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

so Linn Ullmann, who's written several novels, has finally penned one based on her relationship with her famous parents. She was profiled in the NYT Magazine last week.

noted here:

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6151-january-books

Reading the Linn Ullmann book now, it's good. Lotsa detail about IB's personal habits, daily life at the house on Fåro, and the complicated dynamics of the Bergman/Ullmann family. Passages where she's trying to interview her dad as he's entering his dotage near the end are naturally pretty sad. Not yet clear on why this is called a novel instead of a straight-up memoir with names omitted.

RIP Bibi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UMbvohZ_iY

:-(

otherwise fine NY Times obit has a mistake in it:

In addition to winning four Guldbagge Awards, the Swedish equivalent of the Oscar, she was named best actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958 for “Nara Livet” (“Brink of Life”), sharing the award with three co-stars, and best actress at the Berlin Film Festival in 1963 for the title role in “Alskarinnan” (“The Mistress”). Paradoxically (and surprisingly, to many), neither was a Bergman film.

Brink of Life is a Bergman film, and a great one at that. Not sure of its availability outside the Criterion boxset.

It's still second tier Bergman -- the script is worse than the direction -- but I've realized I've been wrong about Autumn Sonata because I've denied how closely it cuts to the bone. I know way too many mothers and daughters in this same cycle of rage and affection.

I've started working my way again through Bergman chronologically, I've only gotten to Port of Call so far. Can't wait til I get to the later stuff

I'm working my way through the big criterion collection box. Still only about a quarter of the way through. Trying to keep track of my Bergman power rankings as I proceed. There have been some nice surprises so far and a couple duds. A whole bunch of ones I've never seen before too.

I saw The Virgin Spring yesterday at sort of a sparsely attended screening. even knowing the movie going in I underestimated how unbelievably harrowing and intense it is on a big screen and with other people, who were all either dead silent or openly weeping.

that's the kind of screening I want to attend

I just realized I've never seen any of his films on the big screen. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify that someday.

To me "showing cycles of rage and affection" is something that makes it 1st tier. Can't say I know what you mean on the direction, probably because I don't quite know how to evaluate that stuff.

The staging and framing are often A+; the writing too on-the-nose (probably one offscreen death too many).

I reckon he takes quite a lot of risks with that script, hence maybe why you feel it's on-the-nose.

It does feel like Bergman is doing a session of psychoanalysis and ends up breaking people lol.

was Summer With Monika really the film that made US critics/audiences recognize that Sweden had a more sexually liberated culture? if so, that’s interesting

I loved Smiles of a Summer Night

That was a new one to me when I got the criterion set, and it's probably my favorite find, absolutely delightful.

his best comedy - his only good comedy? the ones I've seen (Waiting Women and All These Women) are terrible

Have never seen The Devils's Eye, is that a bad comedy too?

I'd like to hear any review of The Devil's Eye, one of the very few classic period Bergmans I've not seen.

HIs birthday today - 101

wasn't expecting to love Wild Strawberries so much, seeing it again after decades

have been re-reading the thread. I guess you could call Wild Strawberries ‘life-affirming’. I just really liked how much of a fantasia it was, mixing absurd real events, dreams, and memories in the protagonist’s path from withdrawal to engagement. Victor Sjöström was great in it

thought To Joy was one of the strangest and most interesting of his early films

I enjoyed seeing the 60s Bergman films that are supposed to form a trilogy - Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence.

According to Bergman “these three films deal with reduction: Through a Glass Darkly – conquered certainty; Winter Light – penetrated certainty; The Silence – God's silence, the negative imprint.”

They are very dark (The Silence also has a lot of humor), but they are all fantastic

thought The Silence did seem somewhat Fellini-esque as flappy bird mentioned above, mostly the sections with the the child

Those are coming up soon in my Bergman box. I haven't seen them in about 15 years, but I remember them all being brutally bleak.

they all seem to be focused on the acknowledgement of the silence of god, and the choices that the characters then have about how to live their lives: Through a Glass Darkly ultimately concluding that god is love amid the scenes of hopelessness; Winter Light, in which rational discussions of love for and belief in god and belief in human relationships reveal them to be problematic, with some hope ultimately offered for faith; The Silence, even further diminishing our confidence in faith but also maybe elevating it, offering of a huge ray of light with the character of Johan1

Ended up skipping over Persona, Hour of the Wolf, The Passion of Anna, and Cries and Whispers for the moment and watching Scenes from a Marriage, the theatrical version. The first time I saw it was as a teenager. It feels now like it was of its time, in a good way

Gotta do the long version, it's so good

thinking I should, maybe will wait until I work my way through the rest of his films though. It does bring up for me the question of whether to watch the mini-series version or theatrical version of Fanny and Alexander

seeing this again a lot of its appeal is in the attractiveness of the two main characters, and I can now better relate to their worry about the reality of love, about the possibility of not having loved or been loved enough

It definitely hit me harder on my recent viewing than the previous one some 15 years ago. A big part of it is just their wonderful acting and all the long, long takes.

I prefer the theatrical F&A, it flows better, but both are worth watching.

I probably say it a couple times a year on this board, but you NEED to watch the full cut of F&A.

criterion channel does have both

really looking forward to seeing Persona again

Cries and Whisper is intense, it feels like a culmination of his surreal psychosexual dramas

I like Ebert’s description that the camera darts and falls back as if stunned, then in other scenes doesn’t look away when you want it to, focusing on the close-up with extreme impassivity

not sure what I think of Face to Face as a film, but Liv Ullmann is an incredible force in it

“love surrounds everything, even death” is a good resolution

it is kind of amazing that he allows dream scenes to take over big segments of his films

Face to Face is second tier Bergman. I have trouble remembering it beyond Ullmann reaction shots (as ever).

it feels like a lot of his characters even if they are tragic are willing/trying to support others

I love that about his films

The Serpent's Egg definitely seems like lesser Bergman

It's the one film of his I couldn't be bothered to finish.

Wild Strawberries is still my favorite of all of Bergman’s films. It is expansive and kind-hearted. It worries about the regrets we all have over the instances of rejection and distance that take place in the course of our lives but in the end it understands that compassion overrides everything. It is amazing that he made this when he was 39 years old

I've realized I've been wrong about Autumn Sonata because I've denied how closely it cuts to the bone. I know way too many mothers and daughters in this same cycle of rage and affection.

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, June 4, 2019

There has always been praise for Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata, but seeing it now Liv Ullmann’s performance seems as great. They are both particularly good in their scenes with each other

Pretty surprised by Dreams, a masterpiece by anyone else. I know Godard was a big fan (he either reviewed it in full or in passing, but he cited it a lot in his early criticism), anyway I'm pretty sure he lifted the opening shot of Alphaville from the train sequence in Dreams. Solidly second tier Bergman imo—a movie that lingers like a dream and feels just as elusive and emotionally obscure.

Dreams is one of the Bergman films I’ve missed, along with Sawdust and Tinsel

The first half of Fanny and Alexander is lovely and heartwarming, even when the events progress into sadness. The increasing cruelty of life in the Vergérus household in the second half is distressing but is made endurable because of Alexander’s optimism and bravery, and because the story is eventually overtaken by mystical events and by the return of Emilie, Fanny, and Alexander to the family

Dreams doesn't appear to be streaming or on US disc

It's in the big ol' box