Remembering Bergman

The award- winning Swedish Filmmaker is considered a master of modern cinema and has inspired many with his style.

(c) Puja Goyal

"No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul." - Ingmar Bergman

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden to a Lutheran minister of Danish descent, Erik Bergman (later chaplain to the King of Sweden), and his wife, Karin. He is one of the most influential film directors in history; even influencing and inspiring the likes of Woody Allen, and Wes Craven.

Bergman always found the writing of a script a tedious job nevertheless he wrote his own scripts. He preferred to think about them for months, even years before actually writing them. Most of his earlier films were based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors; this could be one of the reasons why his films were very structured and precise. In his later works, Bergman stated that he gave the actors some leverage when his actors wanted to experiment. Later on, he increasingly let his actors improvise on their dialogues. He took a lot of risks; he was known to form ideas and scenes and allowed his actors to determine the exact dialogue.

"We must live", says the pastor in Bergman's "Winter light" to a man contemplating suicide. "WHY must we live?" retorts the man. This question occupies a central place in Bergman's works and life. Ingmar Bergman aimed at exploring the nature of the human condition. Majority of his films dealt with the rather bleak subjects of suffering, loneliness, solitude, sterility, somberness and the anguish of the soul.

Most of Bergman's films consist of close-ups of faces, ticking clocks and a forceful use of shadows in order to intensify the moment. "I don't watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry… and miserable. I think it's awful," Bergman, 85, had said in a rare interview on a Swedish TV.

Bergman's 60-year career has spanned intense classics like "Cries & Whispers", "The Seventh Seal", "Wild Strawberries" and "The Virgin Spring". He has been nominated for nine Oscars himself, while his films have won Oscars won best foreign film three times.
(pic: bergman working on "wild strawberries")

Although Bergman was known for his contribution to cinema, he was in fact a stage director and producer all his life. He managed and directed most prestigious theatres in Sweden, notably the Malmö city theatre in the 1950s and the Stockholm Royal Dramatic Theatre, as well as the Residenz-Theater of Munich, Germany (1977-84). Many of his actors in film were people with whom he began working on stage, and the "Bergman troupe" of his 1960s films consisted of actors from Malmö's city theatre.

Bergman was chosen the world's greatest living filmmaker by "Time" magazine (11 July 2005). He retired from filmmaking in 1984, and then in 2003, at the age of 85, he retired from directing plays.

Mr. Bergman often talked about what he considered the dual nature of his creative and private personalities. “I am very much aware of my own double self,” he once said. “The well-known one is very under control; everything is planned and very secure. The unknown one can be very unpleasant. I think this side is responsible for all the creative work — he is in touch with the child. He is not rational; he is impulsive and extremely emotional.”

Bergman's obsession with death subsided with time. “When I was young, I was extremely scared of dying,” he said. “But now I think it a very, very wise arrangement. It’s like a light that is extinguished. Not very much to make a fuss about.”

Ingmar Bergman died at his home on Fårö, Sweden, in the early morning of July 30, 2007, aged 89. The rock band Van Halen wrote, "The Seventh Seal" as an ode to his films.