Biography: life and films
In a career spanning six decades, Ingmar Bergman created a body of film
work which is virtually unique in its consistent level of profundity,
brilliance and thematic coherence. Although his films have a
reputation for being bleak and inaccessible, they deal with fundamental
truths about the human condition, exploring matters that are of
interest to us all - matters of faith, love and identity. No
film director has probed the human psyche with such rigour and candour,
and with such a blistering insight into what makes us tick.
Anyone who takes the time to become acquainted with Bergman's work will
soon realise that he was far more than a filmmaker. He was a poet
and philosopher, a man who had a profound need to understand his place
in the universe and an equal need to articulate this understanding to
others through the medium of film.
Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, on 14th
July 1918. His father was a Lutheran minister who
would serve as chaplain to the King of Sweden; his mother was a
nurse. The austerity of Bergman's childhood, the disciplined
regime to which his father subjected him, would stay with him
throughout his life and would have a marked impact on his future
work. Crucially, Bergman lost his faith when he was eight years
old and this led him to develop an interest in the metaphysical
that would also greatly influence his film work.
In 1937, Bergman was admitted to Stockholm University to study art and
literature. It was here that he found his interest for the
theatre and began writing and directing plays. Although he is
best known for his work as a film director, he also had busy parallel
career in the theatre throughout his professional life. He was
just 26 when he became manager of Helsingborg city theatre. He
was director of Gothenburg city theatre from 1946 to 1949 and this was
followed by equivalent positions at the Malmö city theatre and the
Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. His passion for the stage
was at least equal to, if not greater than, his love of cinema.
Bergman's film career began in the early 1940s when he was hired by
Svensk Filmindustri (SF), Sweden's leading film production company, in
a script revising capacity. This led him to write the
screenplay for the 1944 film
Torment,
directed by Alf Sjöberg. The immense success of this film
prompted SF to commission Bergman to direct his first film,
Crisis
(1946). This was not, however, the most auspicious of
debuts. The film was a commercial disaster and even Bergman
described the experience as a fiasco, thanks to his inability to get on
with his cast and crew. Dropped by SF, Bergman was given a
second chance by the independent film producer Lorens Marmstedt.
Again, Bergman failed to shine, and his films continued to lose money at the
Swedish box office.
Bergman's early films may not be masterpieces but they do reveal a
gutsy young director assiduously learning his trade, acquiring the
skills that would be put to good use in the future. These films
have no strong thematic link and are a mix of the experimental and the
commercially bland, although they are stylishly made and show a strong
influence of French poetic realism and Italian neo-realism. It
was the commercial success of Bergman's fourth film,
Music in Darkness (1948), that
led Svensk Filmindustri to take him back, beginning a long and
successful collaboration.
After a few more non-descript works, Bergman seemed finally to find his
voice with
Summer Interlude (1951), a
poignant film on the transience of love and life that prefigures much
of his subsequent work. This was followed by the amusing
comedy-drama
Waiting Women (1952) and the
lyrical
Summer with Monika (1953), both
commercial successes which earned the director acclaim outside his native
Sweden. In 1955, Bergman had his first major international
hit,
Smiles of a Summer Night, a
riotous French farce which is the absolute antithesis of Bergman's
later films.
At this point, Ingmar Bergman entered what has been described as his
existentialist phase. Films such as
The Seventh Seal (1957) and
Wild Strawberries (1957), along
with the trilogy comprising
Through a Glass Darkly (1961),
Winter Light (1962) and
The
Silence (1963), deal with deeper, metaphysical themes, about
faith, man's relationship to God, spiritual identity, and the nature of
existence itself. This period encompasses Bergman's best known
work and is the one that defines how most people now regard his films -
austere, minimalist, looking inwards for answers to life's great
mysteries, and ultimately pessimistic. Although this was
Bergman's most inspired and productive time, the director was
experiencing severe emotional and psychological difficulties and came
close to committing suicide.
In the early 1960s, Bergman took up residence on Fårö, a
barren island in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Russia. This
would provide the location for many of his subsequent film, including
Persona
(1966), his most experimental film and one which many consider to be
his greatest work. It was whilst making this film that Bergman
first worked with Liv Ullmann, a little known Norwegian actress who
would feature in a total of nine of his films, making her an
international star. Of all the actors Bergman worked with,
Ullmann was the one with whom he had the closest professional and
personal relationship. They lived
together for a short time on Fårö and had a daughter, Linn
Ullmann. Bergman had a notoriously complicated love
life. Not only did he marry five times, he also had affairs with
many of his leading actresses.
In the decade that followed
Persona,
Bergman entered a new phase, in which his films would be less concerned
with existential themes and would focus more on human issues - the
psychology of women, the flawed nature of marriage and the inability of
men and women to communicate. The high point of this period was
the five hour series that Bergman made for Swedish television,
Scenes from a Marriage (1973),
which was then edited into an equally successful film.
Ingmar Bergman's career almost came to an abrupt halt in 1976 when the
Swedish authorities began pursuing him for alleged tax evasion.
Although the charges were subsequently dropped, the experience came
close to destroying Bergman. After a nervous breakdown, the
director went into a self-imposed exile in Munich, Germany, where he
stayed for eight years. Here, he continued making films -
including
The Serpents' Egg (1977), his
biggest commercial failure, and
Autumn
Sonata (1978), his one collaboration with actress Ingrid
Bergman - but the main outlet for his creative energies during this period was the
theatre.
In 1982, Bergman was finally persuaded to return to Sweden to direct
Fanny and Alexander, his most
lavish production, which won four Oscars (including Best Foreign
Language Film). He declared that this would be his last film,
although he continued writing scripts for television and film
and made a handful of films for Swedish television. At
the age of 84, he made a surprise directorial comeback with
Saraband
(2003), a sequel to
Scenes from a
Marriage. This was to be his last film. Ingmar
Bergman died peacefully in his sleep on his beloved island of
Fårö on 30th July 2007, aged 89. His legacy
to us is a remarkable collection of films that will long endure.
© James Travers 2009
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