Ingmar Bergman

Started by filmcritic, June 23, 2003, 12:11:24 AM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Jefferson

maybe the best part of that film is the way the characters are so believable in relation to their younger selves. so many sequals seem nothing like their previous chapters, but in this i felt almost like i had aged along with them. its a perfect example of bergmans grasp of characterization and overall narrative structure. in addition, its not insultingly explicit as to what happened in the interim. the viewer is allowed to construct his/her own secondary narrative to fill in the gaps. having not seen it in a while (it's the last in my marathon that i just haven't gotten to yet) i don't want to get too heavy into it in case im remembering wrong. either way, its amazing how brilliant it was, especially so late in his career.

do you have any of his others on your radar?

SiliasRuby

read my previous posts. When I see more bergman I'll post more reviews.
The Beatles know Jesus Christ has returned to Earth and is in Los Angeles.

When you are getting fucked by the big corporations remember to use a condom.

There was a FISH in the perkalater!!!

My Collection

Alexandro

well, Sawdust and Tinsel was an awesome surprise. It's supposed to be "minor Bergman" but I think that's bollocks.

Bergman himself seemed pretty pleased with it and it's not hard to see why. It's one of those near mysanthropic views on humanity, depressing, dark, with no redeeming qualities. And there's a certain perverse pleasure in seeing something delve with such intensity into despair. Visually is stunning and it's probably the first Bergman film with such command of mise en scene and simple use of the available tools. The performances, as usual, are exquisite and rich in detail. Shit, that this is considered "minor Bergman" only gives the man more stature. This "minor" is better than most filmmakers careers.

tpfkabi

last night was Bergman night on TCM.

they showed an hour long Cavett interview where he says he would tell anyone to go to hell if they tried to tell him what to do with his art - with Bibi as well.

then they showed The Seventh Seal and I recorded WS, Persona, Hour of the Wolf and hopefully had enough time on tape for The Passion of Anna.
I haven't seen the last three so I look forward to 'new' Bergman.

I honestly haven't been too crazy about Bergman, but having seen The Seventh Seal for the third or fourth time I really like it now.
I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.

The Perineum Falcon

Those last three (your "new" Bergman) are some of my favorites.
You should purchase the MGM box set if you have a few extra dollars lying around, it includes those and (at least) two others - Shame (which I also enjoyed quite a bit, and is an excellent companion piece to ...Anna) and The Serpent's Egg (which I haven't seen yet).

I hope you enjoy them.
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

ElPandaRoyal

Quote from: The Perineum Falcon on June 05, 2009, 10:07:04 PM
Those last three (your "new" Bergman) are some of my favorites.
You should purchase the MGM box set if you have a few extra dollars lying around, it includes those and (at least) two others - Shame (which I also enjoyed quite a bit, and is an excellent companion piece to ...Anna) and The Serpent's Egg (which I haven't seen yet).

I hope you enjoy them.

Strange. I have the same box for a long time and that's also the one I still haven't seen it. It's the first David Carradine movie I want to take a look at after the sad news...
Si

MacGuffin

A Second Look: 'The Seventh Seal'
Ingmar Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal,' like its looming, clever Death, can be debated but not denied.
By Dennis Lim; Los Angeles Times

The definitive Ingmar Bergman movie, "The Seventh Seal" (1957) looms over practically all of art cinema. A heavily symbolic allegory of faith and doubt set in plague-ridden medieval Sweden, this seminal movie was the height of midcentury existentialist chic and ground zero for the cinephile golden age. It gave the cultural intelligentsia permission to take film seriously.

"The Seventh Seal" has since fallen victim to changing tastes and to its own popularity. (If anything, it is now more middlebrow emblem than highbrow badge of honor.) And it is precisely its unabashed seriousness, once so seductive, that has contributed to its somewhat diminished reputation.

Many of the film's images have passed into cinematic immortality, none more so than the recurring motif of a brooding knight locked in a mortal chess game with Death, assuming the form of a cowled, white-faced ghoul, and the final hilltop danse macabre, led by the scythe-wielding Grim Reaper. But the hooded figure of Death also has proved spoofable, popping up in such places as Bergman mega-fan Woody Allen's "Love and Death," Monty Python skits and "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey."

It might not be possible to liberate "The Seventh Seal," reissued in a new two-disc edition this week by the Criterion Collection in both standard definition and Blu-ray, from the historical baggage that surrounds it. But first-time viewers, and those revisiting it after many years, might be surprised to find a movie that feels at once dated and timeless: Its deadly earnest sensibility harks back to another era, but its stark iconographic power is undimmed, stubbornly resistant to parody.

The film's spiritual quest unfolds as a long homeward journey. Returning from the Crusades to the ravages of the Black Death, an idealistic knight (Max von Sydow) is visited by Death himself (Bengt Ekerot) and tries to forestall his fate by challenging the Reaper to a chess game. They take turns making their moves as the knight and his cynical squire (Gunnar Björnstrand) travel through a blighted landscape in the grip of religious fanaticism.

Their entourage grows to include a troupe of traveling players, including Jof (Nils Poppe), a kind of holy fool, and his wife, Mia (Bibi Andersson).

Bergman first conceived of "The Seventh Seal" as a play, and the dialogue retains a certain declamatory stiffness; literary allusions abound, from Cervantes to Camus. For the director, it was a deeply personal undertaking, a film he seized the opportunity to make after the international success of "Smiles of a Summer Night," which won a prize at Cannes in 1955.

The son of a Lutheran minister, Bergman drew on his religious upbringing. The title comes from the Book of Revelation; ancient church frescoes first encountered as a child, in particular the work of Albertus Pictor, were a primary inspiration. But in devising a myth of the end of days, Bergman also tapped into his own mortal dread and into a very contemporary anxiety, the Cold War fear of a nuclear apocalypse.

Bergman, who died two years ago at age 89, explored the notion of an absent or indifferent God with greater complexity in a '60s trilogy: "Through a Glass Darkly," "Winter Light" and "The Silence." But "The Seventh Seal," a film that dares repeatedly to ask Big Questions out loud -- Does God exist? Why are we here? -- remains his most expansive and most elemental depiction of spiritual crisis.

Criterion's second disc includes "Bergman Island," a 2004 made-for-TV documentary structured around a series of conversations between Bergman and director Marie Nyreröd in his home on the remote island of Faro, where he shot "Through a Glass Darkly," "Persona" and several other films.

Faro is also the location for Bergman Week, a festival devoted to the filmmaker that takes place every June.

In these candid, intimate chats, Bergman opens up about his childhood, his love life (including relationships with his actresses) and his guilt at being a delinquent father. He also dwells on his lifelong fear of death and his attempt to confront it with "The Seventh Seal." In a 1971 interview, he called it a movie made "with enormous pretension," but he would warm up to it later in life.

In a 2003 interview with Nyreröd, recorded as an introduction for Swedish TV broadcasts of "The Seventh Seal," he describes the terror of watching his own films -- "I feel nervous and on the verge of tears. I need to pee. I feel miserable" -- but goes on to call it one of his favorites.

"If I say I've made 10 good films, films I feel I can really stand behind, I think 'The Seventh Seal' is among them," he said. "I'm certain of it."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

matt35mm

Quote from: Madonna is a stupid bitch on June 13, 2009, 10:52:41 PM
Faro is also the location for Bergman Week, a festival devoted to the filmmaker that takes place every June.

UGH, I suddenly really want to go to this.  But I looked into how difficult and expensive it is to get to Faro, and now my dreams are dashed.

Reinhold

this starts at 5:30 at moma.

i just saw this on their calendar and am going to head out to it now.

http://moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/7856

Beröringen (The Touch)
1971. Sweden. Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. With Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow, Elliott Gould. "One of Bergman's lesser-known films, The Touch is a low-key, intimate drama set on the island of Gotland, just south of the filmmaker's home in Fårö. Shortly after her mother's death, a Swedish woman has an adulterous affair with the American archaeologist friend of her doctor husband. Andersson creates a finely tuned portrayal of a woman facing a midlife crisis, and the sparsely lit, claustrophobic interiors and subdued autumnal exteriors are beautifully photographed by cinematographer Sven Nykvist. The Touch, a Swedish-U.S. coproduction, was shot and released in two versions: one with Swedish and English dialogue, and one entirely in English. The original bilingual version—the version released in Sweden and now presented in this Festival—has been unavailable for a long time" (Jon Wengström). Restored by The Swedish Film Institute. In Swedish and English; English subtitles. 115 min.

Ingmar Bergman

1972. Sweden. Directed by Stig Björkman. In this fascinating film about the making of The Touch, Bergman rehearses with actors Andersson, von Sydow, and Gould; discusses set-ups with cinematographer Nykvist; and talks in depth about his views on directing. Preserved by The Swedish Film Institute. In Swedish; English subtitles. 55 min.

Edit: Just got back. i really didn't enjoy the film.
Quote from: Pas Rap on April 23, 2010, 07:29:06 AM
Obviously what you are doing right now is called (in my upcoming book of psychology at least) validation. I think it's a normal thing to do. People will reply, say anything, and then you're gonna do what you were subconsciently thinking of doing all along.

polanski's illegitimate baby

I remember watching Persona back when i used to do a lot of amphetamines in film school and the appeal was tremendous. Though i did see it a while back, i remember guessing the motivation for the character's silence. It was like a white flag of surrender to miscommunication. As many people in the world attempt to breach that miscommunication barrier by means of perfecting their art, some artists deem it to be impossible. The reason for it, as much as i've figured, is purely idealistic. It seemed like her feelings and thoughts were inexpressible and that her carrier was such a mock travesty in relation to her authentic vision that it was more bearable to take a vow of silence than to push out undermined caricatures of expression. Why i think that is significant, is because it fucked with my head for a bit, when i was a film student. Anything i ever did, was a travesty to me, anything i tried was undermined by simple process of manifestation. As if the process of physical creation itself was flawed by default. And while film school contributed greatly to stultifying me by means of menial labor and bullshit film "laws", i believe i had more to do with it than anyone else. If i remember correctly, the character in Persona, after some time into her solace, gets jealous of expression in general--she begins to talk(did she?i don't recall) and gesticulate, starting anew with the same dilemma of whether to perfect expression or to disregard it. Because if you've ever made a film that you've come to hate... you know it's quite a fucking dilemma...
every time you find yourself reading this, think of other great things you could be doing... :)

Mr. Merrill Lehrl

Bergman commercials for Bris Soap from the early 50s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfxs2roh9C4&feature=related
This one is about the evil witch-dressed bacteria that hide on your body unless you use soap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoswO7bl_mA&feature=related
This one asks you to treat seriously the presence of germs and germ commercials.

There are others, check the suggestions with similar names.
"If I had to hold up the most heavily fortified bank in America," Bolaño says, "I'd take a gang of poets. The attempt would probably end in disaster, but it would be beautiful."

Stefen

Weird to see this thread bumped. I just watched Persona for the first time last night.  :shock:

It was my first Bergman experience.  :shock: :shock:

His running times always kind of turned me off so I never gave him a chance, but I saw Persona was under 100 minutes so I watched it. I first tried Sunday night but got bored and put something else on, but the parts I saw stuck with me so I tried again last night and was really mesmerized by it. I found it to be scary, but really, really sexy. It was a beautiful film. Lovely performances and some of the shots were breathtaking.

Where to go next? A friend tells me Cries and Whispers.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

wilder

Check out The Silence and Scenes from a Marriage. Cries and Whispers and Fanny & Alexander are also necessary. Don't make Cries your next though, it'll send you running for the hills. The Silence is short and Scenes is accessible.

polkablues

You can't go wrong with Wild Strawberries or Virgin Spring, and they're each only 90 minutes or so.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Mr. Merrill Lehrl

Quote from: Stefen on May 11, 2011, 05:36:23 PM
I found it to be scary, but really, really sexy. It was a beautiful film.

This is awesome.  Just because you said it I recommend Hour of the Wolf next.
"If I had to hold up the most heavily fortified bank in America," Bolaño says, "I'd take a gang of poets. The attempt would probably end in disaster, but it would be beautiful."