Remebering Bergman

”prob­a­bly the great­est film artist, all things con­sid­ered,
since the inven­tion of the motion pic­ture cam­era,”

 

“Ingmar Bergman, the “poet with the cam­era” who is con­sid­ered one of the great­est direc­tors in motion pic­ture his­tory, died today on the small island of Faro where he lived on the Baltic coast of Sweden, Astrid Soderbergh Widding, pres­i­dent of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, said. Bergman was 89.”

I make no claims to be an expert on the films or life of Ingmar Bergman. In fact my view­ing of his work has gap­ing holes in it, sadly. Still, I know enough to have been greatly influ­enced by his films in both the ways I look at cin­ema and how I myself try to create.

Much has been said on the man and much more will be writ­ten, and I’m sure in due time there will be more trav­el­ing prints of his work avail­able, though ret­ro­spec­tives on the man have never been in short sup­ply. But I’d just like to throw in a few of my own words on the man.

The first Bergman film I’d ever seen was “Autumn Sonata” in col­lege. It took so long for me to come around to him as Ingrid was the only Bergman we usu­ally watched in my house grow­ing up. I was enchanted right away Nykvyst’s del­i­cately haunt­ing cam­era and Liv Ullman’s ranged per­for­mance. But of course, it was Bergman’s orches­tra­tion of all the ele­ments that had the great­est effect on me. It was one of those “I didn’t know we could do that moments” for me, when I noticed there was more to cin­ema than I thought there could be. It remains on my short-list of favorite films of all time.

…

I had begun to write about my favorite films of the man, but I must say there is lit­tle room for reflec­tion at this time. I must go back and seek out those films I love and those I have not yet exposed myself to. Which I of course encour­age to all.

He was an artist like no other, and per­haps his great­est film was still pend­ing, but he left us with a reper­toire so vast and incred­i­ble, we’ll for­give for not hav­ing made it.