Weekly Top Ten: Ingmar Bergman

I don’t want to get into the habit of just doing directors top ten lists, but for now let’s just keep it simple. Ingmar Bergman is probably one of the most iconic film directors who appeared during the rise of European art cinema in the 1950s. Although he had been working quite a lot before that, this was truly the period where he emerged as one of the forces of deeply personal and profound films. For me, personally, he was one of the first European filmmakers I started to explore, and therefore has quite a bit of significance on me and my sensibility when watching films.

10. Tystnaden (1963)
Controversial at its release, Tystnaden was the last of Bergman’s informal faith trilogy. Somehow, I always felt that the film lacked some of the crucial elements that are usually part of Bergman’s cinema. Still, the way he builds up the tension and the strict camera discipline is at times harrowing. It doesn’t evoke some of the issues one is used to in Bergman, but it has a quintessential European “feel”, much like L’Avventura and La Dolce Vita.

9. Fanny och Alexander (1982) Well, I had to add the movie that introduced me to Bergman in the first place. While Bergman always has been a deeply personal filmmaker, I feel this is his most personal film. It has a strong nostalgic feel to it, and much of the events are taken right out of his childhood. The cinematography is as beautiful as colour cinematography gets, and some of the sequences are wonderfully hypnotic.

8. Det Syvende Inseglet (1957)
While at the time of making Det Syvende Inseglet Bergman was already quite famous in Sweden and had made some films that were hailed in Europe, this is without doubt the film that threw him into the international scene, and made him one of the most important contemporary filmmakers in Europe. The medieval setting is properly apocalyptic, and with a great group performance from the cast of Bergman regulars, the film stands as one of the greatest classics of European cinema.

7. Nattvardsgästerna (1962)
This is a quiet little film, at least on the outside. But the internal hell and struggle that the protagonist goes through is at times overwhelming. Gunnar Björnstrand is fantastic as the priest who has lost faith in a higher being, and is well supported by the actors around him, as well as a great little part from Max von Sydow. But what makes this film truly great is the focused cinematography which with its minimalistic style manages to create as much emotion as possible, through some very subtle camerawork.

6. Vargtimmen (1968)
Probably Bergman’s most isolated and paranoid film, Vargtimmen is a visual nightmare like few other films can achieve. The claustrophobic setting and cinematography builds up the internal terror that the characters experience. It is both a strange and scary experience to watch. While I feel it lacks some of the usual subtlety and themes that Bergman explores, the film stands high for its extremely effective use of its visual medium as a nightmare.

5. Såsom i en spegel (1961)
The use of barque music in this chamber film is excellent, and adds to the isolation and mental turmoil that the characters go through. The most interesting aspect of the film is the sexual tension between the brother and sister characters, which towards the end of the film increase into unbearable heights.

4. Sommarnattens leende (1953)
A much underrated gem by Bergman, Sommarnattens leende was his first success abroad, although it didn’t bring him into the spotlight like Det Syvende Inseglet did. The film is a subtle comedy piece with some wonderful acting and delightfully witty script. So it is a much more enjoyable film in the classic sense when considering Bergman films, and that is why I love this film, the pure joy of it. The ending is fantastic.

3. Persona (1966)
Perhaps Bergman’s most difficult film, Persona is one of the finest masterpieces within abstract cinema. Calling Persona abstract is perhaps wrong, in a sense, but it is without doubt the film he made with the most radical and innovative narrative form. The intense emotions which so often are the greatest element in Bergman’s films is at times destructive in this film and the play between the two actresses are absolutely fantastic, walking a fine line between fascination and repulsion.

2. Viskningar och Rop (1972)
Destruction in the eye of the beholder. Blood and disturbing sexual desire. Few words can describe the emotional breakdown and writhing pain one has to suffer when watching this film. Brilliant cinematography in every sense of the word and a hypnotic and tense atmosphere. Enough said.


1. Smultronstället (1957)
I love Smutronstället, it is one of my favourite films of all time. Despite its relative short running time, the film contains everything that cinema could encompass. A road trip movie, the film allows itself a lot of time and space to explore different areas of the protagonist’s life and the unfolding of his previous deeds builds up our understanding of the character wonderfully. There are also some great moments with hitchhikers which further allow the film to unfold unto different themes and ideas. The ending is very uplifting, and brings both the character and narrative to a brilliant conclusion. This film enters into the exclusive group of a few films which I have seen three times in a row, without any break.

En Passion (Ingmar Bergman, 1969)

Finally were getting back into what it’s all about; careful, intense, small character studies. This is what Bergman masters best and he can repeat it many times without going over the same kind of thing twice. One thing that surprised me was that the film was in colour. It was made just a year after Skammen (Ingmar Bergman, 1968), which was in black and white. But it’s okay though, because the cinematography is beautiful throughout. It still doesn’t hold up to Bergman’s best colour film Viskningar och Rop (1972), but it has many admirable strengths. Hey, and I’d like to complain again. This film was released by the same company that released the Skammen DVD, and what is up with the DVD menu? It looks like something cheaply made in some bad program. Ah, it’s just annoying.

Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann return again, featuring their tortured faces. Bibi Andersson is also cast, and thank God because she does add her usual spark and liveliness to the film. Sydow and Ullmann’s performances are even stronger here than in Skammen, and they truly encapsulates the dreary and dark universe that Bergman creates. Sydow looks like a tortured soul, and Liv Ullmann has rarely looked sadder. What I complained about in my Skammen review is all gone like a bad dream, and here we are given the pure core of the material, rather all that other bullshit to fill the gaps. This is a character drama, and a pretty damn strong one at that. There are hints and clues at the cracks in the characters psyche, and we are given an open-ended look at their character traits. There is a lot of room for interpretation, and yet the characters still remain quite ambiguous to the end. Bergman is also one of the greatest at exposing the weakness and hypocrisy in human relationships. The gaze of the camera is penetrating in this film, and again Bergman uses his great skills with the camera to create some great shots. Actually, there are less of those kind of shots that I love than in Skammen, but here they are used to greater effect and the film overall is better structurally, so it doesn’t matter much. Also, I am a sucker for black and white cinematography. Sure, the film does look great, but I will still any day take black and white over colour. Incidentally, on IMDb, at the moment, Skammen got an average rating of 8.1, while En Passion “only” got 7.8. It just goes to show how superficial the average Bergman viewer is.

Probably one of the most powerful moments of the film is when we see several slaughtered and mauled sheep lying dead on the ground. Some jackass is running around the island the film takes place and is killing and torturing animals. While Bergman makes the audience try to figure out who did it, I don’t believe Bergman would care much to provide a clear answer to the question, but only make us pry into it. It is never clear, and it was never supposed to be. This is one thing I often hate, people asking “who done it?” Does it really matter? No it doesn’t, especially in films such as this. There is something more important about this being done, it is creating associations in our heads, further reasons to look into the characters psychology and works well with the rest of the narrative. It is done for something bigger; Bergman doesn’t have time to provide answers for such meaningless small narrative queries. The characters are fascinating, dark and there is enough sub-text for the whole family. Actually, I would recommend watching this with your family; maybe you’ll learn something about each other. The film is, quite surprisingly, fast paced. Obviously, the average audience will feel that this is slower than taking British Rail, but in many ways, compared to other Bergman films, it is quite fast. It may have something to do with the intensity of the script and narrative, as well as the performances, but I did like the pacing of the film. It still is able to take the odd moment to reflect on the world, but never more than necessary. Bergman is as usual great at creating fantastic and powerful endings, hopefully without that sentence sounding too much like an overused cliché, this is no exception.

Great to be back in familiar Bergman territory. The two last ones were alright, but this is the real good stuff of his work. Dramatic character studies will always survive, because they are so universal and powerful. Sydow and Ullmann are both great, and it is always a joy to see Bibi Andersson’s presence on the screen. It is dark, bleak, and dreary, exactly as vintage Bergman should be. Watch it at the expense of your own optimism.

Skammen (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)

Skammen, another Ingmar Bergman film that isn’t among his most famous, but I’ve heard enough praise to want to see it. Apparently, the film I watched, the DVD version, is in wrong aspect ratio. But then again, I didn’t notice, and the amount of DVD releases for this film aren’t exactly plentiful, and regardless, it cost me 4£. Besides, I didn’t quite notice this while watching it, so how bad could the transfer have been. Still, I will use this opportunity to complain about this issue. Why can’t these people release the films in their original aspect ratio, what is so hard about that?

Anyway, in Sweden, for some reason, war is raging and a married couple, played by Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann, two people quite regularly cast in Bergman’s films. Everything starts out nice and idyllic; although the married couple has personal problems, like any other. But oh damn! War hits and the people suffer psychologically and are torn apart by the atrocities of war. The film is quite bleak, but not bleaker than many other Bergman films. The film does contain some fantastic moments, and some of Bergman’s camera setups are absolutely fantastic. But the film does suffer a bit. Fine, it’s about war, but I’m not sure if this is the area that Bergman tackles the best. In fact, I was bored during the “war” scenes. The style adopted for these doesn’t suit the rest of the film, and as a consequence, it seems to vary a bit between the phenomenal and the dull. The films highpoints, regardless, are still great, but they polarize the film too much. The cinematography is though some of the best I’ve seen by Bergman, but best at its most simple moments. The close ups, and wide shots, equally, are great, and throughout we are given moments of extreme intensity and emotional impact. I think the film might have been better if it limited itself, at times it seem too big, too big for itself. Bergman’s best films have always been small quiet dramas, and while Skammen has these moments, it is obscured too much with the overload and pompous war scenes.

Another area that isn’t as strong here as his other films is the psychological development of the characters. Sure, it is better than most other films, however, we are talking about Ingmar Bergman here, one of the greatest directors of psychological cinema, so our standards should be quite high. It is adequate. Sure, we get it; they suffer mentally because of the war. It can all become a bit overbearing. However, some of the early marriage stuff is great, and the opening has the best moments, although the end is fantastic and very strong. The film starts off fantastically, takes a dip through the middle, and grabs itself up by the end. For all its faults, the film is still very powerful and the moments as such aren’t spoiled by the less interesting moments. Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann also do great jobs at their respective parts, although it is always quite amusing to listen to Liv Ullmann attempt at speaking Swedish. One of the points of the film is how innocent people suffer in the brink of war, and to this the film does quite well. However, the overall theme of war and the psychological development of the characters is not explored well or thoroughly enough. Ultimately the film suffers from being made by Bergman. I have grown accustomed to expect a lot from Bergman films, and this one falls a bit short of the mark. I guess I have come to the level where I have, like with Fellini, Kurosawa and Hitchcock, seen the most of his greatest films, and all that is left are the curiosities in between. It is a bit sad, but also slightly exiting, as I know there are probably some hidden masterworks somewhere that I still haven’t seen by Bergman, but still, my extensive exploring of his work is probably over. For now anyway.

The film is very good. However, it is average Bergman. That doesn’t say a whole lot, and the film is filled with some of his best moments of extreme emotional impact. The cinematography is at times wonderful, stark and beautiful. The ending is also fantastic and very Bergmanesuqe. Recommended for experienced Bergman viewers, but for people just starting out, start somewhere else.

Sommarlek (Ingmar Bergman, 1951)

Ah, Ingmar Bergman, one of the greatest filmmakers, his films can be so simple, yet so sublime, particularly in the case of Sommarnattens leende (1955) and Smultronstället (1957). I do also love his films that are a bit heavier handed, but most of the films across his canon that I’ve seen are great. That being said, I haven’t seen any film by him in quite some time, a couple of years actually. The reason for this is that I had a period when I watched many of his films across two years, and after that felt fairly satisfied with the range in which I had explored his filmmaking, and went on to explore other directors. Lately though I’ve wanted to come back to Bergman and check out more of his films, particularly some of his lesser known films. The first in line was Sommarlek, a film made some years before Bergman became internationally famous.

I like it when Bergman doesn’t overcomplicate things and make it simple. Not because I can’t handle complex films, but it seems to me that a film will have more resonance and can create just as much meaning in simple terms. Also, Bergman is excessively good at this. Sommarlek is a fairly simple film, but contains a lot of the issues Bergman would later handle, although it does seem to brush over them quite quickly. Love, death, psychological angst and nostalgia all feature in here, although I feel some of the themes could have been fleshed out a bit more. Some of these themes are brushed over or touched upon at the very end, with no real fore building. However, the themes that are focused upon are developed quite nicely. The two most important aspects of the film I guess are nostalgia and love, specifically young love. A girl meets boy story, but with flashbacks and quite a bit of bitterness. In terms of depth the film is a bit shallower than Bergman’s usual output, but then again, this is an early work by him and he is still developing himself as a filmmaker. I know I’ve not been too positive towards the film, however, I did like the film, but it is sub-par to most of Bergman’s later films. The best aspect of the film is how Bergman captures the landscape with the camera; he creates a real sense of summer vacation, which is a central idea to the film. The film also deals with having to accept bad things happening in ones life, and try to go on no matter what. In this way it has a more positive note than some of his other films, particularly his later ones, and this I quite like.

From a historical point of view it is interesting to watch the film, because while not being stunning, it does point towards Bergman’s future filmmaking, and you can tell several aspects of the filmmaking style that will flourish in just a few years. It’s always interesting to watch how a filmmaker has progressed throughout his or hers output. Bergman surely walked a fine line throughout his career and every film progresses to some degree or in some way from the last. While there are several central ideas in his filmmaking, he also varied the style in many of his films, particularly Persona (1966). I always knew of Sommarlek, but few had talked about it, and I can kind of see why. The film is nice, has some interesting stuff in it and some good actors, but overall it lacks that certain depth that later Bergman films had. It’s still better than the average film you’ll see, but for a Bergman film one cannot avoid being slightly disappointed. However, the most enjoyable part of the film for me was seeing how the past affected the character in the present through flashbacks, and at this the film was quite good, giving us what we needed but not hitting us over the head with a hammer.

I would recommend Sommarlek to some degree; however it shouldn’t be the first Bergman film you watch. If your intent is to watch loads of Bergman films then this should definitely be on your list, because it is quite good. Not brilliant, but an enjoyable little film made by the Swedish master.