Ingmar Bergman

Ernst Loudspeaker.png Ingmar Bergman (info • help) (IPA: ['ɪŋmar 'bærjman] in Swedish, but usually IPA: [ˈbɝgmən] in English) (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007)[1] was a Swedish stage and movie director. Ingmar Bergman found bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope in his indelible explorations of the human condition. He is regarded as one of the great masters of modern cinema.[2]

Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman (1966).jpg
Bergman in 1966
Born
Ernst Ingmar Bergman

(1918-07-14)14 July 1918
Died30 July 2007(2007-07-30) (aged 89)
Fårö, Sweden
Other namesBuntel Eriksson
Years active1944 – 2005
Spouse(s)Else Fischer (1943–1945)
Ellen Lundström (1945-1950)
Gun Grut (1951–1959)
Käbi Laretei (1959–1969)
Ingrid von Rosen (1971–1995)
ChildrenLena Bergman (b. 1943)
Eva Bergman (b. 1945)
Jan Bergman (b. 1946)
Mats Bergman (b. 1948)
Anna Bergman (b. 1948)
Ingmar Bergman Jr. (b. 1951)
Maria von Rosen (b. 1959)
Daniel Bergman (b. 1962)
Linn Ullmann (b. 1966)
AwardsIrving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
1971 Lifetime Achievement
César Award for Best Foreign Film
1984 Fanny och Alexander

Many filmmakers worldwide, including Americans Woody Allen[3] and Robert Altman,[4] the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky[5] and the Taiwanese director Ang Lee,[6] have cited the work of Bergman as a major influence on their work.

Biography

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden to a Lutheran minister of Danish descent, Erik Bergman (later chaplain to the King of Sweden), and his wife, Karin (née Åkerblom). He grew up surrounded by religious imagery and discussion. His father was a rather conservative parish minister and strict family father: Ingmar was locked up in dark closets for infractions such as wetting the bed. "While father preached away in the pulpit and the congregation prayed, sang or listened," Ingmar writes in his biography Laterna Magica,

"I devoted my interest to the church’s mysterious world of low arches, thick walls, the smell of eternity, the colored sunlight quivering above the strangest vegetation of medieval paintings and carved figures on ceilings and walls. There was everything that one’s imagination could desire — angels, saints, dragons, prophets, devils, humans."

He performed two five-month stretches of mandatory military service and studied Art and Literature at Stockholm University College (the later Stockholm University), but without graduating. Instead, he developed an interest in theatre and later in cinema (though he had become a "genuine movie addict"[7] by the early 1930s).

Although he grew up in a devout Lutheran household, Bergman stated that he lost his faith at age eight but came to terms with this fact only when making Winter Light.[8]

From the early sixties, Bergman lived much of his life on the island of Fårö, Gotland, Sweden, where he made a number of his movies. Bergman moved to Munich for a while following a protracted battle with the Swedish government over alleged tax evasion, and did not return to make another movie in Sweden until 1982, when he directed Fanny and Alexander. Bergman said this would be his last movie, and that he would go on to direct theater. Since that time he did make a number of movies for television, but later retired to Fårö, stating in 2004 that he would never again leave the island.

Ingmar Bergman died at his home on Fårö, in the early morning of 30 July 2007, aged 89,[9][10] the same day that another great movie director, Michelangelo Antonioni, died.

Family

Bergman was married five times:

The first four marriages ended in divorce. The last ended when his wife Ingrid died of stomach cancer in 1995, aged 65. Aside from his marriages, Bergman had romantic relationships with actresses Harriet Andersson (1952–55), Bibi Andersson (1955–59), and Liv Ullmann (1965–70). He was the father of writer Linn Ullmann with Liv Ullmann. In all, Bergman had nine children, one of whom died before him.

Awards

Academy Awards

In 1971, Bergman received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards ceremony. Three of his films won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The list of his nominations and awards follows:

BAFTA Awards

Berlin Film Festival

Cesar Awards

Cannes Film Festival

Golden Globe Awards

Other awards and honors

Ingmar Bergman Media

References

  1. Ingmar Bergman on IMDb
  2. "Ingmar Bergman, Famed Director, Dies at 89". New York Times. 30 July 2007. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/movies/30cnd-bergman.html. Retrieved 2007-07-21. "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.". 
  3. Corliss, Richard (1 August 2007). "Woody Allen on Ingmar Bergman". Time. http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1648917,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom. Retrieved 23 July 2008. 
  4. "Robert Altman biography". IMDb. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  5. Le Cain, Maximillian. "Andrei Tarkovsky". Archived from the original on 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2013-05-09.
  6. "Ang Lee praises Bergman". Archived from the original on 19 May 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2008.
  7. Ingmar Bergman: His Life and Films, by Jerry Vermilye, 2001, p. 6
  8. The Films of Ingmar Bergman, by Jesse Kalin, 2003, p. 193
  9. ""Bergman välkomnade döden"". Archived from the original on 2007-08-20. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
  10. "Film Great Ingmar Bergman Dies at 89". Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
  11. "The 33rd Academy Awards (1961) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  12. 12.0 12.1 "The 34th Academy Awards (1962) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  13. "Berlinale: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  14. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  15. "Gish Prize 1995". Archived from the original on 2012-03-15. Retrieved 2012-06-17.