988; and of Molière’s The Misanthrope in 1995. His last dramatic production was Rosmersholm in 2004, a radio version of the 1886 Ibsen play. All told, Bergman turned out 54 films, 126 theater productions, and 39 radio plays. He also directed operas and wrote three novels and two volumes of memoirs, Laterna magica (1987; The Magic Lantern, 1988) and Tre dagböcker (three diaries) in 2004 with Maria von Rosen.

Bergman announced his retirement for the final time in 2003. A year later he said in an interview on Swedish television that watching his early films depressed him and that he had pushed the capabilities of cinema beyond the limits. These works, he also said, came from attempts to master the innumerable demons in his own life, which at times drove him to panic and terror.

In October, 2006, Bergman underwent surgery to repair a broken hip. He never fully recovered from it and died in his sleep on July 30, 2007, on F†rö. He was survived by his nine children.

As well as his many Academy Awards and nominations, he also won two British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, a Cesar Award from the French Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema, and five awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Additionally, he was named to France’s Legion of Honor in 1985.

Significance

Because his films are intensely personal, together forming an emotional autobiography or a cinematic spiritual odyssey, Bergman has been appreciated as one of the true auteurs of the cinema, a poet on film. His influence, however, extends beyond his individual accomplishments. Grounded in the Scandinavian film tradition established by Carl Dreyer, Alf Sjöberg, Victor Sjöström, and others, Bergman dominated the Nordic industry for more than forty years, often to the detriment of younger filmmakers trying to establish careers in his considerable shadow. Enriching that tradition, he earned a reputation as a truly international filmmaker, bringing an artistic respectability to the film medium. The French New Wave filmmakers, though their films differ considerably from his, were inspired by his ability to bring his personal vision to the screen with almost total control over the writing, shooting, editing, and directing. This new critical interest in film as an art form led to the serious study of film in college programs, particularly in the 1960’s and 1970’s, influencing a generation of young filmmakers in the United States, especially Woody Allen. Bergman’s writings about filmmaking, his published screenplays, his many interviews, and his autobiography have enhanced understanding of the creative process of the contemporary artist.

With a strong background in music, literature, and theater, Bergman tested the boundaries between the different media. His films employ many theatrical conventions, while his stage productions project cinematic style. Relying on familiar ensemble casts, Bergman allowed improvisation from his film actors, encouraging their contributions to the development of the script; while in the theater, however, those same actors, out of respect for his favorite authors, were restricted to the original text. In each medium, Bergman strove to achieve the ideal technical counterpart to the emotional content of the scene or shot. In film he re-created the hallucinatory effect of dreams and extreme psychological states. Through lighting, careful shot composition, and symbolic landscapes, Bergman created the visual equivalent of emotional states or philosophical concepts. His frequent use of the flashback technique complements his belief that confrontation of the past helps one understand the present. Not only did Bergman add to the cinematic language of film, but he also expanded, by way of his religious questionings, existential concerns, and fascination with the psychology of women, the range of appropriate subjects for film. Though his films sparked critical debates about the intellectual interpretation of his images, narratives, and characters, Bergman’s primary concern was for an emotional reaction: “I never asked you to understand; I ask only that you feel.”

After his death Bergman was hailed as heading the list of great directors, along with Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini. Woody Allen said of him that he was probably the greatest film artist since the invention of the motion-picture camera.

Bibliography

Bergman, Ingmar. Bergman on Bergman: Interviews with Ingmar Bergman by Stig Björkman, Torsten Manns, Jonas Sima. Translated by Paul Britten Austin. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973. Transcription of interviews with Bergman from June, 1968, to April, 1970, discussing his life, filmmaking experiences, and film theory. Includes numerous film stills, a filmography through Cries and Whispers, and an index.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography. Translated by Joan Tate. New York: Viking Press, 1988. Conversational book arranged topically rather than chronologically (though a good chronology is included in the appendix). Includes many interesting anecdotes from Bergman’s childhood and much analysis of his parents, especially his poignant discovery of his mother’s diary.

Cowie, Peter. Ingmar Bergman: A Critical Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982. An insightful, detailed biography with excellent critical analyses of films through Fanny and Alexander; includes film credits, a bibliography, and a list of major theatrical productions.

Kalin, Jesse. The Films of Ingmar Bergman. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Kalin defines Bergman’s idea of the human condition as the struggle to find meaning in life, and he describes how this concept is expressed in many of the director’s films.

Kaminsky, Stuart M., ed. Ingmar Bergman: Essays in Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975. General career essays on Bergman’s thematic use of childhood, sex, and religion, as well as essays (sometimes pro and con) about each major film from The Seventh Seal to Scenes from a Marriage. Excellent choice of writers and topics. Includes a selected filmography.

Marker, Lise-Lone, and Frederick J. Marker. Ingmar Bergman: Four Decades in the Theater. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. A survey of Bergman’s productions of plays by Strindberg, Molière, and Ibsen, including an interview with Bergman about theater. Includes a useful chronology, a selected bibliography, many production stills, and some stage blueprint sketches.

Simon, John. Ingmar Bergman Directs. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972. Includes a short interview with Bergman; a brief overview of his major themes; and detailed analyses of The Naked Night, Smiles of a Summer Night, Winter Light, and Persona (with a filmography of these four films). Contains no bibliography or index, but numerous illustrations are included.

Vermilye, Jerry. Ingmar Bergman: His Life and Films. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002. Overview of Bergman’s life and work, including a brief synopsis of each of his films, with information about the cast and crew, and comments by Bergman and film critics.

Wood, Robin. Ingmar Bergman. New York: Praeger, 1969. Films grouped thematically to reveal evolution of major concerns through Shame. Contains a chronology, a selected filmography, a selected bibliography, and numerous illustrations.