Ingmar Berman
I am always most impressed by Classic Film and Classical Directors such as Ingmar Bergman. He stands out as one of the greatest directors of all time. Having also produced some greatest¨works in Swedish theater, he was also active in radio productions and feature films. Bergman was raised in Stockholm; his father was a Lutheran church pastor. He lived in Sweden most of his life, but in 1970 moved to Munich.
Bergman wanted the actors to be vulnerable vehicles of their innermost feelings and desires, secrets and fears.
The following is a most famous quote from the director:
"I want very much to tell, to talk about, the wholeness inside every human being. It's a strange thing that every human being has a sort of dignity or wholeness in him, and out of that develops relationships to other human beings, tensions, misunderstandings, tenderness, coming in contact, touching and being touched, the cutting off of a contact and what happens then.”
Having directed more than 50 films some of them are: ¨ The Seventh Seal, Cries, and Whispers, Fanny and Alexander, Autumn Sonata.
The following crew of actors were in his films repeatedly; perhaps they were able to convey his ideas of vulnerability the best: Liv Ullmann, Gunnar Björnstrand,¨Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson, Max von Sydow and Ingrid Tulin were the ones he liked.
Ingmar was deeply involved with the person and personalities of the characters in the films he produced and also carried on romantic affairs with some of his actresses.
I read somewhere that Ingmar Bergman was Woody Allen's favorite director:
"He was the movies' great dramatist of strong, tortured women, and the finest director of actresses. More than any filmmaker, he raised the status of movies to an art form equal to novels and plays."
The close-up cinematography of his work was particularly impressive. To this day film, students study the technique which his films were based on. He used his unique creativity as early as the Noir photography of the 1950's that could be seen in his early films.
In my opinion, his work was brilliant.