Director Review: INGMAR BERGMAN

I've never seen a film directed by Ingmar Bergman that was anything less than amazing. Woody Allen once described him as, "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera." I might have to agree. From the very start he saw the film medium as more than an entertainment opportunity, but as an art form. His techniques were revolutionary. The work he pulled from the great actors he worked with was some of the best of their careers. Interestingly he did so by helping them to stick to simplicity. And yet with each film of his that I see I'm further astounded by the complexity to be found in the subtext. Ingmar Bergman was a man that understood dichotomy. The relationship between reality and dream. Love and hate. Religion and doubt. One's desires and one's actions.

I've seen quite a few films by Bergman, so I'll share only a few thoughts on each. Still, this only represents a small portion of his gigantic oeuvre. I'm working on it.

SAWDUST AND TINSEL (1953): I've seen this a couple times, and each time I've been surprised that it doesn't get as much attention as some of Bergman's later work. This film is teeming with beautiful sexual tension and aggression. About a circus owner, Albert, and his mistress Anne, who find themselves in the town where Albert's wife and family live. When he decides to pay a visit Anne becomes jealous and begins an affair with the star of a rival carnival. My favorite part of this story is the separation between the characters' desires and their actions. Each one is almost destroyed by their pride and as the whole thing unfolds it gets messier and messier.

SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT (1955): Another intricate relationship drama, this film really is stolen by the performance of Harriet Andersson as the loose-moraled maid Petra. As several relationships, some marital, disintegrate (and just as many form) it's the events of her life that I found myself most emotionally connected to.

THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957): This is one of my all time favorite movies. A Crusades-seasoned knight challenges Death to a game of chess with dire stakes. I love how in every scene the viewer is reminded of death. Bergman never wants you to feel comfortable in this film. Even the scenes that don't feature the chess game make some mention of man's futile search for meaning and immortality. It's so beautifully dark! I also love the less than subtle contrast between the religious-minded people with their doom and gloom and the art-minded people who are portrayed as simply striving for joy, and often finding it.

WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957): Apparently Bergman was just on his game this year. This film has some of my favorite creepy dream sequences, reminiscent of Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou or Fellini's 8 1/2. An old professor reflects on his life and mistakes as he travels to receive an honorary degree from a university. We get to know main character Isak Borg's inner life so very well while he becomes reacquainted with himself.

THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960): Bergman won Best Foreign Language Film from the Academy for this one. It's a story about faith's divisive nature and its relationship to revenge and pain. One of the things I like about Bergman's religion-based works is that he lets the characters take the stances and make the statements while he seems to remain silent. It's clear that he has feelings on the subject of religion, but what side he falls on is often hard to determine.

PERSONA (1966): Unnerving, complex and affecting, this film is hard to really describe. Parts of it are clearly visual poetry and meant to be taken more figuratively than literally. I see it mostly as a study of identity and the effect others can have on our psyche.

HOUR OF THE WOLF (1968): When I first saw this film I thought the beginning felt very French New Wavey. It was interesting as the mood slowly slid into a more easily categorized horror film. Even then, I felt hints of Fellini mixed in with Hitchcockian influence. A very interesting, unnerving film.

CRIES AND WHISPERS (1973): Though HOUR OF THE WOLF is considered Bergman's only horror, I think this is much scarier. It's the story of four sisters, told through flashbacks while one of them is dying in bed. The complexity of familial love and hate, defense mechanisms, and the thin line between the supernatural and reality are just some of the themes of this intense, densely emotional film. Top score.

SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (1973): Cut down from a television series, the theatrical version of this work by Bergman is still a large undertaking. SCENES tells the story of one crumbling marriage and the difficulty of making decisions about love. It portrays love as so fleeting and difficult to understand that I'm convinced if everyone saw it there would be far fewer weddings.

FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982): Bergman's most celebrated film (earning 4 Academy Awards) is a bizarre mix of realism and magic. Two children, Fanny and Alexander lose their father and gain in his stead an abusive, strict minister step-father. As they try to adapt to their new home in a large, purportedly haunted castle, Alexander rebels and relations worsen. There are also interesting side stories told through the children's extended family about responsibility, infidelity and the pursuit of happiness in spite of poverty. Some of the film's most interesting moments deal with Alexander's relationship to various strange and supernatural occurrences (i.e. statues moving, seeing and speaking with his dead father, and meeting a very odd magician who shares some sort of bond with him). If there is any weakness to the film it's that it leaves you overwhelmed with the multiplicity of messages and emotions it conveys. But it's a truly marvelous work.

And that, friends, represents only about one-fifth of Bergman's directorial work. Needless to say, he left behind a dense legacy.

Next Director: CLAUDE BERRI