Ingmar Bergman

Legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman opens his soul to filmmaker Marie Nyreroed for a three-part documentary produced for Swedish television and offering the most intimate portrait of the director since Vilgot Sjoman's 1963 film Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie (a documentary which followed the making of Bergman's acclaimed 1962 chamber drama Winter Light. A longtime friend to her celebrated subject, Nyreroed teams with editor Kurt Bergmark offer a three-sided meditation on Bergman that begins by examining his film career before moving on to his theatrical accomplishments and personal struggles. From his remarkable accomplishments as the artistic director for the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm to his collaboration with faithful producer Lorens Marmstedt, every aspect of Bergman's enduring and prolific career are discussed before the pair head back to the director's Faro home for an intimate and relaxed interview. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

As the final masterwork of Ingmar Bergman, the world's most revered cinematic craftsperson, Saraband (2003) embodies the sequel to the director's 5-hour Scenes from a Marriage, produced and directed 30 years after that original epic. Here, Bergman revisits the two characters from that film, divorcees Johan (Erland Josephson) and Marianne (Liv Ullmann), after years of estrangement from one another. Marianne now lives alone; of her two middle-aged daughters from the marriage to Johan, one lives in Australia, while the other suffered a mental breakdown. Marianne has contact with neither. After leafing through an assemblage of old photographs and waxing nostalgic, Marianne decides to revisit the now-wealthy Johan, who lives in the country with an adjoining cottage and two descendants: his 61-year-old widower son Henrik (Borje Ahlstedt of I Am Curious - Yellow) and Henrik's 19-year-old daughter, Karin (Julia Dufvenius). The relationships in Johan's family are broken and deeply dysfunctional; Johan resents Henrik, whom he perceives as worthless in every capacity other than fatherhood; Henrik resents Johan for his niggardly attitudes about his wealth; Karin feels bound by familial shackles and yearns to escape the confines of the life that ensnares her, ultimately hoping to move to the city and pursue her dream of becoming a cellist. Bergman uses the central narrative to examine how parents can damage one another by wielding the demands of their own selfish egos and refusing to grant joy and contentment to themselves or their children. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Malou Von Sivers is the hostess of a popular Swedish talk show in which she quizzes famous people about their public and private lives. Through the noted Swedish actor Erland Josephson, Malou extended an invitation to the legendary -- and notoriously reclusive -- director Ingmar Bergman to appear on her show. To Malou's surprise, Bergman agreed, under the condition that Josephson appear on the show with him. In the course of this 52-minute interview, Bergman discusses his personal life rather than his films, shedding light on his temper, his mood swings, his problems with women, his marriage, and the trials of his advancing age. The interview was later re-edited into expanded form for international release as Malou Meets Ingmar Bergman and Erland Josephson. The documentary was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This moving, finely-wrought portrayal of legendary cinematographer Sven Nykvist was directed by his son Carl-Gustav Nykvist -- a noted filmmaker himself. Spanning from long forgotten kiddie flick in 1945 to Woody Allen's Celebrity (1997), Nykvist's career came to an abrupt end when he was diagnosed with a rare disorder that affects his speech. Though the film explores Nykvist's upbringing and turbulent private life (an ugly divorce, the suicide of one of his sons, an affair with Mia Farrow), the emotional heart of the film is his celebrated collaboration with auteur Ingmar Bergman, with whom Nykvist made some of his most enduring work, including Winter Light (1962) and Scenes from a Marriage (1973). As Bergman recalls his own career, he notes, "I don't miss making films, but I miss the collaboration with Sven." ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In this documentary, one of the world's most influential directors, Ingmar Bergman spends an hour and a half discussing cinema and what it means to him. First-time director Gunnar Bergdahl filmed Bergman without the distraction of narration, intrusive questions, music and film clips. Shooting the documentary in just one day during the Goteborg fest, Bergdahl steadied the camera in a relatively stationary position in order to keep the focus on Bergman. In accordance to the great filmmaker's wishes, Bergdahl allowed him not to talk about his own films in lieu of discussing the films of other directors. After the completion of filming, Bergdahl and his editor Robert Stengard, divided the footage into eight sections. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though only active in early Swedish cinema for two years, filmmaker Georg af Klercker was prolific and influential. Between 1916 and late 1918, he made 10 shorts and 18 feature-length movies in his independent studio. Klercker was forcibly bought out by his chief competitor Charles Magnusson in 1918. Largely because Magnusson preferred the work of directors Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller, Klercker's work has been all but forgotten. But Sweden's best-known director Ingmar Bergman did not forget and in 1994 penned a one-act play about Klercker. This brief drama is an adaptation of that play and is set a few years after the sale of his studio. With his career in shambles, Klercker returns to Magnusson's studio to beg him for a chance to direct again. While drinking too much of Magnusson's liquor, Klercker's pleas become increasingly desperate and unpleasant tirades about past indignities levelled upon him by Magnusson, who sits quietly by and allows Klercker to verbally hang himself. The actual production lasts 45 minutes. A 10-minute film about Klercker and early Swedish film precedes the story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Scripted (but not directed) by Ingmar Bergman, Best Intentions is a multilayered backwards glance at the courtship of Bergman's own parents. Henrik Bergman (Samuel Froler) is a struggling theology student in the year 1909. His intended, Anna Aakerbloom (Pernilla August, who married director Bille August while the film was in progress) is from a well-to-do family. Despite the expected class differences and personality clashes, love-or at least mutual understanding-prevails. But after a harsh, spare few years as the wife of a clergyman, Anna yearns for the more bountiful pleasures of her family home. Bergman writes himself into the proceedings as a mewling infant. The current three-hour theatrical version of Best Intentions (original title: Den Goda Viljan) was simultaneously prepared as a six-hour TV miniseries, which ran in Europe, Scandanavia, and Japan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ingmar Bergman's After the Rehearsal stars Erland Josephson as a theater director named Henrik Volger. He is in the midst of mounting a production of a Strindberg play when he is visited by Anna Egerman (Lena Olin), an actress whom he has cast in the play. Volger was involved with Anna's mother, Rakel (Ingrid Thulin), an alcoholic has-been actress who once was Volger's lover. Rakel intrudes upon their conversation, and the two women confront Henrik about how he has lived his life. This 72-minute production originally aired on Swedish television before receiving theatrical distribution. The cinematographer on the film is Bergman's longtime collaborator Sven Nykvist. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Shot as a record of Ingmar Bergman's directing techniques while he was making Fanny and Alexander, this informative documentary is geared more to the filmmaker and film buff or Bergman fans than it is toward a general audience. The famous Swedish icon is shown acting out scenes as he would like them, moving and gesticulating to help get his point across. He does not use much verbal explanation, yet his actors and crew hang on his every word, knowing that his insight is worth understanding. Even though he has high expectations, Bergman is patient and keeps an ambience of friendship and openness among his crew and cast. He is a bit more loquacious in a dialogue with his cameraman, Sven Nykvist. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Though he made allusions to his own life in all of his films, Fanny and Alexander was the first overtly autobiographical film by Ingmar Bergman. Taking his time throughout (188 minutes to be exact), Bergman recreates several episodes from his youth, using as conduits the fictional Ekdahl family. Alexander, the director's alter ego, is first seen at age 10 at a joyous and informal Christmas gathering of relatives and servants. Fanny is Alexander's sister; both suffer an emotional shakedown when their recently-widowed mother (Ewa Froling) marries a cold and distant minister. Stripped of their creature comforts and relaxed family atmosphere, Fanny and Alexander suddenly find their childhood unendurable. The kids' grandmother (Gunn Wallgren) "kidnaps" Fanny and Alexander for the purpose of showering them with the first kindness and affection that they've had since their father's death. This "purge" of the darker elements of Fanny and Alexander's existence is accomplished at the unintentional (but applaudable) cost of the hated stepfather's life. Ingmar Bergman insisted that Fanny and Alexander, originally a multipart television series pared down to feature-film length, represented his final film, though within a year after its release he was busy with several additional Swedish TV projects, and he returned to make one more theatrical release movie before his death - the 2003 Saraband. Oscars went to Fanny and Alexander for Best Foreign Film, Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist), Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced and directed for German television, Ingmar Bergman's From the Life of the Marionettes starts out in color and switches almost immediately to black-and-white. This cinematic self-indulgence is ideally suited to the subject matter: the horrible consequences of a rapidly disintegrating marriage. The husband, Peter Egerman (Robert Atzorn) is unable to articulate his frustration through normal channels. Warped by his repression, Egerman ends up raping and murdering a prostitute. This outrage occurs at the very beginning of the film; the rest of the footage is devoted to a semi-documentary study of the failed marriage, the police investigation, and the husband's twisted psyche. Once again, Bergman's vision is superbly realized by the camerawork of Sven Nykvist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In 1969, Ingmar Bergman crafted a little-seen documentary entitled Fårodökument - a sociological portrait of a Scandinavian island called Faro, off the coast of Gotland in southeastern Sweden. Bergman was fascinated by the extremes in climate, which make the island unbearably cold and practically unlivable during the winter but quite mild and pleasant in the summer. The territory thus fell into a critical position, where its summer tourists and a handful of residents enabled the economy to exist on the very edge of sustenance - that is, until many of the younger residents decided to take off for Stockholm and other big cities, and threatened to drive the island completely under. Fårodökument 1979 constitutes a follow-up to that original film, where Bergman (in-between Autumn Sonata and From the Life of the Marionettes at the time) re-visits Faro with his cameras and observes the sociological changes that have occurred in the intervening decade. This yields a series of encouraging onscreen discoveries: the original population size of 673 has remained fairly stable, and many of the teenagers and young adults who yearned for a big city life in the late sixties then changed their minds, deciding to harken back to Faro and do agrarian work with their families - while recognizing augmentative work in other areas as a prerequisite of continued economic stability. In lieu of unearthing the history of the land and the backstories of its residents, Bergman uses his screen time to investigate the interrelationships between Faro's indigenes, their ties to the land, and the components of their lifestyles, from work-related activities (fishing, hunting, construction, agriculture) to leisure. Bergman also touches on the widespread fear of rapidly escalating tourism, and the residents' concomitant need to preserve local culture. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This 1977 documentary feature closely examines the person, views and life of Norwegian actress Liv Ullman, perhaps best known for her many appearances in the famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's films. Clips of her films are included, as well as numerous interviews granted by her especially for this film, which was released shortly after her autobiography Changing was published. This documentary is subtitled: "Norway's Live Ullman/Liv Ullmann's Norway." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide