Ingmar Bergman 1918 - 2007

"Ingmar Bergman passed away Monday morning, leaving behind his wife, Theater, and mistress, Film, both of which he loved equally and fervently."
- Jeremy Smith, Cinematic Happenings Under Development( CHUD.com )









To say that Ingmar Bergman was an important figure in my life is to grossly misrepresent a towering presence in my development as an artist. Here are some thoughts on this great director and some images from some of his films that I love very deeply.

Woody Allen once called him "probably the greatest film artist since the invention of the motion-picture camera."

"Bergman changed the rules of engagement and got people to see cinema as a real force by relentlessly bringing people face to face with very intimate things and bringing existential drama to a state of crisis." - Facets Cinematheque film programmer Charles Coleman




"Over a 60-year career as either writer or director and usually as both, Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish filmmaker who died Monday, created a body of work that's unmistakable and unique in its depiction of the soul's inner struggle. Using a medium that records surfaces, he captured the private, the elemental, the unspoken longings and shattering terrors that define the real experience of life on this planet. And he did so with more raw intensity and uncluttered truth than any filmmaker before or since." - Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle Movie Critic

Cannes Film Festival director Gilles Jacob called Bergman the "last of the greats, because he proved that cinema can be as profound as literature."


The Seventh Seal
















Smiles of a Summer Night
















Persona

















Cries and Whispers















Fanny and Alexander
















"The theater is like a faithful wife," he once said. "The film is the great adventure - the costly, exacting mistress." - Ingmar Bergman