Ingmar Bergman – Truth and Lies

A layering and reshaping of autobiographical experience and fictional work is characteristic of Ingmar Bergman’s working method. Numerous film sets – the grandmother’s apartment in Fanny och Alexander (1982; Fanny and Alexander), for example – were designed in detail from real examples in Bergman’s private milieu, and some scenes and dialogues appear to be based directly on his personal experiences. In turn, many of the memories that Bergman captured in his autobiography Laterna Magica (1987) seem like episodes in his films.

Ten years after Fanny and Alexander, Ingmar Bergman wrote the first of a total of three film scripts, based on the story of his family. Den goda viljan (1991, directed by Bille August; The Best Intentions) depicts the difficult early years in the relationship of his parents, Erik Bergman and Karin Åkerblom, until the period in which Karin is pregnant with Ingmar. The authenticity of his biographical background history even extended to the choice of locations. Bergman changed only his parents’ first names, turning Karin into Anna and Erik into Henrik Bergman. Ingmar Bergman repeatedly scattered autobiographical traces throughout his entire cinematic oeuvre. In this way, he offers possibilities of interpretation, while also playing his own game with the interested viewer.

In 1938, Ingmar Bergman, who had been enthusiastic about theater since childhood, began to stage plays at small theaters in Stockholm. He wrote his first play, Kaspers död (Death of Punch), in 1942. Shortly thereafter, he was employed by the film script department of the Swedish film company Svensk Filmindustri. Directed by Alf Sjöberg, Bergman filmed his first film script as Hets (Torment) in 1944. During the same year – and before making his debut as a film director two years later with Kris (1946; Crisis) – Bergman took over the management of the municipal theater of Helsingborg, where he advanced to Sweden’s youngest theater director. Over the course of his rapidly developing artistic career, Bergman, the cineaste, embarked on a search for his own forms of cinematic expression. Together with his cinematographers Göran Strindberg and Gunnar Fischer, he tested diverse film styles. Thus, Hamnstad (1948; Port of Call), from a script by Olle Länsberg, seems like a film of Italian Neorealism, while Fängelse (1949; The Devil’s Wanton) – Bergman’s first film based on a script he wrote – was overtly influenced by German Expressionism, although it already evinces a daring for formal cinematic experiment. Bergman finally found his cinematic style with Sommarlek (1951; Illicit Interlude), which is based in part on autobiographical experiences.

Bergman was the artistic director of the municipal theater in Malmö from 1952–59. Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Max von Sydow and Ingrid Thulin belonged to his repertory company, who he would also cast in future films and with whom he formed a kind of family, a tight-knit artist’s troupe. In his oeuvre, Bergman repeatedly took a deeply self-reflexive look at his position as an artist. Films like Gycklarnas afton (1953; Sawdust and Tinsel), Det sjunde inseglet (1957; The Seventh Seal) and Ansiktet (1958; The Magician) are concerned with a dilemma surrounding jesters, jugglers and actors. They wish to entertain their audience at all costs; often falling prey to clownery and charlatanism. Concurrently, artists suffer that they are not appreciated by society. Something inexplicable and magical is inherent in Bergman’s art. However, in contrast to religion, it promises no everlasting redemption, but only brief happiness in the here and now. In the 1950s, Ingmar Bergman received international recognition for his films: Sommarnattens leende (1955; Smiles of a Summer Night) was nominated for the Golden Palm in Cannes in 1956; Smultronstället (1957; Wild Strawberries) received the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1958.

By the late 1950s, Bergman was dealing with questions of faith and his conception of God in Det sjunde inseglet (1957; The Seventh Seal) and Jungfrukällan (1960; The Virgin Spring). Both films are set in the Middle Ages and show Max von Sydow in dialogue with God, struggling with Death and Fate – in the roles of the knight Antonius Block and respectively as the father, Töre. The Virgin Spring was awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1961. Three films were made at the beginning of the 1960s that Bergman later described as a “trilogy of faith”: In Såsom i en spegel (1961; Through a Glass Darkly), Harriet Andersson, a schizophrenic young woman, experiences terrible visions of God; in Nattvardsgästerna (1963; Winter Light) Gunnar Björnstrand plays a provincial pastor who has lost his faith; and both protagonists in Tystnaden (1963; The Silence), Gunnel Lindblom and Ingrid Thulin, find themselves on a journey in a strange, godless world. Bergman circled the question about the existence God in all these films. Although he continued to stage traditional beliefs in miracles in The Virgin Spring and recognized the love of God in Through a Glass Darkly, he definitively ended his search for certainty in Winter Light and The Silence. Bergman perceived his realization of the non-existence of an omnipotent, punitive God as a liberation.

In 1960, Bergman went on a search for a location for Såsom i en spegel (1961; Through a Glass Darkly). His original inclination to shoot the film on the Scottish Orkney Islands could not be realized due to financial reasons. In the end, he found the ideal settings for his film on Fårö, a small Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. He was fascinated by its rough, Nordic austerity and decided to live there in the future. During the filming of Persona (1966; Persona), Bergman and Liv Ullmann, his leading actress, became a couple and built a house together on the island. Further films with Ullmann, such as Skammen (1967; Shame) and Passion (1969; Passion), were also made there. Bergman founded his own production company Cinematograph AB on Fårö in 1968, with which he subsequently produced most of his films, but also produced or co-produced nine projects by other directors. Beginning with the filming of Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973; Scenes from a Marriage), Bergman even tried to establish a small film studio in the village of Dämba on Fårö. At the end of his life, he retreated to his house on the island. Today, it is part of a foundation, which fosters scholars and artists who wish to work there for a designated period. In addition, a so-called “Bergman Week,” an annual festival in honor of Bergman, is held there every summer.

The interpersonal conflicts that Bergman staged on the screen often reflected his private experiences. The director collaborated with the same actors over decades and had personal relationships with several of his actresses. In Beröringen (1971; The Touch), Bergman staged a complex love triangle. A doctor’s wife (Bibi Andersson) has an affair with a young man (Elliott Gould), although the relationship is doomed to failure. Here, Bergman collaborated with a foreign star and filmed in English for the first time. Taking the form of an intimate play, Viskningar och rop (1973; Cries and Whispers) tells the story of three sisters (Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann), one of whom is dying. Sven Nykvist received an Academy Award for his cinematography. During the same year, the marital crisis of a couple (Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann) was examined from various angles in Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973; Scenes from a Marriage). The relationship drama was originally conceived as a television series that also attained blockbuster-like status in Germany. In turn, Herbstsonaten (FR Germany, 1978; Autumn Sonata) makes the complicated relationship of a mother and daughter (played by Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ulmann) the focus of attention.

In 1976, Bergman fled from the Swedish tax authorities to Munich, when he was falsely accused of tax evasion. It was a stroke of luck for the German cultural scene. From 1976–85, Bergman staged several plays at the Residenz Theater in Munich and filmed The Serpent’s Egg (FR Germany / USA, 1977) and Aus dem Leben der Marionetten (FR Germany, 1980; From the Life of the Marionettes), using German actors that included Robert Atzorn, Heinz Bennent, Christine Buchegger, Gaby Dohm, Gert Fröbe, Rita Russek and Walter Schmidinger.

In September 1981, Ingmar Bergman (at age 63) went back into the film studio to make a large cinematic production. Earlier he had announced his withdrawal from the film business, deciding to restrict his future artistic work to theater, television and writing. In Fanny och Alexander (1982; Fanny and Alexander) Bergman depicted themes from his personal cosmos once again using a good dose of humor; this time in sumptuous, colorful décors from the turn of the century. The themes include: family and relationships, a search for meaning, faith and religious authority, the artist and his position in society, and the relationship to one’s own childhood. After this celebrated departure from the cinema screen that was awarded several Oscars, Bergman worked in theater and television until he was 85. He wrote numerous film scripts, in most cases with autobiographical references, which were then filmed by other directors, including Bille August, Liv Ullmann and Bergman’s son Daniel Bergman. Following his last stage production, Henrik Ibsen’s Gengångare (Ghosts) at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Sweden, and the completion of his final television movie, Saraband (2003), in which Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson reunite once again, Bergman permanently retreated to his property on Fårö Island. He died there on July 30, 2007 and was buried in the cemetery on the island.

Curators: Nils Warnecke, Kristina Jaspers
Project management: Peter Mänz
Project management for The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles: Ellen Harrington
AV-Medienprogramm: Nils Warnecke
Exhibition coordination: Vera Thomas
Text editing: Karin Herbst-Meßlinger
English translations: Wendy Wallis, transART, Berlin
Swedish translations: Kerstin Poehls, Berlin
Advertising graphics: Pentagram Design, Berlin
Exhibition graphics: Jan Drehmel, befreite module, Berlin
Production: PPS, Berlin
Exhibition design: Camillo Kuschel, Berlin
Costume conservation: Barbara Schröter
Conservational supervision: Sabina Fernández, Berlin
Audiovisual media editing: Stanislaw Milkowski, Concept AV, Berlin
Image retouching: Subuddha Kellner, Peter Latta, Marian Stefanowski, Wolfgang Theis
Technical services: Frank Köppke, Roberti Siefert, Stephan Werner, Ulrich Behlendorf (Fa. PIK))
Trainee: Melanie Martin
Press and public relations: Sandra Hollmann, Katrin Kahlefeld, Heidi Berit Zapke
Financing: Uwe Meder-Seidel

Media lenders
A22 Media GmbH, München
BR, München
HR, Frankfurt
NDR, Hamburg
Park Circus Limited, Glasgow
Rialto Film GmbH, Berlin
Sandrew Metronome AB, Stockholm
AB Svensk Filmindustri, Stockholm
Sveriges Television (SVT), Stockholm
WDR, Köln

Thanks to
Jannike Åhlund, Stockholm
Jon Asp, Stiftelsen Ingmar Bergman, Stockholm
Stacey Behlmer, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles
Anna Bergman, Spanga
Lena Bergman, Stockholm
Frederick-Edwin Bertin, Paris
Jan-Erik Billinger, Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm
Stig Björkman, Stockholm
Markus Blomfeldt, Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm
Jean-Marie Bottequin, München
Mikael Brännvall, Dramaten – The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm
Gunnar Carlsson, Sveriges Television (SVT), Stockholm
Ragan Carpenter, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles
Krister Collin, Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm
Hélène Dahl, Stiftelsen Ingmar Bergman, Stockholm
Lotta Edoff, AB Svensk Filmindustri, Stockholm
Leif Engberg, Tyresö
Kaj Forsgårdh, Dramaten – The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm
Jan Göransson, Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm
Julie Gumpert, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles
Bo-Erik Gyberg, Stockholm
Anna Håkansson, Stiftelsen Ingmar Bergman, Stockholm
Barbara Hall, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles
Ellen Harrington, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles
Andrea Hauer, Theatermuseum München
Lars Hedenstedt, Svenska Institutet, Stockholm
Annette Hess, Coppenbrügge
Jan Holmberg, Stiftelsen Ingmar Bergman, Stockholm
Ulrika Holmgaard, Schwedische Botschaft, Berlin
Elzbieta Lejczak, Malmö Stadsteater, Malmö
Håkan Lövgren, Stockholm
Annika Lundgren, Malmö
Håkan Lundgren, Hägersten
Åsa Lundmark, Svenska Institutet, Stockholm
Margareta Nordström, Stiftelsen Ingmar Bergman, Stockholm
Marie Nyreröd, Stockholm
Petra von Oelffen, Los Angeles
Klaus Dieter Oppitz, Residenz Theater München
Barbro S. Osher, Consulate General of Sweden, San Francisco
Kerstin Poehls, Schwedische Botschaft, Berlin
Mary Ringenson-Holst, Sveriges Television (SVT), Stockholm
Mareike Röper, Schwedische Botschaft, Berlin
Fredrik Rundqvist, Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm
Matt Severson, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles
Henrik Sjögren, Solna
Tanja Thomas, Concorde Filmverleih GmbH, München
Ola Törjas, Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm
Bengt Wanselius, Stockholm
Göran Wassberg, Stockholm
Jon Wengström, Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm
Ann-Kristin Westerberg, AB Svensk Filmindustri, Stockholm
Mats Widbom, Embassy of Sweden, Washington
Steve Wilson, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin
Erdmut Wizisla, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
Rüdiger Zill, Einstein Forum, Potsdam

the team of the Berlinale Retrospective:
Connie Betz, Ralf Dittrich, Gabriele Jatho, Julia Pattis

as well as all colleagues at Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen

Deutsche Kinemathek is sponsored by
Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien
in accordance with a decision of the German Bundestag

Presented in collaboration with
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Supported by
Ingmar Bergman Foundation
Ab Svensk Filmindustri
Swedish Film Institute
Swedish Institute
Dramaten
svt
filmpool
Schwedische Botschaft

Partner
Deutsche Bahn

Media partners
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