Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007,) fully Ernst Ingmar Bergman, was a Swedish film and theatre director and writer who is regarded as one of the greatest directors ever. His oeuvre remains among the most widely recognized in the world.
Born in Uppsala, Bergman launched his film career as a scriptwriter and continued to alternate between stage and screen, making his film debut with Crisis (1945.)
Bergman’s prodigious output is marked by intellectuality, metaphysical conjecture, and symbolic content, frequently derived from Jungian dream analysis. His major films include the melancholic Sommarnattens Leende (1955, ‘Smiles of a Summer Night,’) the somber Det Sjunde Inseglet (1957, ‘The Seventh Seal,’) Smultronstället (1957, ‘Wild Strawberries’) and Ansiktet (1958, ‘The Face.’) They became a cult for art-cinema audiences, winning many international awards.
Bergman then created a succession of bleak masterpieces, outstanding in their photographic artistry and haunting imagery, including Persona (1966,) Skammen (1968, ‘Shame,’) Viskningar och Rop (1972, ‘Cries and Whispers’) and the British-Norwegian coproduction Höstsonaten (1978, Autumn Sonata.) The intimate and poignant Fanny and Alexander (1983) is judged his most exceptional achievement.
Bergman retired from filmmaking in the 1980s but continued to write screenplays, including The Best Intentions (1992.) His stage productions include Hamlet (1986) and Miss Julie (1987) at the National Theatre in London.
Bergman’s publications comprise the autobiography The Magic Lantern (1988) and several novels, including Private Confessions (1994.)
In 1978, the Swedish Film Institute established in his honor the Ingmar Bergman Annual Prize for excellence in filmmaking.
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No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.
—Ingmar Bergman
Topics: Art
I make all my decisions on intuition. I throw a spear into the darkness. That is intuition. Then I must send an army into the darkness to find the spear. That is intellect.
—Ingmar Bergman
Topics: Intuition
Film as dream, film as music. No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul. A little twitch in our optic nerve, a shock effect: twenty-four illuminated frames a second, darkness in between, the optic nerve incapable of registering darkness.
—Ingmar Bergman
Old age is like climbing a mountain. The higher you get, the more tired and breathless you become, but your view becomes much more extensive.
—Ingmar Bergman
Topics: Age
Everything is worth precisely as much as a belch, the difference being that a belch is more satisfying.
—Ingmar Bergman
Topics: Manners
I hope I never get so old I get religious.
—Ingmar Bergman
Topics: Atheism, Aging, Age
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