Biography for
Ingmar Bergman More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

14 July 1918, Uppsala, Uppsala län, Sweden

Date of Death

30 July 2007, Fårö, Gotlands län, Sweden

Birth Name

Ernst Ingmar Bergman

Height

5' 10½" (1.79 m)

Mini Biography

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born 14 July 1918, son of a priest. The film and TV-series, Den goda viljan (1992) is biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The film 'Söndagsbarn' depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In the TV-mini Enskilda samtal (1996) (TV) is the trilogy closed. Here, as in 'Den Goda Viljan' Pernilla August play his mother. Note that all three movies are not always full true biographical stories. He began his career early with a puppet theatre which he, his sister and their friends played with. But he was the manager. Strictly professional he begun writing in 1941. He had written a play called 'Kaspers död' (aka 'Kaspers Death') which was produced the same year. It became his entrance into the movie business as Stina Bergman (not a relative), from the company SF (Swedish Filmindustry), had seen the play and thougt that there must be some dramatic talent in young Ingmar. His first job was to save other, more famous, writers poor scripts. Under one of that script-saving works he remebered that he had wrote a novel about his last year as a student. He took the novel, did the save-poor-script job first, then wrote a screenplay on his own novel. When he went back to SF, he delivered two scripts insteed of one. The script was Hets (1944) and was the fist Bergman screenplay that was put into film (by Alf Sjöberg). It was also in that movie Bergman did his first professional film-director job. Because Alf Sjöberg was busy, Bergman got order to shoot the last sequence of the film. Ingmar Bergman is the father of Daniel Bergman, director, and Mats Bergman, actor at the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theater. Ingmar Bergman was also CEO of the same theatre between 1963-66, where he hired almost every professional actor in Sweden. 1976 he had a famous tax problem. Bergman had trusted other people to give advice about his finances, but it turned out to be real bad advice. So he had to leave the country immediately, and so went to Germany. A few years later he got back to Sweden and made his last movie Fanny och Alexander (1982) (aka 'Fanny and Alexander'). He has retired from directing, but he still write scripts for film and TV and direct plays at the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Anders ADe Dahnielson

Spouse

Ingrid von Rosen	(11 November 1971 - 20 May 1995) (her death) 1 child
Käbi Laretei	(1959 - 1969) (divorced) 1 child
Gun Grut	(1951 - 1959) (divorced) 1 child
Ellen Bergman	(22 July 1945 - 1950) (divorced) 4 children
Else Fisher	(25 March 1943 - 1945) (divorced) 1 child

Trade Mark

Close-ups of faces

Close-ups of ticking clocks

Dynamic use of shadows

Frequently cast Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann

Trivia

Had a dispute with the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre about his production of the play "Misantropen". Directed it for Swedish television instead. Ironically, the chief of Swedish Television's 'Dramatic Department' has become chief of the Royal Dramatic Theatre.

Father of nine children. They include director Daniel Bergman, (with Käbi Laretei), actress Anna Bergman, actor Mats Bergman, director Eva Bergman, director Jan Bergman, (with Ellen Bergman), actress Lena Bergman, (with Else Fisher), airline captain Ingmar Bergman Jr. (born 1951) (with Gun Hagberg), writer Linn Ullmann, (with Liv Ullmann), and writer Maria won Rosen (with Ingrid Bergman).

Swedish Film Institute announced Bergman will donate his raw footage, photographs and manuscripts from his films and plays to a new foundation established to honor him. (5 June 2002)

For many years, he and actor Erland Josephson have had an hour-long telephone conversation once a week, on Saturdays.

Was voted the 8th Greatest Film Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly,.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945- 1985". Pages 103-115. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

He retired from filmmaking in 1984, and then in 2003, at the age of 85, he retired from directing plays.

The rock band Van Halen wrote a song called "The Seventh Seal" (from the "Balance" album) in honor of his films. The song talks about Det sjunde inseglet (1957) and Jungfrukällan (1960).

Has a daughter, Linn Ullmann, with actress Liv Ullmann. Linn, who played a child in several of her father's movies, became a literary critic, then novelist. Her debut novel, in 1999, was "Före du sover" (Before you fall asleep).

Inspired the word "Bergmanesque"

His movies Jungfrukällan (1960), Såsom i en spegel (1961) and Fanny och Alexander (1982) were Oscar-nominated for "Best Foreign Language Film". All three movies won.

Father-in-law of Henning Mankell.

Likes to watch BMX racing on television.

No relation to Ingrid Bergman, although he was married to another Ingrid, Ingrid Bergman.

Among Woody Allen's biggest idols.

Published "Tre dagböcker", including the diaries of him, his fifth wife Ingrid and their daughter Maria von Rosen (2004).

Was chosen the world's greatest living filmmaker by "Time" magazine (11 July 2005).

After their daughter Maria had been born out of wedlock in 1959, he finally married Ingrid Bergman (Ingrid von Rosen) in 1971. This was his only marriage which didn't end in divorce.

His grandmother introduced Ingmar to the cinema and went with him to several shows when he was a little boy, always in secrecy since he wasn't allowed to go to the movies by his strict father.

Was fluent in French.

He and Max von Sydow made 13 movies together: Ansiktet (1958), Beröringen (1971), Herr Sleeman kommer (1957) (TV) (not released), Jungfrukällan (1960), Nattvardsgästerna (1962), Nära livet (1958), En passion (1969), Rabies (1958) (TV), Det sjunde inseglet (1957), Skammen (1968), Smultronstället (1957), Såsom i en spegel (1961) and Vargtimmen (1968).

His three favorite movies are: Utvandrarna (1971), La dolce vita (1960) and Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953).

He and Ingrid Thulin made 10 movies together: Ett drömspel (1963) (TV), Ansiktet (1958), Efter repetitionen (1984) (TV), Nattvardsgästerna (1962), Nära livet (1958), Riten (1969) (TV), Smultronstället (1957), Tystnaden (1963), Vargtimmen (1968) and Viskningar och rop (1972).

He and Bibi Andersson made 13 movies together: Ansiktet (1958), Beröringen (1971), Djävulens öga (1960), För att inte tala om alla dessa kvinnor (1964), Nära livet (1958), Herr Sleeman kommer (1957) (TV) (not released), En passion (1969), Persona (1966), Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973), Rabies (1958) (TV), Det sjunde inseglet (1957), Smultronstället (1957) and Sommarnattens leende (1955).

His Top 11 films are (as presented at Goteborg Film Festival, Sweden in 1994): The Circus (1928), Le quai des brumes (1938), Dyrygent (1980), Kvarteret Korpen (1963), La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928). Körkarlen (1921), Rashômon (1950), La strada (1954), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Die bleierne Zeit (1981), Andrey Rublyov (1966).

He and Liv Ullmann made 10 movies together: Ansikte mot ansikte (1976), Höstsonaten (1978), En passion (1969), Persona (1966), Saraband (2003) (TV), Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973), The Serpent's Egg (1977), Skammen (1968), Vargtimmen (1968) and Viskningar och rop (1972).

Is buried on the island of Fårö, where he had lived most of his life.

Lived on the island of Fårö since the early 1960s, but moved to Munich, Germany for a while battling with the Swedish government over alleged tax evasion.

Born to Erik Bergman, a Lutheran minister who later became the chaplain to the King of Sweden, and his wife Karen Åkerblom.

Was romantically linked to Harriet Andersson from 1952 to 1955 and Bibi Andersson from 1955 to 1959.

Erland Josephson appeared in 14 Bergman films as an actor in a span of almost 60 years (1946-2004): Det regnar på vår kärlek (1946) ("It Rains on Our Love" (1946)), Till glädje (1950) ("To Joy" (1950)), Ansiktet (1958) ("The Magician" (1959)), Nära livet (1958) ("Brink of Life" (1959)), Vargtimmen (1968) ("Hour of the Wolf" (1968)), En passion (1969) ("The Passion of Anna" (1970)), Viskningar och rop (1972) ("Cries and Whispers" (1972)), Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973) ("Scenes from a Marriage" (1974)), Trollflöjten (1975) (TV) ("The Magic Flute" (1975)), Ansikte mot ansikte (1976) ("Face to Face (1976)), Höstsonaten (1978) ("Autumn Sonata" (1978)), Fanny och Alexander (1982), Efter repetitionen (1984) (TV) ("After the Rehearsal" (1984)), Larmar och gör sig till (1997) (TV) ("In the Presence of a Clown" (1997)), and Saraband (2003) (TV). In addition to acting in Bergman's films, Josephson also co-wrote Bergman's För att inte tala om alla dessa kvinnor (1964) ("All These Women (1964)), one of Bergman's rare comedies (and his first film shot in color).

Among his fellow directors, he listed the three most significant to him as Federico Fellini, Victor Sjöström and Akira Kurosawa.

Profiled in "Films and Dreams: Tarkovsky, Bergman, Sokurov, Kubrick and Wong Kar-Wei" by Thurston Botz-Borsnstein. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008.

Considered Persona (1966) and Viskningar och rop (1972) his best movies.

10 of his films are listed in the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider). He is the third best represented director (behind Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks) and has the greatest number of writing credits on that list of any screenwriter. On the list are the films Sommarnattens leende (1955), Det sjunde inseglet (1957), Smultronstället (1957), Såsom i en spegel (1961), Nattvardsgästerna (1962), Persona (1966), Vargtimmen (1968), Skammen (1968), Viskningar och rop (1972) and Fanny och Alexander (1982).

The Swedish film industry ground to a halt in 1951 due to a ten-month strike by studio personnel, intended as a protest against an "amusement tax" levied against motion picture producers. During this period he directed several TV commercials for a soap called Bris (i.e. Breeze). He later said he was "absurdly grateful" to get this job.

Personal Quotes

The theater is like a faithful wife. The film is the great adventure -- the costly, exacting mistress.

No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.

I hope I never get old so I get religious.

In a quarrel with one of my sons, I said, "I know I've been a lousy father". He said, "A father? You haven't been a father at all!"

[on Orson Welles] For me he's just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane (1941), which I have a copy of, is all the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie's got is absolutely unbelievable.

[On Orson Welles] I've never liked Welles as an actor, because he's not really an actor. In Hollywood you have two categories, you talk about actors and personalities. Welles was an enormous personality, but when he plays Othello, everything goes down the drain, you see, that's when he croaks. In my eyes he's an infinitely overrated filmmaker.

[on Jean-Luc Godard] I've never gotten anything out of his movies. They have felt constructed, faux intellectual and completely dead. Cinematographically uninteresting and infinitely boring. Godard is a fucking bore. He's made his films for the critics. One of the movies, Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis (1966), was shot here in Sweden. It was mind-numbingly boring.

Among today's directors I'm of course impressed by Steven Spielberg and Scorsese [Martin Scorsese], and Coppola [Francis Ford Coppola], even if he seems to have ceased making films, and Steven Soderbergh - they all have something to say, they're passionate, they have an idealistic attitude to the filmmaking process. Soderbergh's Traffic (2000) is amazing. Another great couple of examples of the strength of American cinema is American Beauty (1999) and Magnolia (1999).

[on Michelangelo Antonioni] He's done two masterpieces, you don't have to bother with the rest. One is Blowup (1966), which I've seen many times, and the other is La notte (1961), also a wonderful film, although that's mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Il grido (1957) and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade. He concentrated on single images, never realizing that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don't feel anything for L'avventura (1960), for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress."

I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images.

I think I have made just one picture that I really like, and that is Nattvardsgästerna (1962). Everything is exactly as I wanted to have it, in every second of this picture.

Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.

Everything is worth precisely as much as a belch, the difference being that a belch is more satisfying.

My basic view of things is - not to have any basic view of things. From having been exceedingly dogmatic, my views on life have gradually dissolved. They don't exist any longer.

I'm deeply fixated on my childhood. Some impressions are extremely vivid, light, smell, and all. There are moments when I can wander through my childhood's landscape, through rooms long ago, remember how they were furnished, where the pictures hung on the walls, the way the light fell. It's like a film-little scraps of a film, which I set running and which I can reconstruct to the last detail-except their smell.

[On Andrei Tarkovsky]: When film is not a document, it is dream. That is why Tarkovsky is the greatest of them all. He moves with such naturalness in the room of dreams. He doesn't explain. What should he explain anyhow? He is a spectator, capable of staging his visions in the most unwieldy but, in a way, the most willing of media. All my life I have hammered on the doors of the rooms in which he moves so naturally. Only a few times have I managed to creep inside. Most of my conscious efforts have ended in embarrassing failure- The Serpent's Egg (1977), Beröringen (1971), Ansikte mot ansikte (1976) and so on.

[On Federico Fellini] He is enormously intuitive. He is intuitive; he is creative; he is an enormous force. He is burning inside with such heat. Collapsing. Do you understand what I mean? The heat from his creative mind, it melts him. He suffers from it; he suffers physically from it. One day when he can manage this heat and can set it free, I think he will make pictures you have never seen in your life. He is rich. As every real artist, he will go back to his sources one day. He will find his way back.

[on Alfred Hitchcock] I think he's a very good technician. And he has something in Psycho (1960), he had some moments. "Psycho" is one of his most interesting pictures because he had to make the picture very fast, with very primitive means. He had little money, and this picture tells very much about him. Not very good things. He is completely infantile, and I would like to know more - no, I don't want to know - about his behavior with, or, rather, against women. But this picture is very interesting.

When I was young, I was extremely scared of dying. But now I think it a very, very wise arrangement. It's like a light that is extinguished. Not very much to make a fuss about.

I'd prostitute my talents if it would further my cause, steal if there was no way out, killing my friends or anyone else if it would help my art.

I've had to learn everything about movies by myself. For the theater, I studied with a wonderful old man in Goteborg, where I spent four years. He was a hard, difficult man, but he knew the theater- and I learned from him. For the movies, however, there was no one. Before the War, I was a schoolboy. Then, during the War, we got see no foreign films at all. By the time it was over, I was working had to support a wife and three children. Before, fortunately, I am by nature an autodidact, one who can teach himself- though it's an uncomfortable thing at times. Self-taught people sometimes cling too much to the technical side, the sure side and place technical perfection too high.

New cities arouse too many sensations in me. They give me too many impressions to experience at the same time. They all crowd in on me. Being in a new city overwhelms me, unsettles me.

To shoot a film is to organize an entire universe.

[On Andrei Tarkovsky]: My discovery of Tarkovsky's first film was like a miracle. Suddenly I found myself standing at the door of a room, the key to which, until then, had never been given to me. It was a room I had always wanted to enter and where he was moving freely and fully at ease. I felt encouraged and stimulated: someone was expressing what I had always wanted to say without knowing how. Tarkovsky is for me the greatest, the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.

Where Are They Now

(May 2004) Has now retired from directing, emptied his apartment in Stockholm and his room at the Dramatic Theater, and lives permanently at Fårö, Gotland (Sweden).

(January 2007) Recovering from hip replacement surgery.

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