Ingmar bergman

A miserable childhood. Ingmar Bergman, born in 1918 in Uppsala, Sweden, into a Lutheran family, whose father was a pastor of souls, had a rigorous upbringing that marked him. In ‘Magic Lantern’, his memoir, there is some ray of light when describing his relationship with his parents, but darkness dominates above all; memories of punishments, religious concepts, which instead of bringing him closer to God, distance him, self-deception and disagreements. In that valley of shadows, the discovery of cinema shines, which he describes as follows: “What I wanted most in the world was a cinematograph. A year before [he was 9 years old at the time] he had gone to the cinema for the first time and had seen a film about a horse, I think it was called Black Beauty.and was based on a famous children’s book. They were showing it at the Sture cinema and we were in the first row of the amphitheatre. For me that was the beginning. A fever seized me that would not go away. The silent shadows turn their pale faces towards me and speak in inaudible voices to my innermost feelings. Sixty years have passed and nothing has changed, it is still the same fever.” When his brother Dag received a camera for Christmas, he sacrificed his collection of tin soldiers in a friendly exchange.

The restless Ingmar Bergman studied art and literature at Stockholm University. He moves through bohemian environments, cultivates existentialism. Interested in theater, he directs student plays, which open up his professional field. Among the authors that he represents, apart from his pieces, his compatriot August Strindberg stands out. He is another born sufferer, as well as Shakespeare, Ibsen and Molière. In the world of the scene he manages to direct several theaters, such as the Dramaten in Stockholm.

His relationship with cinema comes from the production company Svensk Filmindustri. After writing a screenplay for Alf Sjöberg , Torture , he made his directorial debut in 1944 with the significant title of Crisis . All his films have a personal touch, autobiographical elements; although on occasion they are based on foreign material. A summer with Monica (1953) presents traces of his youthful love, as it does of his conjugal experience Secretos de un matrimonio (1973).

His search for the transcendent includes a long film journey, ranging from The Seventh Seal (1957), through Wild Strawberries (1957), The Face (1958), The Maiden’s Spring (1960), to the trilogy Como en un mirror (1961), Los communicantes (1963) and El silencio (1963), where he ends up in a desperate agnosticism. The last film in cinema as a director, Fanny and Alexander (1984), traces his childhood life. From here others will film his scripts, based on family memories: Bille August , The Best Intentions (1992); his son Daniel,Children of Sunday (1992); and his ex-wife (Ingmar went through 5 marriages) Liv Ullmann , Private Encounters (1996) and Unfaithful (2000) . A great director of actors, in his films Harriet Andersson , Bibi Andersson , Liv Ullmann , Max von Sydow , Erland Josephson , Gunnar Björnstrand , and even Ingrid Bergman shine . A master of light, supported by the magic camera of operators Gunnar Fischer and Sven Nykvist , few have taken as much advantage as he has of the faces of his actors, through the recurrent use of the close-up.

The legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman passed away on Monday, July 30, 2007, at the age of 89, at his home on the Baltic island of Faro. According to the director’s sister, Eva Bergman, he “died a sweet and peaceful death.”