"BERGMAN AND THE CINEMA" "PRIVATE PROPERTY" "This... is what my very first cinematograph looked like." "I must have been about eight years old." "There was a photography shop on Hamngatan in Stockholm." "Its real business was cameras." "It also had toy cinematographs, however." "I often walked past this shop." "In the window there was a cinematograph." "My dream was to be given one." "Christmas came around in due course." "A few days before Christmas, Mr Jansson appeared as usual." "Aunt Anna von Sydow was immensely wealthy." "He was her chauffeur." "He was carrying a large package  that clearly contained smaller packages within it." "Aunt Anna always gave splendid presents." "I thought that I would finally get a cinematograph." "Then Christmas Eve came around" "This was a busy time for my father:" "Christmas prayers and the early service on Christmas Day..." "A great many people came to the huge breakfast on Christmas Day." "But then, on the evening of Christmas Day  we all gathered in the dining-room." "Presents were then given out, one by one." "This box was lifted up." "Then my father read out  what was written on the side:" ""To Dag, from Aunt Anna."" "Rarely in eight years of my life  or the 80 years of my life  have I suffered such a dreadful disappointment." "I dived under the table." "I lay there weeping and refused to come out." "My brother Dag and myself shared a room in those days." "Aunt Anna had given me a teddy-bear." "Can you imagine anything  more humiliating than a teddy-bear?" "My brother didn't give a damn about cinematographs." "He liked playing with tin soldiers." "He had a large army of them." "That cinematograph stood there on the table  in the middle of our room." "It shone mysteriously." "I lay in my bed looking at it." "I thought to myself:" ""It's now or never."" "So I woke my brother  and said to him:" ""I'll sell you my entire army." I had about 150 tin soldiers." ""I will sell you my entire army if you give me the cinematograph."" "My brother thought that this was a fantastic idea." "He agreed immediately and the cinematograph was mine." "FILM CITY" "That canteen up there looks much as it did in my day." "Can you see that window?" "It's the window near the corner on the ground floor." "That was where I had a little room." "There was just enough space for a chair and a desk." " Is this it?" " Yes." "Many of Ingmar Bergman's 56 films have been shot at Filmstaden in Stockholm." "The first one was Frenzy (Torment) In 1944." "Alf Sjöberg directed." "Ingmar Bergman was the screenwriter and assistant director." "I knew nothing." "I had only written the script  but I was entrusted with continuity." "I came up with a trick." "As soon as Alf Sjöberg said "cut"" " I ran to the actor and said:" ""Remember how you held your hands, damn it!"" "Frenzy (Torment) 1944 We'll begin with your homework." "Quickly!" "Quickly!" ""The battle lasted for three days."" ""The Romans put Hannibal's troops to flight"  "took many prisoners and brought them before the consul."" "What might this be?" "Illicit material to aid your studies..." " I forgot to rub it out." " "I forgot to rub it out."" "Of course." ""I forgot to rub it out..."" "This is cheating, Sir!" "Cheating!" "The character of Caligula actually existed." "He was called "The Jockey"  because he rode us so hard that we became losers and failures." "He was our teacher in English." "He chose me to be his victim..." "and he terrorised me." " Did you not enjoy school at all?" " No." "I was terribly frightened." "I was a model student because I was always scared." "I always had a stomach-ache." "I thought that Swedish was fun  because I was good at writing essays." "I began writing "Frenzy" as a novel." " The film sparked a lot of debate." " Indeed it did." "I don't think it really changed anything." "However, terror of a physical nature  whereby pupils are thrashed  is not something that I have experienced." "However, there was a mental terror  that was quite considerable." "In 1945, the year after Frenzy, Ingmar Bergman made his debut as director." "He was 27 years old, and the film was Crisis." "When I directed my first film here, all I did was shout and quarrel." "I didn't know anything." "I was incredibly insecure." "At the same time, Victor Sjöström came to work here." "He had been in England for a long time." "He was made the artistic director." "He was told that everyone was complaining about Bergman." ""You are now the artistic director." "He might have some respect for you."" ""Can't you talk to the lad?"" ""He's crazy." "Everyone is complaining about him."" "One day during the lunch break, Victor was standing here." "This is exactly where he was standing." "Victor was standing here, waiting for me." "I said to him:" ""Good day to you, Mr Sjöström."" "He grabbed hold of me." "I was bowing to him as I walked past and he grabbed me like this." "He wasn't very..." "And then he said:" ""I am told they are quarrelling with you, Mr Bergman."" ""But they are not quarrelsome, it is you who are quarrelsome!"" ""And I think we should have a little chat."" ""I think we should have a chat," he said, as he shook me." "People gathered in the windows to see me getting told off." "And then we must have walked back and forth for an hour." "He gave me my first real lesson in how to make films  and above all how to behave  towards the people you work with and the actors." "If "Crisis" had proved to be popular" " I would have been allowed to continue." "Both the press and the public deemed it a fiasco, however." "The boss said:" ""If that bloody Bergman makes another film here, I quit!"" "So I had to quit." "I thought..." "I was sad, because I wanted to continue making films." "Then I got a phone call  from a producer called Lorens Marmstedt." "He said:" ""I have been to see 'Crisis'."" ""Quite frankly it was absolutely dreadful."" ""I gather they are enthusiastic about you in Film City"  "but that due to a misunderstanding you can no longer make films there."" ""Modest and poor as I am, may I join the queue of producers?"" ""I have a little film here that might just suit you."" "He was very sarcastic." "Lorens Marmstedt was..." "He was splendid." "He was a gambler." "His gambling instincts were probably part of the reason  for wanting to recruit me." "Yes indeed..." "Lorens allowed you to write and direct your own films, didn't he?" "Yes." "It was fantastic to get an offer like that from Lorens." "I was completely..." "I went completely crazy with joy." "I wasn't sober for days." "Prison (The Devil's Wanton) 1949" "About Prison 1962 If you stab someone, they will scream or say "ow!"" "This film is an unusually spontaneous "ow!"  in response to violent pressure." "When you get older and have been involved in the arts for some time  you find that art is not a spontaneous "ow!"" "It is what has been digested and objectified, in my view." ""Devilishly skilful!" "Corrosively powerful"" "When did you feel that you really could make films?" "I can tell you the exact moment." "It was when I was making..." "Summer Interlude (lllicit Interlude) 1951 ..."Summer Interlude"." "Film is like music." "Both film and music bypass the intellect and assail the emotions." "Both film and music are rhythm respiration..." "That is what I had learnt." "Ingmar Bergman soon became known for his portrayals of man's darker sides" " but he also created some comedies." "I remember the first time  that I heard the audience laugh." "It was a film I made  called "Waiting Women"." "It contains an episode  that I had taken from my own life." "I and my wife at the time  were visiting friends in Copenhagen." "Ellen and I went to a party that night." "We had been given keys  because we were staying with our friends." "We got back at about two o'clock in the morning." "I put the key in the lock and it broke..." "We were forced to sit there." "We didn't want to ring the bell and disturb our friends." "We sat there until six or seven in the morning  which seemed a reasonable time to ring the bell  and discussed our marriage, sitting on the steps." "We had never been forced together in that way." "Waiting Women (Secrets of Women) 1952" " Kajsa, I was thinking..." " I'm all ears." "Now that we're alone, for once we can be honest, just for fun." " Tomorrow we'll forget what is said." " I shudder at the thought!" " I often wonder if you..." " Carry on!" "It's silly." "You may misunderstand..." "Have you ever been unfaithful?" "Naturally." "Indeed?" " And you admit it?" "!" " Well, you did ask." " Is it more fun to make comedies?" " No." "It's harder." "It's more tiresome." "It's trickier but you don't need to be in a particularly good mood." "It's just that..." "You know that it's a different intonation, a different key." "Ingmar Bergman's international breakthrough came in 1956 when Smiles of a Summer Night won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival." "Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)" "I must have died nonetheless..." ""Smiles of a Summer Night" was the turning-point in your career..." "Yes, because I had made "Smiles of a Summer Night"  and it was a success everywhere." "It earned huge sums of money for the Swedish film industry  so I was given a free hand after that." "It's extraordinary..." "I didn't even know that the film was being shown in Cannes." "I had no idea..." "Oh, Henrik...!" "I love you." "I remember sitting on the toilet that morning  reading Svenska Dagbladet." "I suddenly saw the headline:" ""Swedish success in Cannes."" ""What fun!" I thought." "Then I saw it was "Smiles of a Summer Night"." "They had sent it there without asking me." "They never asked you in those days..." "Bibi Andersson and I were together in those days." "She had plenty of money from all her films." "So I borrowed some money for the air ticket  and I flew down to Cannes." "I had already written "The Seventh Seal"  but it had been turned down." "I had the presence of mind to take the script with me to Cannes." "I handed it to Carl Anders Dymling, who had previously turned it down  and said:" ""Carl Anders, it's now or never!"" "Since the success of "Smiles of a Summer Night"  nobody has interfered with my work." "I have been able to do as I wished." "It's unfortunate that there was nobody like Lorens Marmstedt." "I haven't had anyone with whom I can discuss my scripts." "I would like to have someone in the profession  with whom I can discuss my work  even when the work is done." "Even when the film is complete, there is nobody I can show it to  who will give their honest opinion and say what they think." "The rest is silence..." "Yes, this is "The Seventh Seal"." "It certainly is..." "Here we are down by the shore." "This is where the film begins with the knight..." "It's an extraordinary landscape." " It resembles the island of Fårö." " Indeed it does." " Here we're driving along." " That's a very modern film style!" "There's Bibi." "And there's Bergman, fast asleep in the back seat." "This is rather like..." "It's like looking in a family album." "Did you always take a cine camera along?" "Not always, but usually." "I thought it was fun." "The Seventh Seal (1957)" " Who are you?" " I am Death." " Have you come for me?" " I have long been at your side." "I know..." " Are you ready?" " My body is afraid." "I am not." "Wait a moment!" "You all say that, but I brook no delay." " You play chess, do you not?" " How did you know?" "I have seen it in paintings and heard ballads." "Indeed, I am quite a skilful chess player." " No more skilful than I!" " Why do you challenge me?" " That is my business." " True..." "Let me live for the duration of the game." "If I checkmate you, you must let me go." "You chose black." "That is most appropriate, is it not?" "I often visited churches with my father." "In a church in Uppland  somewhere in the vault  is a work by Albertus Pictor, the famous ecclesiastical painter." "The painting depicts Death:" "Death playing chess with a knight..." "The heart of that film is an insane fear of death." "It was a permanent state..." "It was the most appalling suffering." "Well, suffering..." "It was a torment for me." "I was terribly afraid of death." "Anything to do with death was horrific." "Out of that horror  and the business of the atom bomb and that sort of thing  this story arose about the plague and the journey back..." "And then of course  there was the entire religious problem:" ""Is there a God?" "Is there no God at all?"" ""The Seventh Seal" does not answer that question." "1957 This gala premiere celebrated 50 years of Swedish film." "The main feature was "The Seventh Seal"." "Many of Sweden's film celebrities were there.:" "The head of SF.:" "Carl Anders Dymling." "Gunnar Björnstrand has a major role in "The Seventh Seal"  as has Nils Poppe." "Eva Dahlbeck..." "CINEMATOGRAPH ARCHIVE, OFFICE, LIBRARY" "When I looked through your parents' photo album" " I saw many places reminiscent of scenes in "Wild Strawberries"." "I expect you did." "All the time you fetch things  from a gigantic store of objects  props, things and people." "They often present themselves voluntarily  and say they wish to participate." "This is "Wild Strawberries"." "Gunnar Fischer was a fantastic cameraman to work with." "There's Victor." "Look how morose he is!" "This is a priceless scene between the two of them." "She's joking with Victor and flirting with him." "Look at the old lion!" "He finds her so attractive." "This is an absolute gem!" "Don't they look lovely together?" " Was that the first time he smiled?" " Yes." "Look at that!" "He is so charmed and Bibi is flirting uninhibitedly with him." "Wild Strawberries (1957) It is possible that I became a little sentimental." "Perhaps I was a little tired and felt somewhat melancholy." "It is not impossible that I thought of a few things  associated with places where I had played as a child." "I don't know how it happened  but the clear reality of the present  became the even clearer images of memory." "They appeared before my eyes as forcefully as actual events." "Sara...?" "Do you move between different worlds in your daily life?" "Yes." "You were sitting there among the archives one day." "I didn't know that you would be there." "I heard something, but I didn't see that it was you." "I was very frightened, but not surprised  because that sort of thing happens to me from time to time." "I experience things." "Especially here when it's a full moon and the silence is total." "I live all alone in this house." "It is 56 metres long." "I have trouble sleeping, so I walk back and forth." "The light of the full moon shines in." "It is like strangely-filtered daylight." "It is incredibly intense and casts shadows." "I then feel very strongly that I am surrounded by other realities." "I feel I am surrounded by entities who might wish to tell me things." "I don't know..." "It isn't superstition." "It's a fact." "That's how it is." "In the early 60's Bergman made three films about man's alienation from God:" "Through a Glass Darkly, The Communicants and The Silence." "Three films you made in the 1960's are often considered a trilogy." " They belong together in some way." " Bah!" "That's not true at all." "It's just that it was so fashionable at the time  to make trilogies." "Were you able to adjust the focus in time?" " We'll take them individually then." " Yes." "I can't find any common denominator for those three films." "You wrote that "Through a Glass Darkly"  incorporated your own personal experience." "The great thing about "Through a Class Darkly" was that we came here." "Here are some pictures from our first trip to the island of Fårö." "This is where we did our first Fårö film: "Through a Glass Darkly"." "It was so fantastic." "It was a rainy, cold and raw April day." "We travelled around, taking a look at the place." "And... we ended up here." "Instantly I felt that this was where we should be." "Over there we built a two-storey house." "You said that you had visualised the opening sequence of the film." "Yes." "This place was very suitable, since it was by the sea." "That was also the first image in my mind while I wrote the script and was still dreaming of the Orkney Islands:" "The sea, four people, dusk four people emerging from the sea." "And that's how it was in "Through a Glass Darkly"." "They turn up." "It was bloody cold!" "It was autumn when we filmed that sequence." "Through a Glass Darkly (1961)" "I got to the jetty first!" " That was lovely!" " Minus and I can get the milk, Dad!" "If David and Minus put out the nets, I can go for a walk with my wife." "Minus and Martin can get the milk." "No I won't!" "I'm the one who decides what I do!" " Come on, Minus!" "Let's do it!" " Why are women always so bossy?" "I decide that we obey Karin!" "That way we maintain our dignity." "You should have thought of that at once, Dad!" "About Through a Glass Darkly 1962 For the second time in two years" " Ingmar Bergman won the greatest film prize.: an Oscar." " Did you expect this?" " Quite frankly, I didn't." "I thought that one would be enough." "Do you feel under pressure  to make each film a knock- out?" "It can feel like that, but when you literally 'get to the point"  when you are holding a pen and writing a script  or are working in the studio  you forget such irrelevant details." "There are so many other things to think about." "Do you expect to win next year with "Winter Light"?" "No..." "I think this will do for the moment." "The Communicants (Winter Light) 1962" "Poor Tomas!" "What's the matter, Tomas?" " What do you care?" " Tell me anyway." "God's silence." "God's silence?" "God's silence..." "Jonas Persson and his wife came." "I prattled away, cut off from God." "Nonetheless I felt that every word counted." "What am I to do?" "I like this film very much, because it's always contrary." "It's straightforward." "It stands on its own two feet." "It does not try for one moment to be ingratiating." "I am very glad that I made it." "This is when you and Sven began filming without shadows..." "Yes, we were sitting and watching  "Through a Glass Darkly" and we said:" "Aren't we tired of these shadows and shadings and fripperies?" "We thought it would be good to try to do it some other way." "We went to a church in Dalarna County  in Orsa Finnmark" " Skattungbyn." "We went there one morning at dawn." "We stayed in the church all day." "We saw the light move and change." "The experience of this shadowless light  made a great impression on us." "Sven Nykvist cinematographer Previously, a film was supposed to be visually beautiful." "The result was images for their own sake." "We have got away from that." "Let me put it this way:" "If there is one thing I miss about working with films  it is working together with Sven." "Persona" " Ingmar Bergman's most unusual and experimental film" "It is always the case.:" "If your tooth hurts, your tongue keeps going there." "You are always conscious of a wound." "I think that what drove me  was simply some sort of need to survive." "I think an immense rage somewhere forms the basis of "Persona"." "There is such anger in the film at times." "You may remember that at one point in the middle, the film burns up." "I think I can say, without singing my own praises  that "Persona" and "Cries and Whispers"  are two films in a class by themselves." "That is as far as I can go." "I think that in this case" " I have been able to stretch the medium  to somewhere beyond its normal limits." "The same applies to myself." "These two films are probably the pinnacle of my achievement." "In the autumn of 2002 Saraband was shot" " Ingmar Bergman's final film for TV." "Do you want us to embrace?" "You damned idiot..." "You damned old idiot..." " You hug and then you look at him." " Damn you, Johan!" "Don't you have a line about your uterus there?" " I thought that had been cut." " No." "I said no such thing." "I thought it was one of my most inspired lines." " But go right ahead!" "Ruin my play!" " Oh no..." "How does a script originate?" "How do you work on a script?" "In my case it is usually usually what happens is  that I see an image." "For example, in "Cries and Whispers"  the image I saw, for a long time and for no reason whatsoever  was the image of a red room." "In that room there were three or four women dressed in white." "However, they were standing in a distant part of the room." "I couldn't hear what they said, but they were talking to each other." "I thought that... it was..." "That image kept returning to me." "It was stubborn." "I began to feel that those ladies concerned me." "And that they had things to say." "Cries And Whispers (1972)" "Good morning." "Has anything happened?" "No." "She has been calm, I think." "I fell asleep." "The strange thing is that both with respect to "Persona"  and "Cries and Whispers"  creativity has come to my rescue  in difficult situations." "I would say that with respect to "Persona"  creativity practically saved my life." "In "Cries and Whispers", however  it was comforting and soothing." "About Cries and Whispers (1973) The original idea was  to write something about my mother, who died a few years ago." "I always had a very ambivalent relationship to my mother." "This film is about my mother." "She is represented by four different women." "That was a lie for the media." "It was a spontaneous and careless remark." "It was to haunt me." "Since then it has always been linked to the film." "Some stupid remarks one makes  tend to live a life of their own." "It was a lie." "I said it in order to have something to say." "It's very hard to say anything about "Cries and Whispers"." "I just said it." "That's all." " It was yourdecision, not mine!" " It was your decision..." "Put into it all the rage you feel:" ""It was yourdecision, not mine!"" "At what stage do you choose the actors?" "At the very beginning." "I'm thinking of "Saraband" now." "I asked the actors if they wanted to be in it, before I wrote a line." "When I wrote in my notebooks, I could see them in front of me." "They were participants." "Sets are important to you." "When do you start thinking about them?" "Sets, both for the theatre and for films  are bloody hard work  because I can't improvise." "I have to sit at home and prepare everything down to the last detail." "When someone gets up and goes to the door while saying a line  it has to be specified in the script so that I can inform the actors." "I cannot improvise." "I simply get confused." "Hell!" "We got through it!" "Paris 1985 Ingmar Bergman, I dub you a Commander of the Legion of Honour." "That was when I was given the Legion of Honour." "It's considered quite something..." "However, the funniest part was what happened afterwards." "I had to get back to a rehearsal in Munich." "When we emerged from the Elysée Palace  there was a gigantic limousine waiting for us outside." "Four policemen on motorcycles started their sirens  and drove at high speed through Paris, their blue lights flashing." "That was one of the few times I have experienced my fame." "I thought it was so fantastic  that I screamed with laughter." "I laughed until I fell on the floor of the huge car  that was driving along at 90 kilometres an hour  on the wrong side of the road, the wrong way up one-way streets  all the way to the airport in twelve minutes." "When we got out  the four policemen stood by their motorcycles and saluted." "We thanked them." "We were in such a merry mood, Ingrid and I  that we continued to drink champagne when we got home." "I think that's the only time in my life that I had a hangover at..." "Not even a hangover...!" "Frankly, I was drunk at the rehearsal." "1976-1982 Ingmar Bergman lived and worked in Germany  and made the films The Serpent's Egg and Autumn Sonata." "He returned to Sweden for his grand finale:" "Fanny and Alexander." "Okay!" "We'll do it now!" "It's a pure soap opera really  but it was fun to do." "It's fun to tell a story about incredibly nice people  and incredibly nasty people." "How much of Alexander was taken from Ingmar Bergman as a boy?" "A great deal." "There is an awful lot from my childhood." " Actual incidents as well?" " Yes." "The beginning, when he is sitting under the table..." "We'll have a look at it in a moment." "That is a copy of something I experienced." "Fanny And Alexander (1982)" "There were two aspects to our home:" "On the one hand, the enormous cheerfulness and happiness..." "Christmas was incredibly festive." "One, two, three..." "Die, you devil!" "Then there was the dark side, represented by Bishop Vergérus." "That also existed in our family." "It often surprised me that my mother  who was so powerful in every situation  never intervened in these ritual punishments." "It was always a case of:" ""You understand that I am doing this because I love you."" ""Kiss my hand and ask for forgiveness."" "One was to be humiliated  to the uttermost depths." "You must understand that I have punished you out of love." "Yes!" " Kiss my hand, Alexander." " May I go to bed now?" "Yes, there is some kind of ferocious autobiographical material in there..." "It is whipped into it..." "It was great fun to write it, however." "I don't often watch my own films." "I become so..." "I become so overwrought  and tearful and desperate to urinate and wretched." "I think it's ghastly to watch my own films."