forever ilsa

But Ingrid Bergman soon overturned the iconographic cliché of the icy girl made of stony and polished marble who decided to make a career in Hollywood. Her passion in front of the cameras was extraordinary and all the directors she worked with always extolled her innate acting qualities. The other Bergman, the famous Swedish director, who directed her last film, Autumn Sonata , said of her: “Ingrid feels the pleasure of acting, the longing to do it. She is an actress from head to toe, her theatrical experience is enormous, as is her seniority, imagination, emotion, fantasy… ”.

Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm on August 29, 1915. Her mother died when she was three years old and her father when she was thirteen. However, it was he, a great fan of art and cinema, who greatly influenced the incipient vocation of her daughter. She was taken in by some uncles and soon entered the Royal School of Drama in Stockholm: “I became a happy and relaxed person, because I did exactly what I wanted and it was very easy for me.” At the age of 17 she obtained her first role in a small film, Landskamp (1932) and three years later she rose to fame with Intermezzo , by director Gustav Molander, a director with whom she worked seven times. The famous David O. SelznickHe had his eye on her and offered her a job in Hollywood: “As soon as I saw her, I knew she had something. She had an extraordinary purity and nobility, and at the same time a very clear star personality, which is very rare ”. In America she made her debut in 1939 with a new version of Intermezzo , together with Leslie Howard and three years later she became the Ilsa of Casablanca, an unrepeatable woman who fell in love with viewers around the world and without a doubt a role that was enough to go down in the annals of cinema. Bogart said “if a face like Ingrid Bergman’s looks at you like you’re adorable, any actor will be. You don’t have to act too much.” Be that as it may, Ilsa and Bogart’s love lit up the screen like no other movie couple had ever done. Ingrid became the most sought-after actress of the moment and in the forties she performed her most memorable roles: For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), with Gary Cooper ; Dying Light (1944), for which the actress won her first Oscar; The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), by Leo McCarey; and Joan of Arc (1948), by Victor Fleming , among others. During those years, she also became a Hitchcock actress in three memorable films: Remember (1945), Chained (1946) and Tormented (1949).

But whoever was then the queen of Hollywood caused a scandal when she went to Italy to film with the great Roberto Rossellini . After seeing Rome, an Open City (1945), Ingrid was fascinated, she wrote to the Italian director and went to Italy to shoot with him. The American public did not forgive the European actress, especially when she divorced her husband, Petter Lindstrom, in 1950 and she decided to marry Rossellini. The marriage also ended up breaking up over the years, although professionally, the union bore wonderful fruits: a total of six films, some of which – Stromboli (1949), Europe 1951 (1951), I will always love you (1953) – can considered masterpieces.

Ingrid returned to Hollywood in 1956, the year Anastasia was shot . The Oscar that she took from her for her performance is proof that the world of cinema had forgiven her. However, her career was affected and, although she did some significant work in Indiscreet (1957) or The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1959), the truth is that she was not hers before her. Toward the end of her life, as cancer loomed large, she won her third Oscar for her supporting role in Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and she stood out beautifully in Autumn Sonata (1978). Ingrid herself died in 1982, the same day that she turned 67.