Ingmar Bergman was born 100 years ago. What is the phenomenon of an ambitious cinema master?

In the 39; epilogue of Strindberg's "Dream Games", the monologue of the daughter of Indra sent by Father to Earth to hear human complaints. "Oh, now I feel all the suffering of existence, so this Is what it means to be human "- the words spoken end in his long journey, and the terrestrial concerns described in the perspective of a wealth of experiences take the form of touching confidences. which Strindberg was an undisputed authority and of which he played plays several times (including "The Game of Dreams"), considered empiricism as a basic creative tool

., expressing your own thoughts Perhaps for this reason, he needed time to create his most notable works, including breakthroughs for his international career "Seventh Seal" and "Where Strawberries Grow." Up to now, his artistic background has encountered many moguls. The style, the maturity of life and the approach of the Bergman film medium over the years have obviously evolved, and the director's name criticized today is synonymous with ambitious cinema.

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For Bergman, the own experience was the inspiration for creating deeply existential images that make up the portrait of an artist with a complicated personality. One of the recurring motifs in his works are childhood memories marked by difficult relationships with parents. In "Fanny and Aleksander", the director presented the figure of his father – a Lutheran pastor using strict educational methods. Tormented by loneliness and many family difficulties, Bergman decided to escape home at the age of 19. In retrospect, however, he began to see the complexity of his father's nature, also remembering the warm memories associated with him. The most authentic image of his childhood seems to be the lesser-known film "Sunday Children" (1992), directed by his son Daniel (the author of the script was Bergman)

Ambiguous relationships also linked him to his mother, who accused her of drought and lack of attention. Focusing attention on her younger sister caused devastating hatred for the future director. This theme comes back, among others in "Whispers and Shouts", where dying Agnès mentions the childhood urge of her favorite Maria in her childhood. In his autobiography, he confessed that after 20 years after his mother's death, he could understand his distant attitude towards him. Despite the hideous regrets of the coldness and cruelty that accompanied him during his childhood, he wanted to talk to him again

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In his fantasy, he imagined a meeting with her, but that did not bring answers to the questions that bothered him. In their conversation, there was no melancholy and intimate confessions about feelings suppressed their whole lives. The film "Karin's Face" is filled with these emotions, to the realization of which Bergman used photographs depicting his mother, stolen in his family album. The work was an expression of his son's nostalgia, as well as a study of swollen eyes, swollen lips and the sad face of Karin Bergman.

Despite his jealousy, he fully understood his sister Margaret. His sudden movement resulted in breaking contact between them. Thus, the nostalgia of the brothers and sisters became another important reason for the works of Bergman tormented by remorse. The protagonists of "Silence" or "Whispers and Cries", despite their brotherly love, can not break the gap that separates them. Inner frigidity is shown by Bergman through body disease. Agnes (the main character of "Whispers and Shouts") and Ester (the main character of "Silence") suffer from physical torture materializing spiritual distress – the loneliness and lack of love of loved ones.

take on a form as fascinating as traumatic experiences. One of them is a bath, which he took at the age of 13 with a widow who was close to his family. She offered Ingmar a clean back and then used his hand to satisfy his desires. This event aroused ambivalent pleasure in the boy. An ambiguous relationship between a child and a mature woman, Bergman, has been presented in "Silence", where an almost erotic link connects Anna and her son. A woman likes the exhibitionist exhibition of her body or the sensual massage of a boy's back

Sex is not just the bodily pleasure of Bergman. Often it is related to spiritual devotion, death or loneliness. Anna in "Milczenie" reacts with her frustrations resulting from the destructive relationship with her sister in the casual sex. In "Person", in turn, the main character tells the story of an orgy with men accidentally encountered on the beach. She admits that at that time she had the greatest pleasure in life, but remembering that moment, she was crying desperately. The situation presented by Bergman shows the internal division of a woman who can not explain the reason for her sin. This scene, like the whole film, treats the duality of the soul and removes the mask from itself. Sex is used by the director as a symbol of breaking with restrictive conventions and the liberation of true nature.

"There is more joy than pleasure" – Bergman understood this truth only at the age of 60. Her entire life has been filled with nostalgic romances, marriages and divorces, returns and breaks. He brought him, however, an invaluable profit in the form of a bag of creative experience used

In "Summer Dream", Maria's uncle, longing her lover late, poses the question: what is real? Although the world has not changed, he sees it in a completely different way – the pelargonades' red on the window sill is off, the ticking of the clocks has stopped, seagulls on the outside no longer squeak as before. Bergman, although he often translated reality into a 1: 1 scale film image, believed that the real world unfolds in the sphere of our senses and imagination. Despite the extraordinary talent, which has been appreciated by most of the film world, a lot of water had to pass to acquire the ability to stage their own visions. In particular, he felt Andrei Tarkovsky in this aspect, who, like Bergman, was seduced by the worlds of the frontier of reality and sleep. The ability to navigate this transgenic zone has allowed him to exaggerate subconscious desires and fears in a non-verbal way.

Perceiving the film as a dream or a transcendental experience was accompanied by the young Ingmar, who discovered the magic of cinema. One of the restrictive penalties practiced at his home for misbehavior was to lock the boy into a dark cell. While the genie later feared the darkness, he hid in the corner of the room a flashlight with a red and green light, through which he arranged temporary lighting effects. In the imagination, the dark room became a movie theater and streaks of light depicted the outlines of characters or objects. In turn, in one of the first scenes of "Whispers and Shouts," the main character mentions the film screenings organized by his aunt with the help of a magic lantern. On several occasions in his stories, Bergman evokes similar performances organized by his family (not by accident his autobiography called "laterna magica"). At that time, the cinema already impresses with the possibility of having control over the viewer – the immense faith of the public in the presented world, which recalls the conviction of a man who sleep on the truth of sleep. At the time, as a layman, he was a fish caught on this bait, but over time he used his power over the viewer, drawing his own image of the world.

Bergman's dreams of poetry even took his memories. We can hardly separate those who have actually arrived from those who are the product of his imagination. The metaphysics of Bergman's cinema does not only depend on the specificity of the film's reception, but above all the transfer of surreal fantasies that are the product of the artist's imagination. In his autobiography, he invokes, among other things, an episode of a hospital corpse where one day he was accidentally slammed. In her imagination, the body of the young woman was alive, and her eyes followed the young Ingmar, observing his intimate places with enthusiasm. This event has already been attempted to represent in the "Wolves Hour", but the sequence was not in the final version of the film.

Flashback traumatic experience is contained in the prologue "Persona", while in "Whispers and Shouts" is extended to the entire theme of the film, in which the soul of the heroine to Because of the torment of his anxiety comes back to make the last conversation with his relatives. The mystery of life after death has long bothered the director. He presented this study in the "Seventh Seal", where the knight loses to chess with Death, approaching God, asking for the final scenes of the film for salvation. A little more than 10 years later, Bergman found a little answer to the question that bothers him. During a routine operation, he received too much narcosis by mistake. Nothing that filled six hours of deep sleep gave him the conviction of the futility of life that begins at birth and ends at the moment of death. Nevertheless, he never stopped respecting his spiritual life, which was reflected in the following works.

A movie master or a boring graphographer?

Not everyone appreciated the managerial skills of Bergman. "Poor fantasy of a pimply young man, daring dreams of an immature old man, boundless contempt for human artistic truth, here are the forces that created this comedy, I'm ashamed that I l & rsquo; I watched. " It is so that the "smile of the night" was written by one of the most appreciated critics in Sweden and the faithful Bergman antifan – Olof Lagercrantz. Filmmakers have repeatedly emphasized the weak writing skills of the author, which have been highlighted in recent years by one of Sweden's most famous directors, Roy Anderson. In one of the interviews he said: – Bergman is a boring graphographer who has only done three or four interesting movies. Criticism on his part was addressed, among other things towards one of Bergman's most beloved works. Anderson sarcastically stated that the director had probably had his head … under the armpit while filming "Fanny and Alexander."

Another problem that affects not only the legacy of Bergman, but also many canonical works is their aging. He stressed this, among others Krzysztof Kieślowski recognizing "The Jugglers' Evening" for a film that has not survived the test of time. However, it's sort of the price that Bergman's cinema pays for its success. The style of the Swedish master has become a source of inspiration for many filmmakers aspiring to create an ambitious cinema. Unfortunately, models that could be considered innovative in the 1950s or 1960s, today because of their frequent disguises, become a symbol of cheap art. It suffices to quote here the ticking of Bergman, an allegory of passing time, the Freudian reflection in the mirror where the heroes watched, discovering the duality of their nature or the dripping water – scene half-joking, appearing very seriously in the studies.

On the other side of the barricade, there is another cinematographic authority – Woody Allen – who considers Bergman as the most outstanding filmmaker in the history of cinema. In many films, he referred to the work of the Swedish master, parodying the "seventh seal" and "Persona" even in "Love and Death". Bergman fans were, in turn, heroes of "Annie Hall" or "Manhattan". Part of the art Master Allen tried to conceal, involving his regular collaborators in the production of his films (Max von Sydow played in "Hannah and her sisters", and the operator Sven Nykvist was Director Photo four Allen movies.)

also depreciated by the biggest festivals in the world. The breakthrough took place in 1957 when the Palme d'Or received the "Seventh Seal", and the film "Where Wild Strawberries Grow" was enjoyed at the Venice International Film Festival. Interestingly, Bergman has never received the most prestigious award in the world, and therefore an Oscar. The statuette was won by "The Source", "Like a Mirror" and "Fanny and Alexander" for a non-English film, but Bergman, despite many nominations, has never received a prize for directing or producing the scenario. The unquestionable fact is, however, the influence of his work contributing to the change in the perception of the medium and the status of one of the greatest masters of cinema, that no one will take away from him.