RIP Ingmar Bergman

[batman]

One of the greatest directors of all time. If you have never seen any of his films check out The Virgin Spring, Summer With Monika and The Magician. Those are my favourites but all his films have something substantial to offer the viewer.



Another of the greats gone.



Bats.

[Moor Larkin]

I was a bit shocked when Jeremy Paxman remarked, "Not exactly Box Office was he?" to the gentleman he was interviewing from the British Film Directors Guild, or whatever..... The chap countered quite well by pointing out that Seventh Seal was made for about 2shillings & sixpence and is released on dvd and shown in some specialist cinema every other week, garnering fees like 'Die Hard' on speed.



Max von Sydow became iconic on the strength of his association with Bergman and yet still gets away with playing in movies like 'Judge Dredd' with the sly one. Different rules for actors evidently.....

[batman]

I don't really care where he came from. The guy was a great director and deserves a mention.



Bats.

[sippog]

name='batman']I don't really care where he came from. The guy was a great director and deserves a mention.



Bats.

Absolutely. There can't be a film director in the world, British or otherwise, who hasn't been influenced by him directly or indirectly.



Everyone has their favourite Bergman films. Mine include The Silence, Hour Of The Wolf (closest thing to a horror film Bergman ever made) and Shame: a typical response by Bergman to the criticism that his films didn't reflect contemporary issues (in 1965 that was the Vietnam war).



But his greatest gift was that he could create moments on film that transcended; that took you to temporarily to a higher plane. I can't think of many directors who understood how film works as well as he did.



(If they repeat them, I can really recommend the Arena documentaries on Bergman that were showed recently on BBC4. Contrary to his gloomy image, he had a really dry and amusing sense of humour).

[foha80]

name='batman']I don't really care where he came from. The guy was a great director and deserves a mention.



Bats.

Agreed,He is indeed in my opinion one of the greats.



Terry

[ollie]

I watched the silence last night as my own little tribute,not having seen it for quite a few years every bit as compelling and hypnotic as i remember.



cheers Ollie.

[julian_craster]

[Cheeky Bob]

name='sippog'] Contrary to his gloomy image, he had a really dry and amusing sense of humour.

Apparently the set of Cries and Whispers was a laugh riot, in stark contrast to the actual film. But that's at least partly because Bergman made a point of working with the same people on both sides of the camera for decades, so in many ways it was just an old friends' get-together.



By contrast, Woody Allen's sets - even if the film was nominally a comedy - were notable for their extreme and concentrated seriousness.

[julian_craster]

I forgot to caption this Times cartoon, adapted from THE SEVENTH SEAL

(Bergman). On the R, The Knight (UK Prime Minister George Brown)

plays chess with Death (US President George Bush)

[julian_craster]

Bergman has some unlikely admirers....(from today's GUARDIAN)



One can see now how Bergman has influenced this master's whole oeuvre

(style, content, everything....)



Michael Winner, Film director

" I was brought up on Ingmar Bergman during my days in Cambridge. He was the god of original cinema, of thoughtful cinema, of creative cinema, and he was an enormous influence on my life. He was not only a film genius but he was unique. No one made films like him, before or since. The brooding intensity, coupled with a fantastic visual style - it was mesmerising.

I remember when Smiles of a Summer Night was on at a small cinema on the outskirts of Cambridge. The owner said: "No one's going to come to see it." But there was a queue around the cinema because there was a scene with a naked woman running along a beach for 15 seconds. In those days [1955] it was revolutionary. A lot of people who would never otherwise see an Ingmar Bergman film were standing in line.

My favourite of his films is The Seventh Seal - it has this wonderful Gothic symbolism. It was not one of my main influences, but it definitely went into my memory bank.

You would never get anyone like him today. We have moved into a more mechanistic, flash-bang-wallop type of cinema (Michael's films of course bear no resemblance to this...) and art cinema is very difficult to get made"

[batman]

name='julian_craster'] Bergman has some unlikely admirers....(from today's GUARDIAN) .... Michael Winner, Film director - I remember when Smiles of a Summer Night was on at a small cinema on the outskirts of Cambridge. The owner said: "No one's going to come to see it." But there was a queue around the cinema because there was a scene with a naked woman running along a beach for 15 seconds.

Michael Winner describes the inspiration Bergman gave him to make Some Like It Cool.



Bats.

[thirdlady]

is he related to ingrid bergman?

[batman]

name='thirdlady']is he related to ingrid bergman?

Not the famous Ingrid Bergman .. but one of his wives was called Ingrid, so she was an Ingrid Bergman too.



Bats.

[Cheeky Bob]

The two Bergmans (Ingmar and the famous Ingrid) did work together once, though, on the 1978 film Autumn Sonata.



As for Michael Winner's comment, it is undoubtedly true that a great many arthouse classics scored an initial box-office success in Britain on the strength of the amount of nudity and sex scenes therein. From the early 1950s, it was the BBFC's policy to be more lenient towards films of serious artistic intent, which inadvertently gave a huge boost to people like Bergman at a time when they really needed one.

[Ted Holmes]

name='batman']Michael Winner describes the inspiration Bergman gave him to make Some Like It Cool.



Bats.

Yeah right, and Wayne Rooney was inspired to become a footballer after reading Thus Spake Zarathustra.

[batman]

name='Ted Holmes']Yeah right, and Wayne Rooney was inspired to become a footballer after reading Thus Spake Zarathustra.

I was being sarky ..... anyway I bet Rooney has only ever heard the Deodato version of the music!



Bats.

[samkydd]

name='julian_craster']Bergman has some unlikely admirers....(from today's GUARDIAN)



One can see now how Bergman has influenced this master's whole oeuvre

(style, content, everything....)



Michael Winner, Film director

" I was brought up on Ingmar Bergman during my days in Cambridge. He was the god of original cinema, of thoughtful cinema, of creative cinema...... "

Not much of an influence on Michael Winner then! It's a bit like asking Britney Spears her opinion about Jimi Hendrix!

[Ted Holmes]

name='batman']I was being sarky .....



Bats.

I beg your pardon. Really, I wouldn't put such a claim past him!



Ted

[batman]

name='samkydd']Not much of an influence on Michael Winner then! It's a bit like asking Britney Spears her opinion about Jimi Hendrix!

It would probably be more interesting to ask Michael Winner his opinion of Britney Spears .



Bats.

[noglea]

I was on holiday last week when I read that Ingmar Bergman had died. Absolutely gutted. He is my second favourite film director of all time after Michael Powell. I've seen many of his films before both on DVD and at the NFT season in 2003. I saw 'Sawdust and Tinsel' for the first time recently on BBC 4 but haven't watched the documentaries yet which I have taped. I will now watch them as a tribute to a man who was - and I know the word is much overused but I belive it is true in his case - a genius.