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Posted: |
Dec 7, 2011 - 3:30 PM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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Interesting review of the Bergman's Island documentary on Amazon. I can't wait to see it:
"He's an old man living alone on a remote Swedish island. The island has only 600 inhabitants, and the locals respect his desire for solitude. When visitors ask where the old man lives, the locals say they don't know. When we meet him he's 86, and he's been a widower for the past eight years. While he once thought of death as nothing more than a light being extinguished, he still feels his late wife's presence each day. This convinces him that whatever death may be, it is not nothingness.
This man is Ingmar Bergman, just a few years before his death in 2007. As a film-maker he explored all aspects of the human condition. And in the fascinating documentary BERGMAN ISLAND he reveals many of the ways in which that exploration was autobiographical, driven by his family history, his personal failings, and his ever-present demons.
When we meet Bergman, we discover that he starts his day with breakfast then a walk on the island. He sits down at the same time each day and writes for three hours. It's a routine he maintains in order to avoid giving into the demons or slipping into depression. His housekeeper comes in at 3pm. Some days he doesn't talk to another human being.
But he's been working again. Directing "Saraband," the belated follow-up to his internationally acclaimed "Scenes From a Marriage." In his talks with documentarian Marie Nyreröd, we also learn some interesting facts about the autobiographical nature of many of the most dramatic scenes in those highly personal movies. He also opens up about the cruelty he has inflicted on others and the "family laziness" that led him to abandon nine children born to five different wives.
Bergman's recollections span everything from his childhood to his later years. We hear about physical abuse from dad and a trip to the shrink with mom (who was concerned about his "girlish" need for hugs and caresses). We gain insights into his days at film school, as a stage director and a pioneer in TV direction, and discover the inspiration for several famous scenes (playing chess with Death in "The Seventh Seal," for instance). We relive with him his early successes--at Cannes and in Hollywood. These successes gave Bergman carte blanche to write and direct his own movies from an early point in his career. Looking back, he has some regret that this autonomy also made him miss finding a great collaborator or having a critic who would really give him an unvarnished opinion about his work."
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Posted: |
Jan 18, 2014 - 10:24 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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Great news! PERSONA is being given a 3-disc Criterion treatment! Release date March 25, 2014.
http://www.criterion.com/films/28491-persona
New, 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New visual essay on the film’s prologue by Ingmar Bergman scholar Peter Cowie
New interviews with actor Liv Ullmann and filmmaker Paul Schrader
Excerpted archival interviews with Bergman, Ullmann, and actor Bibi Andersson
On-set footage, with audio commentary by Bergman historian Birgitta Steene
Liv & Ingmar, a 2012 feature documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Thomas Elsaesser, an excerpt from the 1970 book Bergman on Bergman, and an excerpted 1977 interview with Andersson
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Posted: |
Jan 18, 2014 - 1:45 PM
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By: |
ToneRow
(Member)
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One of the great things about a new video format (e.g., Blu-ray) is that it makes the daunting task of approaching a director's work seem more manageable. Directors like Bergman, Kurosawa, Allen who have a huge acclaimed catalog can become much more accessible when a new restoration of their films is only released every few months instead of having a huge variety of choices to dive into all at once!
The only Bergman I've seen so far are Wild Strawberries and Saraband but I'm really looking forward to exploring more of his stuff this year.
Hi, mastage.
Gratified to read that you willing to embark on exploration of Ingmar Bergman.
My own experience is almost the reverse of yours, though.
The first Bergman film I watched was his 1958 THE MAGICIAN (aka THE FACE) and I was immediately hooked. This was in 1989 and almost the entire oeuvre of Bergman was already on VHS by that time.
Between the remainder of '89 & '90, I purchased all Bergman films on VHS which were in print (the only one that I never got was his 1970 THE TOUCH which was already out-of-print).
My journey into Bergman (as well as Antonioni, Bunuel, Teshigahara, etc.) was hardly a daunting task - it was (and is) a joy! 
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Posted: |
Jul 7, 2017 - 6:40 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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Lately I feel like I've existed in the black and white Sweden as photographed by Gunnar Fischer and Sven Nykvist, because in recent days I've had the privilege--and it truly is a privilige to have watched this great artist's work--of watching several Ingmar Bergman films from the 1950s and 1960s, and all have been at the very least, interesting. There are always great performances in a Bergman film, even in the one film I disliked (The Virgin Spring) and there is always something of value in every Bergman film.
Bergman's best-known actors are Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann, and while they are always reliable and worth watching, my personal favorites would be Gunnar Björnstrand and Ingrid Thulin.
Ratings wise, of the films I've seen thus far, Wild Strawberries, Winter Light, and The Rite (all get 8/10) are my favorites.
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