PARIS, July 11, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – With some 60 films to his name, many of
which have become classics of psychological and conjugal torment, Ingmar
Bergman’s filmography showcases both his stylistic range and striking
thematic consistency.
Here are five key works from a six-decade career that has marked the
history of cinema and influenced generations of directors to this day.
– ‘The Seventh Seal’ (1957) –
Bergman’s period masterpiece set at the time of the Crusades contains one
of his now iconic scenes: a knight playing a game of chess with Death.
It encapsulates Bergman’s central concerns — how faith is sustained in the
face of evil and human misery.
Picking up a prize at Cannes and quickly considered an arthouse classic,
“The Seventh Seal” was also a hit with film audiences at the time, and has
been the subject of many popular parodies.
Fifty years after its release, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper deemed it
“an untarnished gold-standard of artistic and moral seriousness”.
– ‘Persona’ (1966) –
Two women, 84 minutes of near constant close-ups and a morphing of their
faces — Bergman ratcheted up psychological intensity in this mysterious
drama set in an isolated cottage on the island of Faro.
Exploring the relationship between an actress who has fallen mute and her
nurse, Bergman’s beautifully shot film interrogated the unstable foundations
of identity.
– ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ (1973) –
Bergman was one of the rare directors of his generation to successfully
transition from cinema to television, notably with this low-budget mini-
series of six episodes delving into the marital issues of a couple as they go
through a protracted divorce, sparked by infidelity.
Bergman drew on his own troubled relationship with Liv Ullmann, who played
the wife in the series.
In the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning US film critic Roger Ebert, writing
in the Chicago Sun-Times in 1974, Bergman’s series was “the truest, most
luminous love stories ever made” and circled around one of his classic themes
— communication between two people.
– ‘Fanny and Alexander’ (1982) –
Bergman revisited all the stages of life from childhood to marriage to old
age with this epic tale tracing the life of a brother and sister with strong
autobiographical overtones. It was filmed mostly on location in his birth
place, the city of Uppsala.
Shot by his long-time cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Bergman’s last cinema
movie was a sumptuous family epic that drew comparisons with the work of
Charles Dickens and picked up four Oscars including Best Foreign Film.
The three-hour cinema version was trimmed from an original five-hour
television miniseries.
“Fanny and Alexander” came third after “Apocalypse Now” and “Raging Bull”
in a poll on the best films of the last 25 years given to world directors and
critics by UK film magazine Sight and Sound in 2002.
– ‘Saraband’ (2003) –
After a hiatus of nearly 20 years, Bergman returned for a last hurrah with
this TV film sequel to “Scenes from a Marriage”. In it, he revisited his
characters two decades later and explored the painful lessons of life, from
the failures of parenthood to the selfishness at the heart of human
relationships.