Ingmar Bergman

FWIW, Woody Allen loved his films.

Fanny and Alexander

A warm wonderful film. Totally different from any other Bergman film.

Woody Allen's Interiors is a loving homage to Bergman's work. I get the feeling that people are down on this film, but I've always appreciated how unrelentingly bleak it is, while at the same time giving us that hilariously campy vulgarian line.

Anyhoo, Bergman's great. Years ago I went through a tear of his films... just... one right after the other, getting high all the way, and just sinking into the atmosphere. Fanny & Alexander is a masterpiece. Persona is pure emotional brutality. What's the one with the priest who's like... two seconds away from giving up on God? I think there's a suicide in the film. That one's good. I've been meaning to revisit his work, but I gotta be in the right mindset.

The Magic Flute

A fantastic opera adaptation

[quote]What's the one with the priest who's like... two seconds away from giving up on God? I think there's a suicide in the film. That one's good.

That's Winter Light - a very good film. Gunnar Björnstrand was the priest, and Max von Sydow was the troubled parishioner.

The Criterion Collection's having a 50% sale through Barnes & Noble this month and you can get the most comprehensive set of Bergman's filmography for only 149.99. That's 39 films. A fucking steal.

Fanny & Alexander is one of my top five favorite films, just gorgeous. I usually watch the first hour multiple times through the Christmas season; now that it's almost upon us I'm going to be starting up with it again soon.

You need to watch Scenes from a Marriage too -- the five hour TV version, not the three hour theatrical cut. It's basically just two people talking for hours on end, but it's incredibly absorbing.

^^ Like Scenes from a Marriage, Fanny & Alexander exists in two versions as well: the TV version and the shorter version released in theaters. ^^

Same with Face to Face.

Was Woody Allen’s “Scenes From A Mall” a tribute to “Scenes From A Marriage”?

I remember sort of loving “Fanny and Alexander”, and would love to watch it again.

Woody Allen on Ingmar Bergman

The Hour of the Wolf was terrifying. It is a horror movie but on a completely different level.

I also loved Cries and Whispers. Truly visceral and upsetting but exquisitely made.

I guess I'm attracted to the darker aspects of Bergman's soul. From an academic perspective, there is much to love about his more famous entries like Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal - yet they never moved or disturbed me like the two above.

That said, Scenes from a Marriage is sublime. I understand there was a time when Liv Ullman was a global cultural obsession. I can see why in these movies. She's just so brilliant.

Bergman's influencing impactful films even today. The Lighthouse is heavily reminiscent of Bergman's work, specifically Persona, and this image from Marriage Story is a direct reference to Fanny & Alexander.

I think De Düva: The Dove is my favourite Bergman film.

Yep, I'd recommend the three-hour Fanny & Alexander though. I didn't think the cut content added as much to the film, but super fans of the film would enjoy it.

I watched PERSONA on TCM recently and was surprised to see a quick shot of an erect penis among the opening collage of images. I then found out that United Artists cut that shot from the American release of the film in 1967, which is the version I had seen on previous viewings.

Also, the subtitles in Bibi Andersson's long erotic monologue seemed more graphic this time than I remembered. I wonder if those were toned down as well back then. Regardless, it's an incredible scene and Andersson is astonishing.

SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT is one of my all-time favorite films.

As much as I love Ullmann, I've always had a soft spot for Bibi Andersson. She's sexy in a way Ullmann never is and she never became the global icon she should've.

Check out SHAME and PASSION OF ANNA.

I watch FANNY AND ALEXANDER every year at Christmas time. But I think his masterpiece is CRIES AND WHISPERS.

Bibi Andersson's misguided performance ruined Wild Strawberriers for me. Other actors turned in wonderful and very realistic performances in that one but she acted (and looked) like she was in "Gidget Goes to Stockholm" or something.

CRIES AND WHISPERS is one of the most parodied.

Where's that iconic, oft-parodied Bergman shot from where it's like... two people having a conversation, but it's like they're facing perpendicular to one another? You know what I mean? Like one'll be facing the camera and the other will be facing a 45 degree angle away, but they're shot so that their heads line up. You know what I'm talking about?

R9 Woody only acted in Scenes from a Mall; it was directed and co-written by Paul Mazursky.

r20, that's in Persona.

Was Silence the one with the incest undertones with the mother and son? I remember them riding on a train as well.

Fanny and Alexander - the TV series not the butchered film - is Bergman's greatest gift to the cinematic art. Absolute perfection, not a frame wasted, not a foot wrong by the actors. Simply mesmerizing.

There are several revealing and informative Youtube interviews with Bergman about his life/films,his theatre work, as well a joint interview with Bergman and one of his favourite actors, the late great Erland Josefsson.

Fun fact: Bergman asked Liv Ullmann to play the part of Emelie Ekdahl in Fanny and Alexander. She turned him down. He was so furious that he didn't speak to Ullmann for a year. Ewa Fröling got the part instead.

The Virgin Spring, Wild Strawberries, Through A Glass Darkly, Cries and Whispers, Smiles of a Summer Night, Fanny and Alexander, Persona, The Seventh Seal, Autumn Sonata...all magnificent works of art. And that doesn't include the incredible films for which he served only as screenwriter: The Best Intentions, Sunday's Children, Faithless, Sarabande, Private Confessions...an incredibly prodigious output.

For anyone who loves Bergman's films and his leading actress Liv Ulmann, this is a beautiful film.

How are the ones about theatricality and magic from the 50s, like Sawdust & Tinsel, and The Magician? They're on Criterion, but they don;t get discussed very much.

Bergman is one of my favorite filmmakers, bar none. Every frame is so artfully done, but more than that, there is always thematic substance to chew on along with it. Some of his films are utterly tragic (Cries and Whispers, Autumn Sonata, Through a Glass Darkly, The Virgin Spring), but the aforementioned Fanny and Alexander is a more uplifting family drama, and some of his earlier stuff is notably lighthearted in tone. The Magician, though it sounds ominous, is rather goofy and fun. The Virgin Spring, one of his darker works, is to date one of my favorite movies of all time. Last year I bought the Criterion Collection box set of Bergman's films last year, and it is one of my prized possessions.

yikes, excuse the extra "last year" I threw in there