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| Hard-hitting film takes aim at Ingmar Bergman’s flawed way with women | Hard-hitting film takes aim at Ingmar Bergman’s flawed way with women |
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| A new Swedish documentary commissioned for this year’s centenary of the birth of Ingmar Bergman is to examine the sexual relationships in which the Swedish film director engaged with almost all of his actresses, and detail his shortcomings as a husband and father. | A new Swedish documentary commissioned for this year’s centenary of the birth of Ingmar Bergman is to examine the sexual relationships in which the Swedish film director engaged with almost all of his actresses, and detail his shortcomings as a husband and father. |
| Jane Magnusson’s film, Bergman: A Year in a Life, follows her 2013 documentary, Trespassing Bergman, which saw renowned film-makers such as Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen appraise Bergman’s work. | Jane Magnusson’s film, Bergman: A Year in a Life, follows her 2013 documentary, Trespassing Bergman, which saw renowned film-makers such as Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen appraise Bergman’s work. |
| A Year in a Life aims to look at the man behind the films and to direct an unflinching gaze at a national hero. “There have been so many documentaries about Bergman already but they have all been focusing on the ‘Great Artist Bergman’,” Magnusson said. “At least in Sweden, it’s been difficult to be critical of Bergman at all.” | A Year in a Life aims to look at the man behind the films and to direct an unflinching gaze at a national hero. “There have been so many documentaries about Bergman already but they have all been focusing on the ‘Great Artist Bergman’,” Magnusson said. “At least in Sweden, it’s been difficult to be critical of Bergman at all.” |
| The two-hour documentary is in post-production and, if accepted, will premiere in May at the Cannes film festival, before launching in cinemas in Sweden later in the summer. | The two-hour documentary is in post-production and, if accepted, will premiere in May at the Cannes film festival, before launching in cinemas in Sweden later in the summer. |
| Magnusson said she hoped Bergman admirers would be more willing to acknowledge the great director’s flaws after last year’s revelations about the systematic sexual exploitation of actresses by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, which sparked the #MeToo social media campaign. | Magnusson said she hoped Bergman admirers would be more willing to acknowledge the great director’s flaws after last year’s revelations about the systematic sexual exploitation of actresses by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, which sparked the #MeToo social media campaign. |
| “We were pretty much done with our film when #MeToo broke out, but this is something I addressed in the film anyway,” Magnusson said. “He did have a tremendous amount of women, and a lot of them were dependent on him – they were his actresses – and in Sweden no one is looked at that seriously, and I think it’s something we should look at seriously.” | “We were pretty much done with our film when #MeToo broke out, but this is something I addressed in the film anyway,” Magnusson said. “He did have a tremendous amount of women, and a lot of them were dependent on him – they were his actresses – and in Sweden no one is looked at that seriously, and I think it’s something we should look at seriously.” |
| The film is one of five commissioned as part of the year-long Bergman100 celebrations to mark the centenary of the director’s birth. As well as the films, more than 100 events will be held around the world, including London, where there will be a film retrospective at the British Film Institute between January and March and a stage adaptation of Fanny and Alexander at the Old Vic theatre between February and April. | The film is one of five commissioned as part of the year-long Bergman100 celebrations to mark the centenary of the director’s birth. As well as the films, more than 100 events will be held around the world, including London, where there will be a film retrospective at the British Film Institute between January and March and a stage adaptation of Fanny and Alexander at the Old Vic theatre between February and April. |
| Magnusson’s film focuses on 1957, which she calls “Bergman’s mad year”. This was the year he produced his two masterpieces, Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, directed his first television film and put on four stage productions, include a production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, which had until then been deemed almost unstageable. | Magnusson’s film focuses on 1957, which she calls “Bergman’s mad year”. This was the year he produced his two masterpieces, Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, directed his first television film and put on four stage productions, include a production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, which had until then been deemed almost unstageable. |
| But it was also the year he met Käbi Laretei and Ingrid von Rosen, who would go on to become his fourth and fifth wives, while also being engrossed in an intense affair with Bibi Andersson, the lead actress in the year’s two films. Understandably, his marriage to the journalist and linguist Gun Grut was falling apart. He barely saw the six children he had already had with three different women. | But it was also the year he met Käbi Laretei and Ingrid von Rosen, who would go on to become his fourth and fifth wives, while also being engrossed in an intense affair with Bibi Andersson, the lead actress in the year’s two films. Understandably, his marriage to the journalist and linguist Gun Grut was falling apart. He barely saw the six children he had already had with three different women. |
| Magnusson has trawled the archives for the film, uncovering an interview with Bergman’s elder brother, which casts doubt on the director’s account of his upbringing and relationships. | Magnusson has trawled the archives for the film, uncovering an interview with Bergman’s elder brother, which casts doubt on the director’s account of his upbringing and relationships. |
| The film-makers also interviewed more than 50 people who worked with Bergman, including the American singer and actress Barbra Streisand– with whom he tried to make a film in the 1970s – Bergman’s lover, friend and collaborator Liv Ullmann, and other Swedish actors and directors such as Gösta Ekman, Mikael Persbrandt, Roy Andersson and Pernilla August. | The film-makers also interviewed more than 50 people who worked with Bergman, including the American singer and actress Barbra Streisand– with whom he tried to make a film in the 1970s – Bergman’s lover, friend and collaborator Liv Ullmann, and other Swedish actors and directors such as Gösta Ekman, Mikael Persbrandt, Roy Andersson and Pernilla August. |
| Magnusson believes that the level of intimacy Bergman demanded of actresses such as Andersson would be seen as exploitative today, but suspects that his status was such that even if he had still been alive during last year’s flurry of sexual harassment revelations, he might still have escaped it all untouched. | Magnusson believes that the level of intimacy Bergman demanded of actresses such as Andersson would be seen as exploitative today, but suspects that his status was such that even if he had still been alive during last year’s flurry of sexual harassment revelations, he might still have escaped it all untouched. |
| “People are losing their jobs for lesser offences in Sweden today. He’s rumoured to have done worse things, but then again he was Bergman,” she said. “I don’t know if people would dare to accuse him of anything.” | “People are losing their jobs for lesser offences in Sweden today. He’s rumoured to have done worse things, but then again he was Bergman,” she said. “I don’t know if people would dare to accuse him of anything.” |
| That neither Ullmann, Andersson, nor indeed any of the other actresses in Bergman’s films have ever publicly accused him of sexual misconduct does not mean that he is blameless, she believes. | That neither Ullmann, Andersson, nor indeed any of the other actresses in Bergman’s films have ever publicly accused him of sexual misconduct does not mean that he is blameless, she believes. |
| “That’s the nature of being a man with a lot of power. If you’re an actress and he dumps you after a year, and you’re angry and denounce him, then you’re out of a job, and that for me is what #Me Too is about.” | “That’s the nature of being a man with a lot of power. If you’re an actress and he dumps you after a year, and you’re angry and denounce him, then you’re out of a job, and that for me is what #Me Too is about.” |
| But Magnusson is keen to credit Bergman for the unusually powerful and intelligent roles he created for his actresses. “He has these amazing female characters in a lot of his films, and we have to thank him for that, because he was quite alone in casting in that way,” she said. “His personal relationships with women seem at odds with his respect for them on screen.” | But Magnusson is keen to credit Bergman for the unusually powerful and intelligent roles he created for his actresses. “He has these amazing female characters in a lot of his films, and we have to thank him for that, because he was quite alone in casting in that way,” she said. “His personal relationships with women seem at odds with his respect for them on screen.” |
| Ullmann, the Norwegian actress and director who became pregnant with Bergman’s child shortly after shooting finished on Persona, her first film with the director, has always expressed her gratitude. “For the first time, I met a director who let me express emotions and thoughts that no one else had seen in me,” she said when the film was released in 1966. And last September, when she launched the 2018 centenary in a ceremony in London, she credited him for the way he had “enriched not only my life, but an entire world”. | Ullmann, the Norwegian actress and director who became pregnant with Bergman’s child shortly after shooting finished on Persona, her first film with the director, has always expressed her gratitude. “For the first time, I met a director who let me express emotions and thoughts that no one else had seen in me,” she said when the film was released in 1966. And last September, when she launched the 2018 centenary in a ceremony in London, she credited him for the way he had “enriched not only my life, but an entire world”. |
| In Faithless, directed in 2000 by Ullmann from a script written by Bergman, a deeply unflattering portrait is painted of the director’s infidelity towards Grut. “It’s a horrible picture of what he’s like in that relationship,” Magnusson said. “He’s super-honest about his shortcomings in his films, and maybe that’s the reason his films are so great.” | In Faithless, directed in 2000 by Ullmann from a script written by Bergman, a deeply unflattering portrait is painted of the director’s infidelity towards Grut. “It’s a horrible picture of what he’s like in that relationship,” Magnusson said. “He’s super-honest about his shortcomings in his films, and maybe that’s the reason his films are so great.” |
| She is keen to stress that her documentary, released as it is for the centenary, was not intended as “a super-critical Bergman-bashing film”. | She is keen to stress that her documentary, released as it is for the centenary, was not intended as “a super-critical Bergman-bashing film”. |
| “I wanted to make a celebratory film about him, about 1957, because it’s amazing what he does there, but also to show the cost of working that hard,” she said. “I really think he’s the most interesting Swede ever. Just his constant production of film and theatre and writing – at least in our country, it’s unprecedented.” | “I wanted to make a celebratory film about him, about 1957, because it’s amazing what he does there, but also to show the cost of working that hard,” she said. “I really think he’s the most interesting Swede ever. Just his constant production of film and theatre and writing – at least in our country, it’s unprecedented.” |
| A longer four-hour version will be broadcast in four parts on Swedish television in December. | A longer four-hour version will be broadcast in four parts on Swedish television in December. |
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