Ingmar Bergman has made more than 60 films, which are considered the golden legacy of world cinema. On the day of remembrance of the greatest Swedish auteur director, the BURO editorial team has chosen five pictures to help you understand him better.
The black-and-white film is based on Bergman’s one-act play Painting on Wood. The plot centers on the knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and his squire Jons (Gunnar Björnstrand), who return to their homeland from a crusade after a ten-year absence from their homeland. On the deserted riverbank, Death (Bengt Ekerot) appears to the knight in the guise of a man in black. The knight, tormented by doubts about the existence of God and the Devil, invites Death to play a game of chess with him. If he wins, Death must take the knight, and if he loses, he must leave him. The film is steeped in religious symbolism and speaks of the nature of existence and man’s place in the world, of the search for the meaning of life and for God.
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The director himself called the film one of the most important in his work. The plot centers on Elisabeth Vogler (Liv Ullman), a famous actress. One day, in the middle of a performance, something strange happens: Elizabeth falls silent. At first it is not clear whether she has become mute or whether she is offended by everyone and does not want to talk to anyone. The artist turns to the doctor (Margaret Krok), and she gives him a verdict: Elizabeth is mentally healthy, but is in a strange state, like numbness. The doctor advises Elizabeth to relax in nature with her sister (Bibi Andersson). It is interesting that Bergman initially wanted to call the film differently – “Cinematograph”, as the film begins with a demonstration of how the lamp of a film projector is turned on, frames flicker, the film breaks and the lamp goes out. But the producer prevented this.
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Ingmar Bergman is a subtle and well-known expert on human relationships. The 1973 film is divided into six scenes, each of which represents a fragment of the 20 years of life of Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Jozefsson). The viewer watches as abortion, infidelity and hypocrisy gradually lead the family to divorce. But at the height of tension, the couple begins to show each other understanding, compassion and sincerity: it is never too late to fix something. The production of one of Bergman’s central works lasted only four months. The Swedish director was so captivated by the characters that at the end of his career he made a sequel – the film “Sarabande”, where he spoke about the mature years of the main characters’ lives.
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Isak Borg (Victor Sjöström), a 78-year-old professor of medicine, and his daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) are driving to collect the professor’s award in Lund. The plane tickets had already been purchased on the eve of the trip, but something forces the man to suddenly change his travel plan. On the way, they are joined by several young fellow travelers. Meetings and incidents are interspersed with visions and dreams, in which images from the past emerge, where the hero meets his family: young brothers, cousins, parents, deceased wife. The title of the film refers to the Swedish term Smultronstället, which is an idiom for a favorite place associated with positive emotions and memories. At the same time, out of subtle irony, the Swedes nicknamed the local psychiatric clinics “strawberry meadows.” Paradoxically, the director wrote the script for one of his most brilliant films in the hospital, thinking about his imminent death: the doctors suspected cancer.
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The film takes place between 1907 and 1910. The plot focuses on the fate of children Alexander Ekdahl (Bertil Gouvet) and his sister Fanny (Pernilla Allvin), whose carefree life ends after the death of their father. While the sister tries to maintain a pure soul and not give in to melancholy and despondency, Alexander withdraws, becoming darker and harsher. The film received four Oscar statuettes and a Golden Globe. By the way, the film has two versions: a full television version and a short version for cinema. Bergman himself noted: “The television version is the main one. It is for this film that I am ready to answer with my head today. Film distribution was necessary, but it was not of paramount importance.”
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