Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman

Infobox actor
name = Ingmar Bergman


imagesize = 300px
caption = Ingmar Bergman during production of "Wild Strawberries" (1957)
birthname = Ernst Ingmar Bergman
othernames = Buntel Eriksson
birthdate = birth date|df=yes|1918|07|14
location = Uppsala, Sweden
deathdate = death date and age|df=yes|2007|07|30|1918|07|14
deathplace = Fårö, Sweden
occupation = film director, producer & writer
yearsactive = 1944 - 2005
spouse = Else Fisher (1943-1945)
Ellen Lundström (1945-1950)
Gun Grut (1951-1959)
Käbi Laretei (1959-1969)
Ingrid von Rosen (1971-1995)
children = Lena Bergman (b.1943)
Eva Bergman (b.1945)
Jan Bergman (b.1946)
Mats Bergman (b.1948)
Anna Bergman (b.1948)
Ingmar Bergman Jr. (b.1951)
Maria von Rosen (b.1959)
Daniel Bergman (b.1962)
Linn Ullmann (b.1966)
academyawards = Best Foreign Language Film
1960 "The Virgin Spring"
1961 "Through a Glass Darkly"
1982 "Fanny and Alexander"
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
1971 Lifetime Achievement
baftaawards = Best Foreign Programme
1976 "The Magic Flute"
cesarawards = Best Foreign Film
1984 "Fanny and Alexander"
goldenglobeawards = Best Foreign Film
1960 "Wild Strawberries"
1961 "The Virgin Spring"
1975 "Scenes from a Marriage"
1977 "Face to Face"
1979 "Autumn Sonata"
1982 "Fanny and Alexander"
awards = Golden Berlin Bear
1957 "Wild Strawberries"
Jury Prize (Cannes Film Festival)
1957 "The Seventh Seal"
Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival)
1958 "Brink of Life"
Special Jury Prize (Venice Film Festival)
1959 "The Magician"
Career Golden Lion
1971 Lifetime Achievement
NBR Award for Best Director
1972 "Cries and Whispers"
1978 "Autumn Sonata"
NYFCC Award for Best Screenplay
1973 "Cries and Whispers"
NYFCC Award for Best Director
1973 "Cries and Whispers"
1974 "Scenes from a Marriage"
1983 "Fanny and Alexander"

Ernst Ingmar Bergman ( Audio-IPA|sv-Ingmar_Bergman.ogg| [ˈɪŋmar ˈbærjman] ) (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a nine-time Academy Award-nominated Swedish film, stage, and opera director. He depicted bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope in his explorations of the human condition. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of modern cinema. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Ingmar Bergman, Famed Director, Dies at 89 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/movies/30cnd-bergman.html |quote=Ingmar Bergman, the 'poet with the camera' who is considered one of the greatest directors in motion picture history, died today on the small island of Faro where he lived on the Baltic coast of Sweden, Astrid Soderbergh Widding, president of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, said. Bergman was 89. |publisher=New York Times |date=30 July 2007 |accessdate=2007-07-31 ]

He directed 62 films, most of which he also wrote, and directed over 170 plays. Some of his internationally known favorite actors were Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in the stark landscape of his native Sweden, and major themes were often bleak, dealing with death, illness, betrayal, and insanity.

Bergman was active for more than 60 years, but his career was seriously threatened in 1976 when he suspended a number of pending productions, closed his studios, and went into self-imposed exile in Germany for eight years following a botched criminal investigation for alleged income tax evasion.

Biography

Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, to Karin (maiden name Åkerblom) Bergman and Erik Bergman, a Lutheran minister and later chaplain to the King of Sweden. He grew up surrounded by religious imagery and discussion. His father was a conservative parish minister with extreme-right political sympathies and a strict family father. Ingmar was locked up in dark closets for infractions such as 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."

Though he grew up 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". ["The Films of Ingmar Bergman", by Jesse Kalin, 2003, p. 193]

Bergman's interest in theatre and film began early:

:"At the age of 9, he traded a set of tin soldiers for a battered 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." ["Ingmar Bergman, Master Filmmaker, Dies at 89" by Mervyn Rothstein, New York Times, 31 July 2007]

In 1934, at the age of 16, Bergman was sent to spend the summer vacation with family friends in Germany. He attended a Nazi rally in Weimar at which he saw Adolf Hitler. ["Ingmar Bergman: His Life and Films", by Jerry Vermilye, 2001, p. 6; see also his autobiography, "Laterna Magica".] He later wrote in his autobiography "Laterna Magica" about the visit to Germany, 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". [Ingmar Bergman, "The Magic Lantern" (transl. from Swedish: Laterna Magica), Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. ISBN 9780226043821 ]

Bergman did two five-month stretches of mandatory military service.

In 1937 he entered Stockholm University College (later renamed to Stockholm University), to study art and literature. He spent most of his time involved in student theater and became a "genuine movie addict". ["Ingmar Bergman: His Life and Films", by Jerry Vermilye, 2001, p. 6] 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 who then offered Bergman a position working on scripts.

In 1943 he married Else Fisher.

From the early 1960s Bergman lived much of his life on the island of Fårö, Gotland, Sweden, where he made several of his films.

Tax evasion charges and exile

1976 was one of the most traumatic years in the life of Ingmar Bergman. 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 breakdown 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 SEK 500,000 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, comparing the case to the bringing of "charges against a person who is stealing his own car". [ [http://svt.se/svt/play/video.jsp?a=445366 Åtal mot Bergman läggs ned (video)] Sveriges Television, Rapport, 23 March 1976.] 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 anything wrong. [ [http://svt.se/svt/play/video.jsp?a=445394 Generaldirektör om Bergmans flykt (video)] Sveriges Television, Rapport, 22 April 1976.]

Even though the charges were dropped, Bergman was for a while 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 barren Baltic 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 caused by Bergman's exile to SEK 10 million and hundreds of jobs lost. [ [http://svt.se/svt/play/video.jsp?a=445417 Harry Schein om Bergmans flyk (video)] Sveriges Television, Rapport, 22 April 1976.]

Return from exile

Although he continued to operate from Munich, by mid-1978, Ingmar Bergman seemed to have overcome some of his bitterness toward his motherland. In July of that year he was back in Sweden, celebrating his 60th birthday at Fårö and partly resumed his work as a director at Royal Dramatic Theater. To honor his return, the Swedish Film Institute launched a new Ingmar Bergman Prize to be awarded annually for excellence in film making. [Ephraim Katz, "The Film Encyclopedia", New York: HarperCollins, 5th ed., 1998.]

However, he remained in Munich until 1984. In one of the last major interviews with Bergman, done in 2005 at Fårö Island, Bergman said that despite being active during the exile, he had effectively lost eight years of his professional life. [Ingmar Bergman: Samtal på Fårö, Sveriges Radio, 28 March 2005]

Bergman retired from film making in December 2003. He had hip surgery in October 2006 and was making a difficult recovery. He died peacefully in his sleep, [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6952992.stm|title=Bergman buried in quiet ceremony|date=2007-08-18] at his home on Fårö, on 30 July 2007, at the age of 89, [cite web|url=http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=114&sid=1204057|title=Film Great Ingmar Bergman Dies at 89|date=2007-07-30] the same day that another renowned film director, Michelangelo Antonioni, also died. He was buried 18 August 2007 on the island 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,

Film work

Career

Bergman first began working in film in 1941 rewriting 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 a position as assistant director to the film. In his second autobiography "Images : My Life in Film", Bergman describes the filming of the exteriors as his actual film directorial debut. [Ingmar Bergman, "Images : my life in film" (translated from the Swedish by Marianne Ruuth), London: Bloomsbury, 1994. ISBN 0-7475-1670-7 ] 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") in 1953.

Bergman first achieved international success with "Smiles of a Summer Night" ("Sommarnattens leende") (1955), which won for "Best poetic humor" and was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes the following year. This was followed two years later with two of Bergman's best-known films, "The Seventh Seal" ("Det sjunde inseglet") and "Wild Strawberries" ("Smultronstället"). "The Seventh Seal" won a special jury prize and was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes and "Wild Strawberries" won numerous awards for Bergman and its star, Victor Sjöström.

Bergman continued to be productive for the next 20 years. In the early 60's he directed a trilogy that explored the theme of faith and doubt in God, " Through a Glass Darkly" ("Såsom i en Spegel - 1961"), "Winter Light" ("Nattvardsgasterna" - 1962), and " The Silence" ("Tystnaden" - 1963). In 1966 he directed " Persona", a film that he himself considered one of his most important films. While the film won few awards many consider it his masterpiece and one of the best films ever produced. Bergman himself considers this film along with "Cries and Whispers" ("Viskningar och rop" - 1972) to be his two most important films. 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 TV 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 his native country. He shut down his film studio on the island of Faro and went into exile. He briefly considered the possibility of working in America and his next film, "The Serpent's Egg" (1977) was a German-American production and his first and only English language film. This was followed a year later with a British-Norwegian co-production of "Autumn Sonata" ("Höstsonaten" - 1978). The film starred Ingrid Bergman and was the one notable film of this period. 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"), a film that, unlike his previous productions, was aimed at a broader audience, but was also criticized within the profession for being shallow and commercial. [See "e.g." [http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=2204&a=676451 "Filmkonstnären med stort F"] Dagens Nyheter, 2 August 2007.] 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 84 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, 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 TV movie ("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 (b. 1966).

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 without 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.Fact|date=August 2007 ("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.)Fact|date=August 2007

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 structured, 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 intentions, 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 unemotional, 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.Fact|date=July 2007

Themes

Bergman's films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and faith.

While his themes could be cerebral, sexual desire found its way to the foreground of most of his movies, whether the setting was a medieval plague ("The Seventh Seal"), upper-class family life in early 20th century Uppsala ("Fanny and Alexander") or contemporary alienation ("The Silence"). His female characters were usually more in touch with their sexuality than their men were, and were not afraid to proclaim it, with the sometimes breathtaking overtness (e.g., "Cries and Whispers") that defined the work of "the conjurer," as Bergman called himself in a 1960 Time magazine cover story. In an interview with "Playboy" magazine 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.Fact|date=August 2007 Some of his major actresses became his actual mistresses as his real life doubled up on his movie-making one.

Love — twisted, thwarted, unexpressed, repulsed — was the leitmotif of many of his movies, beginning, perhaps, with "Winter Light", where the pastor's barren faith is contrasted with his former mistress' struggle, tinged with spite as it is, to help him find spiritual justification through human love.

Bergman's views on his career

When asked about his movies, Bergman said he held "Winter Light", [cite web|url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/05/34/winter_light.html|title=Winter Light | year=2005] "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. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3616037.stm|title=Bergman 'depressed' by own films|date=2004-04-10] In these films, he said, he managed to push the medium to its limit.

While he denounced the critical classification of three of his films ("Through a Glass Darkly", "Winter Light", and "The Silence") as a predetermined trilogy, saying he had no intention of connecting them and could not see any common motifs in them [ stated in Marie Nyreröd's interview series (the first part named "Bergman och filmen") aired on Sveriges Television Easter 2004.] , this contradicts the introduction Bergman himself wrote in 1964 when he had the three scripts published in a single volume: "These three films deal with reduction. "Through a Glass Darkly" - conquered certainty. "Winter Light" - penetrated certainty. "The Silence" - God's silence - the negative imprint. Therefore, they constitute a trilogy". The Criterion Collection sees the films as a trilogy and has released all three on DVD as a boxed set.

Bergman had stated on numerous occasions (for example in the interview book "Bergman on Bergman") that "The Silence" meant the end of an era when religious questions were a major concern in his films.

Influence

Many filmmakers worldwide have praised Bergman and cited his work as a major influence on their own:

* Woody Allen [cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1648917,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom|title=Woody Allen on Ingmar Bergman|last=Corliss|first=Richard|date=Aug. 01, 2007|publisher=Time|accessdate=2008-07-23] - "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera" [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Ingmar Bergman, Master Filmmaker, 1918-2007 |url=http://www.blastmagazine.com/2007/08/ingmar-bergman/ |publisher=Blast Magazine |date=1 August 2007 |accessdate=2007-08-01 ] Allen has parodied Bergman's films in his own, most notably in "Love and Death".
* Robert Altman [cite web |url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000265/bio |title=Robert Altman (I) - Biography |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]
* Olivier Assayas [cite web |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=3D2E8D82-6F29-490F-9F03-4C813ADAD768&LanCD=EN |title=Ingmar Bergman |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]
* Wes Craven [cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/lars_von_trier/ |title=Rotten Tomatoes: Lars von Trier Celebrity Profile |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]
* Atom Egoyan
* Todd Field [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=With words or pictures, Ingmar Bergman got you thinking |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=58456BCB-51FD-457B-BD3C-3F755907C770|publisher=Los Angeles Times |date=1 August 2007 |accessdate=2007-08-01 ] "He was our tunnel man building the aqueducts of our cinematic collective unconscious."
* Krzysztof Kieślowski [cite web |url=http://newsblog.aol.in/2007/08/04/in-memoriam-ingmar-bergman-michelangelo-antonioni/ |title=In Memoriam: Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni - India News Blog |accessdate=2008-01-10 |] "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 Dostoevsky or Camus."
* Stanley Kubrick [cite web | last=Harlan | first=Jan |title=A Talk with Kubrick | url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/janharlaninterview.html | date= 2007]
* Ang Lee [cite web |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=9108307A-4EBB-4F92-8E28-75DE37FA5A72 | title=Ang Lee praises Bergman | accessdate=2008-07-22 |]
* David Lynch [cite web | last=O'Hehir | first=Andrew | title= Beyond the Multiplex | url = http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2006/12/07/btm/ | date = 7 December 2006 ]
* François Ozon [cite web |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=3D2E8D82-6F29-490F-9F03-4C813ADAD768&LanCD=EN |title=Ingmar Bergman |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]
* Chan-wook Park [cite web |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=3D2E8D82-6F29-490F-9F03-4C813ADAD768&LanCD=EN |title=Ingmar Bergman |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]
* Eric Rohmer - "The Seventh Seal is 'the most beautiful film ever'" [cite web |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=3D2E8D82-6F29-490F-9F03-4C813ADAD768&LanCD=EN |title=Ingmar Bergman |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]
* Marjane Satrapi [cite web |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=3D2E8D82-6F29-490F-9F03-4C813ADAD768&LanCD=EN |title=Ingmar Bergman |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]
* Mamoru Oshii [cite web |url=http://www.popmatters.com/film/interviews/oshii-mamoru-040923.shtml |title=THERE IS NO APHRODISIAC LIKE INNOCENCE |accessdate=2008-08-10 |]
* Paul Schrader - "I would not have made any of my films or written scripts such as Taxi Driver had it not been for Ingmar Bergman, [...] [W] hat 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." [cite web |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=3D2E8D82-6F29-490F-9F03-4C813ADAD768&LanCD=EN |title=Ingmar Bergman]
* Steven Spielberg [cite web |url=http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ingmar_Bergman#Quotes_about_Bergman | title=Quotes about Bergman | accessdate=2008-07-22 |]
* Andrei Tarkovsky [cite web | last=Le Cain | first=Maximillian | title=Andrei Tarkovsky | url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/tarkovsky.html]
* André Téchiné [cite web |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=3D2E8D82-6F29-490F-9F03-4C813ADAD768&LanCD=EN |title=Ingmar Bergman |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]
* Lars Von Trier [cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/lars_von_trier/ |title=Rotten Tomatoes: Lars von Trier Celebrity Profile |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]
* Zhuang Yuxin [cite web |url=http://www.ingmarbergman.se/page.asp?guid=3D2E8D82-6F29-490F-9F03-4C813ADAD768&LanCD=EN |title=Ingmar Bergman |accessdate=2008-01-10 |]

Theatrical work

Although Bergman was universally famous for his contribution to cinema, he was an active and productive stage director all his life. During his studies at Stockholm University he became active in its student theatre, where he early on made a name for himself. His first work after graduation was as a trainee-director at a Stockholm theatre. At age 26 he became the youngest theater manager in Europe at the Helsingborg city theatre. He stayed at Helsingborg for 3 years and then became the director at Gothenburg city theater from 1946 to 1949.

He was the director of the Malmö city theater 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.

After he left Sweden because of the tax evasion incident he was the director of the "Residenz Theatre" of Munich, Germany (1977-84). He remained active in theatre throughout the whole 90's and made his final production on stage with Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2002.

A complete list of Bergman's work in theater can be found under "Stage Productions and Radio Theatre Credits" in the "Ingmar Bergman filmography"-article.

Family life

Bergman was married five times:
* 25 March 1943 – 1945, to Else Fischer, 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 died of stomach cancer.

He was also the father of writer Linn Ullmann, with actress Liv Ullmann. In all, Bergman had nine children that he has acknowledged to be his own. He was married to all but one of the mothers of his children. His daughter with Ingrid von Rosen was born twelve years before their marriage.

In addition to his marriages, Bergman also had major relationships with Harriet Andersson 1952-55, Bibi Andersson 1955-59 and Liv Ullmann 1965-70.

Work

Awards

Academy Awards

In 1971, Bergman received The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards ceremony. Three of his films have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: "The Virgin Spring" in 1961; "Through a Glass Darkly" in 1962; and "Fanny and Alexander" in 1984.
* Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, "Wild Strawberries" ("Smultronstället") (1960)
* Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, "Through a Glass Darkly" ("Såsom i en spegel") (1963)
* 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)" (1984)
* Nominated: Best Director, "Fanny and Alexander" ("Fanny och Alexander)" (1984)

BAFTA Awards

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

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

* Nominated: Best Director, "Fanny and Alexander" ("Fanny och Alexander") (1984)

###@@@KEY@@@### s-achsuccession box
title = Prix du Jury
years = 1957
for "The Seventh Seal"
before= Henri-Georges Clouzot
for "The Mystery of Picasso"
after = Jacques Tati
for "Mon Oncle"
succession box
title = Prix de la mise en scène
years = 1958
for "Brink of Life"
before= Robert Bresson
for "A Man Escaped"
after = François Truffaut
for "The 400 Blows"
succession box
title = Golden Bear
years = 1958
for "Wild Strawberries"
before= Sidney Lumet
for "12 Angry Men"
after = Claude Chabrol
for "Les Cousins"
succession box
title = Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
years = 1971
before= Alfred Hitchcock
after = Lawrence Weingarten
succession box
title = Career Golden Lion
years = 1971
before= Orson Welles
after = Charles Chaplin, Anatali Golovnia, Billy Wilder
succession box
title = New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
years = 1972
for "Cries and Whispers"
before= Stanley Kubrick
for "A Clockwork Orange"'
after = François Truffaut
for "Day for Night"
succession box
title = New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay
years = 1972
for "Cries and Whispers"
before= Peter Bogdanovitch
for "The Last Picture Show"
after = George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck
for "American Graffiti"
succession box
title = New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay
years = 1974
for "Scenes from a Marriage"
before= George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck
for "American Graffiti"
after = François Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman, Jean Gruault
for "The Story of Adele H."
succession box
title = New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
years = 1983
for "Fanny and Alexander"
before= Sydney Pollack
for "Tootsie"
after = David Lean
for "A Passage to India"

ee also

* Cinema of Sweden
* List of directors
* List of film collaborations

References

Bibliography

* "Bergman on Bergman: Interviews with Ingmar Bergman." By Stig Björkman, Torsten Manns, and Jonas Sima; Translated by Paul Britten Austin. Simon & Schuster, New York. Swedish edition copyright 1970; English translation 1973.
* "Filmmakers on filmmaking: the American Film Institute seminars on motion pictures and television" (edited by Joseph McBride). Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1983.
* "

* "The Magic Lantern", Ingmar Bergman, Translated by Joan Tate New York, Viking Press, 1988, ISBN 0-670-81911-5

All of Bergman's original screenplays for films directed by himself, from "Through a Glass Darkly" onwards — and the screenplays he has penned since the 1980s for other directors — have been published in Swedish and most of them translated into English and other languages. Some of his screenplays have also come to use in stage theatre, often without the knowledge or license of the author (e.g. "Scenes from a Marriage", "Smiles of a Summer Night", "After the Rehearsal").

In 1968, when the Swedish film magazine "Chaplin" published an "anti-Bergman issue" to clear the air from the slightly suffocating presence of the genius director, who was collecting Oscars and Palmes d'Or by the handful, Bergman secretly contributed one of the more acerbic pieces, signed by "the French film critic Ernest Riffe". The word soon began to spread that he was the author himself, and though he half-heartedly denied this, in "Bergman on Bergman" he admits to the truth of the allegation.

External links

Overviews

*
*
* [http://www.ingmarbergman.se/ Ingmar Bergman Face to Face]
* [http://www.ingmarbergmanfoundation.com/ The Ingmar Bergman Foundation]
* [http://www.sweden.se/templates/cs/BasicFactsheet____4400.aspx A presentation of Ingmar Bergman] from the website Sweden.se.
* [http://www.bergmanorama.com/index.htm Bergmanorama: The magic works of Ingmar Bergman]
* [http://www.adherents.com/people/pb/Ingmar_Bergman.html The Religious Affiliation of Ingmar Bergman]
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/bergman.html Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database]
* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bergman.htm Brief biography at Kirjasto (Pegasos)]

Interviews

* [http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,427066,00.html The Guardian/NFT interview with Liv Ullmann by Shane Danielson, 23 January 2001]
* [http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Exclusive/0,,617467,00.html Bergman talks of his dreams and demons in rare interview, by Xan Brooks, "The Guardian", 12 December 2001]
* [http://www.fathom.com/feature/122159/index.html Interview with Sven Nyqvist - Bergman's cinematographer - on working with Bergman, 1984]
* [http://www.bergmanorama.com/ac_72.htm Comprehensive excerpt of a documentary about Bergman in 1972]
* [http://www.bergmanorama.com/playboy64.htm Playboy interview with Bergman in 1964]
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showpost.php?p=384322&postcount=1 Excerpt from a recent Swedish newspaper interview with Bergman, with candid opinions on the work of other directors]
* [http://vikingfilms.streamburst.tv Director interviews director. Ingmar Bergman visited Iceland in the summer of 1987 and was interviewed by Icelandic film director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson]

Other articles

* [http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,56897,00.html Derek Malcolm on "Wild Strawberries", 10 June 1999]
* [http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,435340,00.html Peter Bradshaw on "Trolösa", The Guardian, 9 February 2001]
* [http://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25352-2647981,00.html Robin Buss on "Saraband"] in the [http://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25352-2647981,00.html TLS] , 14 October 2005
* [http://film.guardian.co.uk/bergman/story/0,,2141682,00.html Twin visionaries of a darker art, The Guardian, 5 August 2007]
* [http://observaciones.sitesled.com/vidaymusica.htm Ingmar Bergman In Revista Observaciones Filosoficas]

Bibliographies

* [http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/bergman.html Ingmar Bergman Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)]
* [http://www.ingmarbergman.se Ingmar Bergman Site]
* [http://upress-test.hpc.msstate.edu/catalog/spring2007/ingmar_bergman.html Collection of interviews with Bergman]

Obituaries

* [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/01/entertainment/et-toddfield1/ Bergman – Ever the Provoker] Obituary by Todd Field
* [http://www.blastmagazine.com/2007/08/ingmar-bergman/ Remembering Ingmar Bergman] Obituary by Daniel Peleschuk, Culture Editor for Blast Magazine
* [http://www.cinema2000.pt/ficha.php3?id=7286/ Cinema2000] (in Portuguese)
* [http://www.close-upfilm.com/features/retrospectivearchive/ingmar_bergman.html Ingmar Bergman (1918 - 2007)] by Angus Macdonald, Close-Up Film
* [http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/famousperson/bergman/2609699 Obituary and Tribute]
* [http://newcentrist.wordpress.com/2007/08/17/woody-allen-on-bergman/ The Man Who Asked Hard Questions] Obituary by Woody Allen

Persondata
NAME= Bergman, Ingmar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Bergman, Ernst Ingmar
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Stage and film director
DATE OF BIRTH= birth date|df=yes|1918|7|14
PLACE OF BIRTH= Uppsala, Sweden
DATE OF DEATH= death date|df=yes|2007|7|30
PLACE OF DEATH= Fårö, Sweden


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