Ingmar Bergman: 1918 – 2007

Oh well, the inevitable happened, Ingmar Bergman lost the chess match. The Master has passed away this morning at his home in Fårö. My first Bergman film was Fanny and Alexander, but my passion for his works didn’t start then. At nine years old, I didn’t know much about cinema and I preferred comedies, than dramas. Thankfully my taste changed and in my second contact with his work with The Seventh Seal, the film caused a great impact on me.
Before starting watching his films I already knew something about them, I knew about his passion for silent films and that was the one thing that made grow my respect for him. But it were the films themselves that showed me a whole new wonderful universe of cinema language. Part of his genius mind can be discovered through a great book called Bergman on Bergman: Interviews With Ingmar Bergman. I read it years ago and I think it’s time to do it again. But even being a huge fan of books about cinema, I know that to learn about something, you have to watch the films. That’s what I’m planing to do: watch the Bergman’s films I haven’t watched yet.

It’s sad to imagine that one more of my idols passed away. It’s even sadder to imagine that a man has to die to have his work rediscovered. However, I’m waiting for a happy ending. Maybe the new generation will start to watch his films and see the beauty inside them. I do hope so.
P-E Fronning, from Martin Klasch blog, gave me the bad news today. He says that in Sweden today there were all kind of homages to him, and they were showing Wild Strawberries on TV. It sounds perfect to me. I will follow one of his suggestion and watch Smiles of a Summer Night.

For now, to know more about Bergman, visit his excellent official site, with videos, interviews, pictures, biographies, writings and interesting information, and read more about his work at BBC‘s article Why Bergman was an artistic giant. There are news about him everywhere, so you don’t need to search too much to conclude how important his work was.
If you have the chance, watch a great documentary about the director made in 2004: Ingmar Bergman – 3 dokumentärer om film, teater, Fårö och livet av Marie Nyreröd (Bergman Island). It’s talks about Bergman’s personal life, cinema and theater, his greatest passion and something that is unknown to most of us.

Read also De Düva, Religious Affiliation of Film Directors, Swedish Cinema, Ingmar Bergman Face to Face, Medieval Macabre and Ingmar Bergman (in Portuguese).