OPINION

After A Full Artistic Life, Ingmar Bergman Lets Death Checkmate Him

Written by Adam Ash
Published August 01, 2007
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I’d like to get out of the way for the last thought, and quote someone who posted on a NY Times comments section when Bergman died:

July 30th, 2007 1:39 pm
There is a totality of scope in Bergman’s films that mystically inhabits every moment of time and every seemingly unimportant article, along the lines of what the poet William Blake expressed:
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.”
Perhaps above all his films call for a life of inner courage, both in spite of and because of the human tenderness, frailty and resilience which his films exalt.
— Posted by Eric Spaeth


10. HOW TO SEE HIS FILMS AGAIN


Individual DVDs of most of his films are available in the Criterion Collection. Then there are these boxed sets:


1. For the total devotee, his first apprenticeship films are on the Criterion Collection’s "Early Bergman" - Torment (1944), Crisis (1946), Port of Call (1948), Thirst (1949) and To Joy (1950).


2. In the Criterion Collection, there’s a boxed set of his 1960s Absence-of-God trilogy, The Silence, Through a Glass Darkly, and Winter Light. It also includes is a fourth film, Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie, a five-part comprehensive documentary on the making of Winter Light, one of Bergman's favorite films. The documentary is directed by filmmaker Vilgot Sjoman (I Am Curious — Yellow), and was, in Sjoman's words, "the first and only time that Bergman let someone document his filmmaking from the first idea to the first showings."


3. Scenes From a Marriage (1973). The film was released theatrically in the United States in a 167-minute version. Criterion released the full 299-minute television series as a DVD in 2004.


4. Fanny and Alexander (1983). Both the 188-minute feature and the 312-minute original are now part of the Criterion catalog.


5. His final made-for-TV movie, Saraband, a look back at the long-divorced characters in Scenes from a Marriage, is on DVD from Sony Pictures.


6. There’s an Ingmar Bergman collection by MGM: six DVDs of Persona, Shame, The Hour of the Wolf, The Passion of Anna, and the big-budget mess The Serpent’s Egg, with a 2002 interview with Bergman.

11. ALL HIS MOVIES


Apprentice Work:

  • Crisis (1946) (Kris)
  • It Rains on Our Love (1946) (Det regnar på vår kärlek)
  • A Ship to India (1947) (Skepp till Indialand)
  • Music in Darkness (1948) (Musik i mörker)
  • Port of Call (1948) (Hamnstad)
  • Prison (1949) (Fängelse)
  • Thirst /Three Strange Loves (1949) (Törst)
  • This Can't Happen Here (1950) (Sånt händer inte här)
  • To Joy (1950) (Till glädje)
  • Summer Interlude (1951) (Sommarlek)
  • Secrets of Women (1952) (Kvinnors väntan)

Maturity:

  • Sawdust and Tinsel (1953) (Gycklarnas afton)
  • Summer with Monika (1953) (Sommaren med Monika)
  • A Lesson in Love (1954) (En lektion i kärlek)
  • Dreams (1955) (Kvinnodröm) aka Journey Into Autumn

International Breakthrough:

  • Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) (Sommarnattens leende)
  • The Seventh Seal (1957) (Det sjunde inseglet)
  • Wild Strawberries (1957) (Smultronstället)

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Like this article? Writer Adam Ash's band, the Dingbots, have just released Kidd Radar, a rock opera, available on iTunes and as a CD at CD Baby. Watch their video on YouTube.com by typing "Dingbots" into the YouTube search box or clicking here. If you are a natural rebel, a wild libertine, a transgressive intellectual – or if you have two heads – you might want the Dingbots to land inside your cerebellum. It's never too late to get fucked up on sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.
Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!
After A Full Artistic Life, Ingmar Bergman Lets Death Checkmate Him
Published: August 01, 2007
Type: Opinion
Section: Video
Filed Under: Video: News, Video: Foreign Language, Video: Art House
Writer: Adam Ash
Adam Ash's BC Writer page
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Comments

#1 — August 2, 2007 @ 00:28AM — El Bicho [URL]

Great piece.

#2 — August 2, 2007 @ 08:15AM — High Heels [URL]

This is a terrific and comprehensive overview, combining biography and ouevre beautifully... required reading!
Thanks!
HH

#3 — August 2, 2007 @ 08:33AM — Adam Ash [URL]

A friend emailed me this nice insight after he read my piece:

"it comes down to nakedness for me.
i think the artist is only fully realized,by his courage to stand naked before his audience and share himself,pain,passions,phobia,pharts and all.
bergman was the most naked film maker ever.
was there another who ever understood women better or (or perhaps more appropriately),understood his female side better?
all the questions that plagued him all his life,finally answered.
thanks for sharing"

Adam Ash.

P.S. Thank you, High Heels and El Bicho.

#4 — August 2, 2007 @ 10:05AM — Lisa McKay [URL]

One of the finest pieces I've read on Bergman in these past several days, Adam. Thank you.

#5 — August 2, 2007 @ 18:15PM — Aaron Fleming [URL]

Sublime obituary. He will be missed.

#6 — February 18, 2008 @ 11:29AM — Ingmar Fan [URL]

Well done Adam, first time I've come across this piece. It's very informative.

#7 — February 18, 2008 @ 14:37PM — bliffle

Excellent article.

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