User reviews

I have already seen several interviews, both short and long in length, with the legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, but rarely has he ever been this revelatory in what he says to his interviewer/director of the film Marie Nyerod. In fact, I would go as far as saying that there are very few, if any, filmmakers or artists who say so much from an emotional core, from a place where feelings and experience touch one very greatly and profoundly and hurtingly at times, while still being able to be articulate and with a truly intellectual core. In other words, it's like watching one of his films, sort of. And interesting too is seeing how he lives on this island, from the (American-released) title 'Bergman Island', and how it suits him very well in his golden years. He first came to the island while filming Through a Glass Darkly, and decided to live there after filming Persona, as the island somehow spoke to him intensely and movingly with its tranquility and peace and, particularly, seclusion.

But even when Nyerod finds Bergman at his home, widowed 8 years from his fifth and final wife Ingrid, he says that he does not even feel lonely, and for one who is as disorganized as him, rituals in the day are crucial for him. So he goes in this documentary on wonderful ruminations on his childhood, which held as many joys as terrors and very harsh circumstances of what 'love' meant with pain (this later went brilliantly and crushingly into Fanny & Alexander), on his early successes and the turning point that came in the mid 50s, on his passions for the theater and film and how they vary (as well as passions for the women of his life, and how he transitioned from wives to his female stars), and finally on the great fear of death and questioning of religion. Listening to him, as a fan, is like hearing someone who knows all there is to know in the world, but also through massive experience and what comes with working as a serious dramatist and storyteller and poet all of his life, there comes some pain and hurt and the knowledge that there can be cruelty that comes.

Most fascinating of all, aside from hearing the little tid-bits of stories from his films- especially Scenes From a Marriage and episode 3 of that work, and Cries and Whispers and his way of lies with the press- is hearing him talk of what a 'bad conscience' means, and how death impacted him, particularly after the passing of his wife. Never does he close himself off from the interviewer, and one always gets the total sense of Bergman, even as he is sometimes not totally sure of himself completely, just like everyone out there. Leaving the movie, much as I might with a directed-Bergman film, my mind became intellectually sparked, and I too thought of such prescient matters like of the afterlife and of what it means to be creative or what demons many of us carry and may not even acknowledge (i.e. "the demon of nothingness"). In short, if you love Bergman, this sort of final coda in what will very likely be the last we'll see of Bergman on screen, is priceless. And if you're just getting into his work too it's worth a viewing. I especially would like to see the unedited version of this documentary, though printed on this site at 174 minutes was released here in the US at a meager (yet very meaningful and pleasant) 85 minutes.

Some of this material is on DVD extras of Bergman films. Here we have it all in one place. For a Bergman fan, this documentary is fascinating, for we see inside his home and hear about his daily life. Bergman is heavy, a serious and thoughtful artist reflecting on a life towards its end. He summarizes his feelings on death and religion. His wisdom is undeniable. Bergman fully admits his faults and openly discusses his creativity. Highlights are him trying to answer questions on Persona and a part about how scene three from Scenes from a Marriage is directly from his life. Overall, an important document for any serious fan of cinema.

"You could say I'm a profoundly scared person."

It's far from a complete accounting of Ingmar Bergman's life or his films, but just seeing him interviewed out on Faro Island at age 85, just four years before he passed away, is incredibly special. It should be pointed out that this originally aired on Swedish TV in 2004 in three one-hour segments, and was then edited down to a 85 minute film for the 2006 release which I saw; Bergman then passed away in 2007.

Over the course of Marie Nyrerod's interviews, Bergman shows home movies taken behind the scenes of his films, takes her to where they were filmed, and is quite open about his personal life, trauma and shortcomings included. She effectively mixes in scenes from the films he talks about, and behind her smiles, isn't afraid of putting him on the spot. I don't think there were any grand revelations here, but I was mesmerized, and for a Bergman fan, it's probably a must-watch. I would also say that a great book for anyone who likes the film and wants still more commentary and anecdotes from Bergman is Images - My Life in Film.

Highlights/notes:

• Hearing about his childhood trauma. As a boy he was pushed away from cuddling his mother too much, so that he could "grow up to be a man," and beaten by a father who was prone to violent rage. He was acutely aware that his mother, normally bossy, didn't intervene, and he felt that discipline, reflected also in Fanny and Alexander, was meant to make him "humiliated to the uttermost depths." He was also traumatized by being locked in a morgue as a prank, one which had the corpse of a young woman, and still occasionally had dreams about the experience as an old man.

• Seeing the elderly Bergman walk around what remains of Filmstaden (as I was lucky enough to do in 2019), and speak of the day his new boss Victor Sjostrom gave him a talking to on the grounds. He says: "When I directed my first film here (Crisis, 1946), all I did was shout and quarrel," he says. "I didn't know anything. I was so lacking in self-confidence. At the same time, Victor Sjostrom came to work here. He had been in Britain for a long time. Victor Sjostrom was put on the staff as the artistic director at Filmstaden. He was told everyone was complaining about bloody Bergman. ... He gave me my first real lesson in how to make films, and above all, in how to behave towards the people you're working with, and towards the actors."

• The success of Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) at Cannes, sent there without his knowledge, giving him free reign from then on, including to make the film that had already been rejected, The Seventh Seal (1957).

• The idea of Death playing chess coming from a mural he had seen as a boy by Albertus Pictor from 1480 in the Taby Church just outside Stockholm. (Other images, like "Death sawing down the Tree of Life, a terrified wretch wringing his hands at the top of it, and Death leading the dance to the Land of Shadows, wielding his scythe like a flag, the congregation capering in a long line, and the jester bringing up the rear" as he described elsewhere, were from the murals in the churches he would visit with his father.)

• On The Seventh Seal (1957): "The core of that film is an insane fear of death. I was in a state of ... it was the most appalling suffering. ... Anything to do with death was horrifying. Out of that horror, and the business of the atom bomb and that sort of thing, this story arose about the plague and the journey back. And then of course there was the whole question posed by religion of 'Is there a God? Is there no God at all?' The Seventh Seal has no answer to that question."

• First arriving on Faro in 1960 to film Through a Glass Darkly, and deciding not only the location for the film, but the location for where he would live, after getting input from cinematographer Sven Nykvist.

• Of Cries and Whispers (1972), disavowing his comments in an interview at the time that the four women each represented his mother, who had died a few years earlier, saying that it was something he said spontaneously just to have something to say. It was not the only time the older Bergman would do this, comment on his own past comments about films, taking them back.

• Bergman struggling to answer questions about his numerous failed marriages, his sexual relationships with his leading ladies, and his poor performance as a father. He is honest in the sense of acknowledging it all, but when he rationalizes his cruelty to his wife and children by saying having a conscience over it would be "pure vanity" is deeply uncomfortable to hear. So in this sense, the film reveals a man who is very selfish.

• Little bits around his house, like the inspiration for the design of his fireplace, or his movie room, where he would show Chaplin's Circus (1928).

• Bergman's description of his demons. He opens with the comment that he walks outside because "The demons don't like fresh air. What they like best is if you stay in bed with cold feet." He closes with a list of the demons he has (the Demons of Disaster, Fear, Rage, and Grudges) and one he doesn't have (Nothingness, e.g. He's never run out of creativity).

Bergman Island (2004)

**** (out of 4)

Brilliant documentary/interview with the legendary Ingmar Bergman has the director talking about a wide range of subjects. Topics include his childhood, his movies, religion, death and various demons that haunt him. For the most part the documentary takes place on Faro Island, the place the director would call home. Having gone through many of the director's most famous works, I've often asked myself what type of mind it would take to create such emotional pain and beauty on the screen and each time I see the director interviewed I can see why his films were so special and why no other filmmaker could have made them the same way. Bergman once again packs a real punch with the various answers he gives to the questions being asked. Perhaps I'm wrong but I can't help but feel that he was a troubled and haunted man up until the day he died and some of the pain is on full display here. This includes his talk about being close to his mother as well as the his feelings on the possibility of seeing his dead wife Ingrid again in some sort of after life. His thoughts on religion are quite deep and interesting as are various things said in regards to his films and how they came to be. The stuff dealing with SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE and CRIES AND WHISPERS are the most interesting. Fans of the director or those just getting into his work will certainly be entertained by this thing as you really can't take your eyes or ears off the director.

In Greek tragedy, the outcome is not death, but exile. This account by the intensely self-absorbed Swedish writer-director, ending his life in solitude on Faro Island, is self-revealing about his obsession with his mother, as we might say of Oedipus, and his remoteness from his quick-tempered father, as we might say of Oedipus. His films are about himself. His involvement with wives, lovers, and children was minimal. After the box office and critical success of "Smiles of a Summer Night" (1955), he was left alone to do whatever he wanted. The one regret he expresses about his career was that he was never able to discuss his work with anyone as he did it. There was no Louis B. Mayer, Nicholas Schenck, Carl Laemmle, or Darryl F. Zanuck around to say, "No, you can't do that. Re-write it." And so there he languishes, in remote isolation and silence, kept company by artifacts of his past. Even the film's interviewer leaves him pretty much alone.