"Ingmar Bergman's films utterly depressing" -- Ingmar Bergman

Crisis was pretty good for a first film. Surprised by how much of a piece it felt with the rest of his work. As with every movie of his I've seen there's at least one moment that is transcendent - in this one, the train sequence with the triple superimposition of Mutti's face and those memories. Retro here is only doing one a month though, so Port of Call in a month, To Joy in May. So it'll be minor work for a while, at least until the summer.

I watched the Criterion of Summer with Monika last weekend, remembered very little about it, including the "Look how hot my new girlfriend is" angle. The famous closeup of Harriet Andersson near the end is really something, but it's hard to read the denouement as anything but a Goddamn Bitch cautionary fable.

It might be fun to watch the US exploitation cut sometime:

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2332-monika-trailer-for-broad-minds-only

Also the CC has a short edited from IB's location movies (taken with a Bell & Howell); look, Ingmar laughs! Constantly!

wow that trailer is nuts. is the dubbed version actually a different cut? I prefer Summer Interlude, though I like Monika more than SMOASN, which I thought really dragged (108 minutes feels long for him).

yes, it was scissored down by an American hustler and dubbed with what sounds like a completely different script.

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2317-monika-the-story-of-a-bad-girl

Centennial day on Saturday, and afaik no films showing in New York.

Watch the TV version of Fanny and Alexander at home.

saw Thirst projected last night, fourth out of the 30 Bergman movies my local art house will be showing over the next two years. Really strange movie, didn't really cohere in the end, but such a great performance by Eva Henning. I was struck by the opening title sequence, so flamboyant for him! reminded me of a Hitchcock opening. Interesting use of (very loud) sound, and modular synths (!). Worth checking out if you have the chance, only 84 minutes.

The 1940s and 1950s movies are currently playing at the National Gallery of Art (DC). The subsequent movies will be playing at the AFI Silver (Silver Spring, MD) later this year. I'm planning on going to this weekend's screenings; will any other ILXors be there?

was thinking of going to the Wild Strawberries 35mm screening this month but the retro here is probably going to play it in the fall (DCP though).

or should say I assume it'll be DCP. who knows

Ingmar Bergman's films are utterly depressing imo

I know, great aren't they?

Fanny and Alexander is the only one that has terrified me and I have no desire to revisit it any time soon. All of his other work I've seen (15 films) is utterly life-affirming & inspiring obv.

neither library system within my reach carries the F&A TV version

i will have to wait for the Brooklyn video store to reopen at our downtown Alamo Drafthouse

I found Wild Strawberries (on 35mm, FWIW) soporific. Crisis and It Rains on Our Love are straight-up melodramas, and all the better for it.

(BTW, this is certainly about me, not you, but when I hear the term "life-affirming" in association with any film, I reach for...whatever this libbiest lib that ever libbed would substitute for for a revolver.)

A flower iirc

xp yea it is overused. and really what I mean by that is they give me an enormous amount of contagious creativity. I leave his movies with electricity surging thru me.

but j.lu, Bergman isn't fully Bergman in those early films.

Perhaps, but if there's one thing I've learned from ILM, it's that preferring an artist's early and harder-to-find work is a GREAT contrarian play. (Serious? I don't even know any more.)

I'll reiterate what I said about Thirst upthread, it's definitely worth checking out because it's not quite the straight melodrama of Crisis or Port of Call but there's still more "plot," jumbled as it is. Can't overstate how strange the sound is in that movie.

The NGA has scheduled Thirst and Prison for 7/22. I'm planning on going (and smuggling in a stash of chocolate-covered espresso beans, in case sleepiness strikes).

I've seen nearly all of the 1950-1982 Bergmans now, most on big screen, and have decided that Hour of the Wolf has the most interesting soundtrack. Modernist music from Lars Johan Werle, who also did the music in Persona.

not one of his strongest movies, though

I think it has some of his best but also some of his most ill-advised (even goofy) scenes in it

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/1427-ingmar-bergman-s-cinema

30 BluRays!

wow, hope that's eligible in the usual November half price sale

I don't need to own all those. (which is how i feel about films in general)

Hoooooooooooooooooly shit

Yeah I hope I can get that 50% off. I already own ~11 of these but fuck it, there are very few filmmakers (artists, even) that I would shell out for like this. Really excited. I’ve held off on getting any of the films not on Blu-Ray & I don’t own the Eclipse series so this is a real treat, can’t wait.

Too rich for my blood, even at 50% off, so I’m really hoping that some of the more obscure titles will be made available for individual rental on iTunes and whatnot (not even gonna bother trying to pester my library to get this).

Filmstruck has all the features in that set except A Ship to India, Brink of Life, Färo Document, The Touch, The Serpent's Egg, After the Rehearsal and Saraband. But for everything on blu, plus the supplements and shorts and book, I'll def shell out $150 if I can get it at that price. I don't own any Bergman on disc, so I won't be duplicating anything.

Can't believe everyone is making such a big deal about a hundred-year-old ventriloquist.

I capitulated, unwisely.

Are box sets like this typically excluded from their sale? I remember getting the Cassavetes & Tati boxes during the sale last year, but those are 5 or 6 films each, not 39 (!)

Was the Olympics box excluded?

I watched The Best Intentions on Amazon last week, my first screening since 1994 (on PBS!) so this one might as well count as a first.

The July sale is still ongoing, and the Olympic box is down from $399 to $199, so this should definitely be available. Really glad I didn't finally pick up Persona last week, even though it was near the top of my list...

Assayas on Bergman

https://www.filmcomment.com/article/where-are-we-with-bergman/

Ingmar Bergman tried to live in LA for a summer but as soon as Barbra Streisand called to invite him to a pool party he was on the next plane back to Sweden lmao pic.twitter.com/5tlmrBK2y4

— Lauren Wilford (@lauren_wilford) July 17, 2018

idk I'd wanna hang out with Barbra drinking limoncello by the pool

lol yeah i remember reading that story somewhere else, IB had one of his nervous breakdowns after that phone call and left immediately

I watched Bergman Island just a couple of days ago and he tells that story in passing.

no doubt Ingrid would've preferred to stay.

why?

pretty sure Barbra was a better poolside companion than Liv + Ingmar.

(and yes, yes, I know how much she wanted to work with him)

we're clear that "Ingrid" is Bergman's fifth and last wife, right?

(not the other Ingrid Bergman)

I thought it was Ingrid the actress before production of Autumn Sonata.

when did he take that brief stab at living in LA? mid or late 70s?

76?

I like this line (from Mel Brooks apparently): "When Bergman left Sweden he complained about the persecution, the metaphysical anguish, the impossibility of realizing himself as an artist, the impotence created by the welfare state, the creeping Big Brotherism of the state ... When he left California three weeks later, he complained about the heat."

That was '75, as per the photo of him posing with the Jaws mechanical shark (postrelease). So likely too early for Autumn Sonata (and I don't think IB the actress wd've been into a summer of rehearsals).