Ingmar Bergman

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

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godardian

Did anyone follow Peter Cowie's advice to watch the series one episode per night, rather than in one sitting? I haven't had time to indulge myself in it yet, but I did pop in disc 3 to see his compare/contrast between the feature film and the series. He basically says the series is the "intended" version, and the feature film was an afterthought, so I'm definitely going to watch the series. I just wonder if it's really all that important to spread it out to get the "original" feel of its presentation, of if you guys handled watching it all in one day and it didn't make any difference?

Ranemaka, order from http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com   or    http://www.dvdplanet.com  and you'll pay only about $35-$40 for this. It is, too, a THREE-disc set, so the price is pretty fair.
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

The Perineum Falcon

Quote from: godardianDid anyone follow Peter Cowie's advice to watch the series one episode per night, rather than in one sitting?
This is what I plan on doing. I can't imagine sitting through "5 hours of suffering." By the end, I'd probably end up hating it....

Quote
Ranemaka, order from http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com   or    http://www.dvdplanet.com  and you'll pay only about $35-$40 for this. It is, too, a THREE-disc set, so the price is pretty fair.
Thanks. I was trying to find a cheaper place to buy dvds other than Barnes $ Noble. The box sets look affordable....
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.

cine

Just got this in the mail a few hours ago. It is a BEAUTIFUL package. I love it. I want to curl up in bed with it. It's that good. I paid $53 Canadian which comes out to $40 U.S. so yes, ranemaka, it's worth it. You surely won't find a better set and as you know, its director approved (I kept the outside label/sticker too 8)). I'll be watching both versions real soon.

godardian

I'm halfway through Scenes from a Marriage... wow. Brilliant. And it's very clear that Husbands and Wives, one of my favorite movies of all time, is as deeply indebted to Bergman for its story and character-interplay as it is to Cassavetes and Godard for its camera-style and editing...
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

kotte

There's an hour long interview with Ingmar Bergman about his films on TV right now. Swedish tv that is. Great!

MacGuffin

FILM LEGEND BERGMAN CRITICISES HIS OWN FILMS  

Swedish film director INGMAR BERGMAN may be loved by film critics worldwide - but he refuses to watch his own movies.

THE SEVENTH SEAL auteur, 85, is his harshest critic and often feels disheartened by his epic films.

In a rare interview for public service network SVT, the enigmatic film maker - whose career spans seven decades - says, "I don't watch my own films very often.

"I become so jittery and ready to cry... and miserable. I think it's awful."

Bergman is considered one of the most influential directors in history. He has been nominated for nine Oscars himself, while his films have won Oscars won best foreign film three times.

Honest criticism

In the interview on Swedish channel SVT, he said he had "managed to push the medium to something beyond the normal boundaries, and also myself".

But since he won the Grand Prix at Cannes with Smiles of a Summer Night in 1956, his fame meant no-one would give him honest criticism, he said.

"There hasn't been anyone with whom I can discuss my scripts," he said.

"Even when the film is done, there is no-one I can show it to who gives his sincere opinion. There is silence."

'Scared of death'

Talking about making 1957's The Seventh Seal, in which a knight famously plays chess with Death, he said he was "terribly scared of death" at the time.

But Bergman - who has made several comedies - also recounted one of his happiest memories, when he received the Legion of Honour in Paris in 1985.

"When we came out from the Elysee Palace, there was a gigantic limousine waiting for us and four police on motorcycles," he said.

"It is probably one of the few times I have experienced my fame.

"I thought it was so fantastic that I laughed to the point of shouting. I laughed so that I fell over on the floor of this big car."

He also recalled celebrating with champagne - and suffering at a film rehearsal in Munich, Germany, the next day.

"It is probably the only time in my life I have showed up hung over, not just hung over, I was simply intoxicated, to a rehearsal," he said.
"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

modage

Quote from: MacGuffin"I become so jittery and ready to cry... and miserable. I think it's awful."
hey thats how i feel when i watch them too!  just kidding.  actually i've only seen Seventh Seal so far which i liked.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

AnimAlu

I'd be curious to hear opinions on "Serpent's Egg".  I've seen about eight Bergman films, and this one was quite a shock.  Didn't quite feel like a Bergman movie.  Interesting Choosing David Carradine also.  I suppose I'll need to watch it again, now that I know what to expect...

Jeff
-------
Check out my first movie:
http://www.animalu.com/pics/dd1.htm

cron

Does anyone has the picture of Ingmar Bergman and his director's chair ? He's standing, with a film reel on the floor next to his shoes, all  on a white background.
context, context, context.

kotte



They don't get older than this...

Ravi

Is the theatrical version of Scenes from a Marriage necessary?  It seems to me that Criterion could have left it out and lowered the price a little.  The uncut TV version is the important one, right?

Also, why did they include an English dub on Through a Glass Darkly?

Ghostboy

Well, I think one of the chief appeals about Criterion is that they're generally exhaustive completists.

godardian

Quote from: AnimAluI'd be curious to hear opinions on "Serpent's Egg".  I've seen about eight Bergman films, and this one was quite a shock.  Didn't quite feel like a Bergman movie.  Interesting Choosing David Carradine also.  I suppose I'll need to watch it again, now that I know what to expect...

Jeff

Since I've read a lot about Bergman and Serpent's Egg is so universally disdained, I was pleasantly surprised that most of it was passable, with some very fine sequences.

Carradine was the liability, obviously, and it's funny to see Liv Ullmann dance around that obvious fact when she talks in the supplementary interviews about making the film. She's fantastic in it, though; it's odd that even though she's ESL, Carradine's English seems much more stilted.  :)
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

Ghostboy

I just saw Persona, finally...where to begin?

At this point, I still like Cries And Whispers better, just because its instant and clear in its pain, and the way it cuts so precisely through to its audience. Persona is equally painful, but far less accessible...Bergman seems to be operating on gut, subconscious instinct with a lot of it (in the retrospective documentary on the DVD, the actresses admit that they had very little idea what they were acting in was actually about). The opening six minutes, and then the reprise of that imagery halfway through the film, is some of the most stunning stream of conscious juxtaposition I've ever seen, shattering the fourth wall in way I'd only seen once before, at the end of The Last Temptation Of Christ.

Ghostboy

I watched Smiles Of A Summer Night this afternoon; it might have been used as good evidence in the theater vs. cinema argument from a few pages ago, because it shows the signs of a filmmaker not yet completely accustomed to cinematic storytelling. Very 'stagey,' and with lots of poor cuts. It's not so bad as to detract from the film, which is a lovely and hilarious romp, just about light as a feather; but it's the earliest film of his I've seen, made before any of the well known masterpieces that later cemented his reputation, and it's very rough around the edges.