All About Swedish Film |
| Swedish Film Institute (Svenska Filminstitutet) general manager Cissi Elwin on July 30, 2007 placed a condolence book in the foyer of the Swedish Film Institute for director, screenwriter and author Ingmar Bergman, who has left Sweden and a new generation of filmakers a legacy of some of the most remarkable films of the Twentieth Century. Although the films of Ingmar Bergman have in recent years brought attention to Swedish cinema, the films of Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller (The Saga of Gosta Berling, 1925, ten reels), directors at Svenska Bio, John W. Brunius, director for Skandia Film, the company that merged with Svenska Bio to form Svensk Film Industri in 1919, George af Klerker, director for Hasselbladfilm, Gustaf Molander (Only One Night, En enda Natt, 1939), Hasse Ekman, Ivar Johansson (Ragen rike, 1929), Hampe Faustman, Arne Mattsson, Mai Zetterling, Claes Olsson (Amazing Women by the Sea), Swedish film director Bjorn Runge (Order of Love, Mun mot mun, 2005-6), Swedish film director Colin Nutley (Paradise) and Liv Ullmann, are only some of those included in the canon of modern and contemporary cinema. Dreyer, Christensen and Dinesen all made silent films in Sweden. Less well known internationally, younger directors are gradually emerging from Sweden now that the films of Vilgot Sjöman, Bo Widerberg and Jan Troell have recieved the recognition that they have from audiences and directors alike: Ulf Malmros (God Save The King, Tjenare Kungen, 2005) and Swedish film director Martin Asphaug (Kim Novak Never Swam in Genesaret's Lake, Kim Novak badade aldrigi Genesaret's sjo) are included among the contemporary filmakers behind the camera in Sweden. To these, the names of Swedish film director Lasse Hallstrom (Casanova 2005, An Unfinished Life 2005, Daughter of Queen Sheba 2006) and Josef Fares (Zozo, 2005) can be added. Recent Shooting Stars include the actresses Frida Hallgren (2005) and Eva Rose (2006). In early 2007, Swedish Film Director Jan Troell began filming Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moment (Maria Larssons eviga ogonblick) with actress Maria Heiskanan scheduled to star in the film. The screenplay was adapted from the novel written by his wife, Agneta Ustater Troell. The premiere of the film You the Living (Du levande), directed by Roy Andersson, was in Sweden during the first week of September, 2007. Lukus Moodysson had been scheduled to begin shooting the film Mammut (Mammoth) during October of 2007. August of 2007 ended with the Swedish Film Show Me Love and the Swedish Film Lilya 4 Ever both available in their entirety through the digital screening room of the internet. Mammut, under production for 2009, was also written Moodysson and stars actresses Michelle Williams and Marife Necesito. The film's photographer is Marcel Zyskind. One woman that worked closely with Ingmar Bergman, Katinka Farago, ended the twentieth century as a film producer, ushering in this century by producing films by Kjell Grede (Make Believe, Kommer Du Med Mig) and Reza Bagher; after beginning as an assistant script girl on two films in 1950, Farago was script girl on three films in 1953 for the directors Stig Olin, Bengt Logart and Gunnar Skoglund, her then continuing as script girl after the lull in Swedish film production. She appears in the film Ingmar Bergman Makes a Film (Ingmar Bergman gor en film, Sjöman, 1963). Before Ingmar Bergman began working with Farago, he had in fact worked with several scriptgirls, included among them being Gun Holmgren, Ulla Kihlberg, Gerd Osten, Ingegerd Ericson and Sol-Britt Norlander. Early script girls for the Swedish Film Institute included Clary Brojesson and Vanja Dahlgren. Katinka Farago introduced the film Shame (Shammen, 1967) when screened at the Cinemateket during the Copenhagen Film Festival, September 2007. It was as an assistant to the scriptwriting department at Svenska Filmindustri that Ingmar Bergman had first been introduced to Swedish cinematographer Gunnar Fischer; albeit both Fischer and Bergman were together in the office of Stina Bergman, Ingmar Bergman left almost without saying a word during their first encounter. Among the contemporary Swedish playwrights that will mark Ingmar Bergman's long involvement with the stage with the theater that is now emerging is Lars Noren, director of Riks Drama at Riksteatern, whose play was adapted for the screen by director Kristian Petri for the film Detaljer and what now is to be the Swedish Theater after Bergman is already quickly being carried by two notable actresses, both of whom may return to the film screen, Maria Bonnevie, who appeared in Thommy Berggren's 2005 theatrical run of Strindberg's Froken Julie, and Julia Dufvenius, who is appearing on stage in Bodil Malmsten's play Tryck stjarna. Jon Asp of Ingmar Bergman Face to Face emailed an announcement that Autumn Sonata was the first "photoplay", or shootingscript, of Ingmar Bergman's to be performed on stage in Swedish, it having been dramatized for the theater during August of 2007 at the Svenska Teatern. The first two plays written by Ingmar Bergman, The Day Ends Early (Dagen slutar tidigit) and To My Terror (Mig till skrack), were directed on stage by him in Gothenburg in 1947. Peter Ustinov had directed Torment in English in 1947. Interestingly, although it had been expected that Liv Ullmann would primarily be continuing as a film director after her having returned in front of the camera of Ingmar Bergman, if there is a soft beam that that has become familar from her being seen while interviewed, then it very well may have been present during her announcement that not only has she returned to Norway, but that she has also returned to acting, her having been offered a role in the film In a Mirror, In A Riddle, slated to begin shooting in Oslo under the direction of Jesper Nielsen during November of 2007. Liv Ullmann had filmed under two Norwegian directors that had passed away while Ingmar Bergman had begun entering the retirement of his last completed film; Arne Skouen, who directed Ann-Magrit and Edith Calmar, who directed the films Fools on the Mountain (Fjols till fjells/Fjells, 1959) and The Wayward Girl (Youth on the Run, Ung Flukt, 1959), both photographed by Norwegian cinematographer Sverre Bergli. After having starred in Tancred Ibsen's 1949 film Den Hemmelighetsfulle Leiligheten, Edith Calmar directed the films Death is a Caress (Doden er kjaertegen, 1949), adapted from a novel by Arne Moen and starring Ingolf Rogde and Gisle Straume and the film Skakeskutt (1951), starring Eva Bergh. Of the utmost importance is an appreciation of film, film as a visual literature, film as the narrative image, and while any appreciation of film would be incomplete without the films of Ingmar Bergman, every appreciation of film can begin with the films of the silent period, with the watching of the films themselves, their once belonging to a valiant new form of literature. Silent film directors in both Sweden and the United States quickly developed film technique, including the making of films of greater legnth during the advent of the feature film, to where viewer interest was increased by the varying shot legnths within scene structure, films that still more than meet the criteria of having storylines, often adventurous, often melodramatic, that bring that interest to the character when taken scene by scene by a modern audience. During the advent of sound film, films that would not have contained dialougue jaugernautted themselves into the literature of the positioning of actors both in the background of the shot and edited into sequence and beneath the microphone with the varying distances that comprise the use of shot reverse shot series and suture, the transition from one shot to the next now based more often upon the dialouge between characters- films that would develop the relationships between characters through what was spoken between them in a visual literature and ,at the same time, films that would delay the use of the color tinting of film untill the development of technicolor. What would continue from silent to sound was not only the use of the close up, but that the spatial relationships between characters in the dialouge scene would include not only the nearness of two characters to each other during sequences that included the shot reverse shot series and the space delineated in any wider angles, but by including the distance at which characters were positioned from each other, it would change any otherwise empty space that happened to be bewteen them into the silent act of their looking at each other, establishing, much as the silent film had using a variety of forms of montage, the recipriocity of the gaze within the editing of the film. Included among the films listed by the Ingmar Bergman Foundation as being the directors favorites are the early Swedish sound films Soderkakar (Weyler Hildebrand, 1932) and Karl Fredrick regnar (Sigurd Wallen, 1934), as are the Swedish Films Karriar (Schamyl Bauman), 1938) and Ett brott (Anders Henrikson, 1939). The restoration of the film Night Music (Nattliga Toner, 1918, Hasselbladfilm), directed by George af Klerker, was personally funded by the director Ingmar Bergman. To present, the films of Sweden continue to contribute to the making of film being a creating of a form for the presentation of the content belonging to new and arising literatures, literature in front of the camera that is transcribed into screen literature. SF logo:Bonnier | ||
| Early in her career, Ingrid Thulin had been photographed by several of Sweden's directors: Ake Ohberg, Bengt Logardt, Gosta Werner, Goran Gentele, Rolf Husberg, Stig Olin, Gunnar Hogland, Per Gunvall and Björje Larsson. Both Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom have directed. Ingrid Thulin died early in January, the Associated Press having sent a report of her death January 9, 2004. Notably, Ingrid Thulin had starred with Eva Dahlbeck and Bibi Andersson (Elina-som om jag inte fanns) in the film Brink of Life (Nara Livet, 1958). Thulin directed the 1965 short film Hangivelsen, starring Maud Hansson, Meta Velander and Allan Edwall. Ase Kleveland, then director of The Swedish Film Institute, as well as Swedish Television svt.se, announced the death of Ingrid Thulin's husband, Harry Schein, February 11, 2006. Harry Schein was among those directors, including Finn Aaby of the Danish Film Institute, Egil B. Fonn of Norway and Karl Uusital of Finland, that sought for a bringing together of the Swedish Film Institute and the Film Insitutes of Scandinavia through Nordic film festivals. Schein was the author of Har vi rad med Kultur (1962). An e-mailed newsletter from Norway reported that one of Sweden's legendary directors, Hasse Ekman,died February 15, 2004. Ekman had begun acting at the Folkan Theater in Stockholm in 1932. The actor Gosta Ekman had been the assistant director to the films Wild Strawberries, Brink of Life and The Magician. His film Asta Nilsson's Company (Asta Nilsson's sallskap, 2005), was co-directed with Marie-Louise De Gree Bergenstrahle, Marie-Louise Ekman, to whom he is married. Tomas Boman photographed the film in which the director stars with Sven Lindberg. Ekman appears as an actor in the film Jag tanker pa mig sjalv-och vanstrum (Maria Rydbrink, 2005) and in the film Loranga, Masari & Dartanjang (Igor Veishtgin, 2005). In Sweden, the Hasse Ekman award was given to screenwriter Peter Dalle at the Goteborg Film Festival 2005. The Associated Press noted the death of Swedish film director Vilgot Sjöman, who passed away on April 9, 2006. Of the cinematographers that filmed with Ingmar Bergman, Goran Strindberg, Hilding Bladh and Martin Bodin are mostly known for having photographed with directors other than Bergman. Of the two principal cameramen that had filmed with the director, Gunnar Fischer and Sven Nykvist, the latter was internationally renown for the use of lighting during the films made by Ingmar Bergman. The associated press noted the passing of Sven Nykvist on September 20, 2006. An e-mailed newsletter from Norway marked the passing of Nykvist by announcing that in November, The Stockholm International Film Festival will be dedicated to the cinematographer. The first film photographed by Lasse (Lars) Swanberg was a short film for director Bertil Sangren, Extensions (1965); Swanberg continued as cinematographer on short films with Swedish film directors Carl Henrik Svenstedt, Sverker Hallen, Stig Holmqvist, Lennart Malmer and Jonas Cornell, with who he made the feature films Som natt och dag in 1969 and Grisjakten in 1970. Cinematographer Lasse Swanberg died on October 3, 2006. To end the year 2006, Jon Asp, editor of the Ingmar Bergman Face to Face webpage, e-mailed an update announcing the December 19, 2006 death of Swedish actress Maj-Britt Nilsson. Nilsson appeared in the films Summer Interlude (Sommarlek, 1950) and Waiting Women (Kvinnors vantan, 1952), directed by Ingmar Bergman. "I believe a human being carries his or her own holiness, which lies within the realm of the earth; there are no other worldly explanations." Ingmar Bergman, Images. Shorly after his birthday, it was announced that director Ingmar Bergman had died, July 30, 2007. Ase Kleveland was quoted by SvD.se as having said, "There will be enormous void." Earlier during the month, Swedish film actress Git Gay, who had appeared in several films from 1949 to 1968 beginning with Lattjo med Bocaccio, had also passed away- she was included among the actresses in Ingmar Bergman's film Kvinnodrom (Dreams, 1954), starring Eva Dahlbeck, who passed away early during the year, 2008. Streamed over the internet, online film from Sweden is presently offerred by glimz.net and short Swedish Films have been offerred recently online from Paradiso as well. In addition to this, Folkets Bio screens short Swedish films not only in Stockholm, but in theaters open across Sweden, including Hagabion Gothenburg and Kino and Södran Lund. There is no cost of admission to these short films. Film criticism has added the videomagazine to theater going and the screening room ritual of viewing rushes since the writing of Sweden's Robin Hood and his protogee film historian Rune Waldekranz, online televison and webcasting now part of the internet, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway being only part of international webbroadcasting. Modern film can be seen on Swedish Television on TV1000 - aired continuously, the broadcasting includes not only classic narrative films that are well known the audiences in the United States from arthouses or their first run but also films of exceptional quality that were only introduced to viewers in the United States during the advent of Cable Television. A log in registration is presently required for TV-4-Webb-tv from Sweden and for kanal5 from Sweden. There is also a Webb-tv section in the Swedish publication Centidnigen Nummer, published in Stockholm. In the United States, the film Brink of Life, directed by Ingmar Bergman, is presently one of the films that can be viewed over the internet through stream video. Svenska Filmsamfundst, the Swedish Film Society, introduced themselves to Swedish audiences in 1933 in a Svensk Filmindustri newsreel; allowing them to do so now over the internet, "on the following webpages you will find more that 50 streamed films, some of them more than 20 minutes long", their project being to digitalize short Swedish films to cataloge them for historical research, the talent and dedication behind the Swedish Film Society being from both Swedish Television and the Swedish National Archive of Recorded Sound and Moving Images. It cannot be overlooked that under a section entitled Early Film Fragments, the Swedish Film Society offers an online screening of one of the early films of Charles Magnusson, filmed in 1908, which can be included as part of his short participation in what could have been a cinema of attraction before his having established the tradition of narrative and the tradition of an inscription of place through the use of exterior locations in Swedish cinema. In regard to the contribution of Charles Magnusson to the history, Bengt Forslund records, and records only, "In 1905, together with a friend, he took over the Gothenburg Cinematograph, where he also showed his own newsreels and in the following year he opened his first cinema, 'The Crown', which is still in use. He also began importing films." To complement this, in in its Journalfilmarkivet, under its video section, svt.se offers newsreels footage online in stream video, some shot in the United States as early as 1915 and including Thomas A. Edison. To punctuate that within the first decade of this century there is simultaneously a growing dedication to the finding of lost films and thier preservation as well as seldom seen films being made available over the internet along with films that digatally have their first run, among the films available online from Sveriges Television AB is a copyrighted digital screening of How To Dress, the first on screen appearance of the Swedish actress Greta Gustafsson, spliced to "piknic i det grona", < a href="http://garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com">Greta Garbo |
Magazines on film from Sweden have included Chaplin, under Bengt Forslund (The Air Case, 1972), Lars Olaf Lothwall, Stig Björkman and Jannike Ahlund, Tekniskt Meddelande (Technology and Man), under Lars Svanberg, Filmjournalen, under Gunilla Holger and Swedish Film News Bulletin. Chaplin Magazine editor Bengt Forslund, a member of the Swedish Film Academy since 1965, has since authored the volumes Molander, Molander, Molander and Swedish Queens of the Silver Screen. Jonas Sima, who wrote for the magazine as a film critic between 1966-1973, is included among the contributers to Chaplin Magazine. Filmkonst Magazine in 2004 awarded its Golden Dragon to Lena Dahlberg for her editing of the film Daybreak; the publication, founded by Gunnar Bergdahl (The Voice of Bergman), is presently edited by Camilla Larsson. Other magazines on film from Sweden include Filkrets, a publication located in Stockholm, Ingmar, Film Rutan and Film International, formerly Filmhaftet, presently edited in Lund, Sweden. The first issue of Nordisk Filmtidning was published in 1909. Among the Swedish magazines that had sections devoted to film in which articles on Greta Garbo appeared from between 1925-1975 and which were among those issues recently donated to the Garbo Society in Hogsby, Sweden, were of Avet Runt, Svensk Damtidning and Hemmets Veckotidning. The Swedish Film Institute has in the past made several publications available to readers, including the quarterly Zoom Magazine and Technik and manniska, under Susanne Roger.
After seven issues avaible in English in PDF form, Made in Sweden during May of 2006 for its eighth issuse changed its name to Swedish Film, A Magazine from the Swedish Film Institute. It is published four times a year. Publisher of the magazine Made in Sweden-Swedish Film and the newsletter Vidvinkel Europa, The Swedish Film Institute is located in Stockholm, its managing director recently having had been being Ase Kleveland. Previous directors of the Svenska Filminstitutet have included Harry Schein, the longtime love of Swedish actress Ingrid Thulin. Ase Kleveland, in a November 2005 press conference, announced that she will be welcoming a new managing director of the Swedish Film Institute during May 2006. Although born in Stockholm, Ms. Kleveland has been commuting to and from Olso during the weekend for six years. At first she had not related what would be next for her other than that she would be going home, but a newsletter e-mailed from Oslo, Norway has since announced that Kleveland is scheduled in August, 2006 to become the director of Rikskonsertene, which she is pleased about because of how near it will be to her.
| One name known to readers of Swedish magazines will continue in the participation of making Swedish film; kind regards can be sent to Cissi Elwin, who had been editor of the publication Ica-Kuriren since the new millenium had marked the turn of the century and who during late March, 2006 was appointed managing director of the Swedish Film Institute, replacing Ase Kleveland on the first of August. Elwin is the daughter of Göran Elwin, Swedish journalist and producer for Sveriges Television, where daughter Cissi first became acknowledged by Swedish audiences. The chairman of the Swedish Film Institute is presently Hakan Tidlund. Apparently no one was more suprised at the appointment than Elwin herself, which comes at a time when among the first things the new general manager will be addressing is a directive that 40% of film made in sweden now be directed by women. Editor-in-chief Staffan Gronberg has left the Swedish Film Institute. In welcoming Pia Lundberg to the position, Cissi Elwin stressed the improtance of SFI being an international body in its bringing the films of Sweden to new audiences. |
| The Swedish Film Institute had screened a complete series of the films of Victor SjostromP, including his first film The Gardner (Tragardsmastaren, 1912), from the beginning of October untill November 26, 2003 at the Film House (Cinemateket) in Stockholm. Hailed by the British Film Institute as Cinema's First Master, Victor Sjostrom, while in the United States, was to direct the first feature silent film released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer,He Who Gets Slapped (seven reels, 1924), starring Lon Chaney Norma Shearer and Jack Gilbert. Between September 3 and October 27, 2004 the Cinematecket hosted the films of D. W. Griffith. Among the films shown at the Filmhuset in Stockholm were The Lady and the Mouse (1914)In the Border States (1915), A Country Cupid (1915), The Painted Lady (1915) and Judith of Bethulia (Judit och Holofernes). Griffith, along with Thomas H. Ince, director of Civilization (1916), was one of the foremost pioneers of silent film technique, particularly the feature film, in the United States. The silent film Intolerance was screened as part of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, held between Oct 8-15, 2005. In previous years, the Cinemateket in Stockholm has screened the films of Mauritz Stiller, it having published with Svenska Filminstitutet the volume Moderna motiv- Mauritz Stiller I retrospektiv, under Bo Florin, to accompany the screenings. Bo Florin and the Cinemateket have also published Regi: Victor Sjöström= Directed by Victor Seastrom with the Svenska filminstitutet. The title of the Ingmar Bergman-Svenska Filmindustri film Wild Strawberries, in which Victor Sjöström stars, was lent to Svenska Filminstitutet for its Filmbutiken, Smultronstallet, den svenska filmbutiken, as a publication of its Filmhuset in Stockholm. Interestingly enough, the Irish Film Institute , which regularly sends an e-mailed newsletter containing its schedule, has named its classic film series after the Victor Sjöström film Wild Strawberries as well. Borgvagen 1 is also the home of Biografen Victor, a theater with 364 seats named after Victor Sjöström. There are two smaller theaters, one with 133 seats named after Mauritz Stiller and one with 14 seats named after Julius Jaenzon, cameraman for Svenska Bio. Of the films that have been shown at Bio Victor, particularly of interest are Blackjackor (Rolf Husberg, 1945) and Froken Chic (Hasse Ekman, 1957). The Cinemateket was originally The Swedish Film Archive (Svenska Filmsamfundet), begun in 1933 and untill Harry Schien having had become the director of the Swedish Film Institute it was named Filmhistorika samlingarna. Are You Playing Tonight? (Spelar du ikvall?) was the name of a series of films shown at the Cinemateket starring the actor Erland Josephson, accompanied by an essay by director Torben Skjodt Jensen and director Ulf Peter Hallberg. Cissi Elwin will be greeting Swedish cinematographer Gunnar Fischer at the Filmhuset to end the first week of October 2007 during a film series to honor Ingmar Bergman entitled Long Live Bergman (Lang leve Bergman). Also present will be actress Harriet Andersson. The centennial of Danish silent film has brought more than occaision to mark the more than sixty years of Det danske Filmmuseum, now the Cinematheque of Det Danske Filminstitut. A Woman's Duel (Rivalander), a silent Danish film photographed in 1906, was screened at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival on December 1, 2007. The Women and the Silent Screen series at the Cinemateket in Stockholm, held between June 11-13, 2008 will include the Danish silent film Love or Money (Kaelighed og penge), directed by Leo Tschering and starring Else Frolich. The film was produced in 1912 by Nordisk Films Kompagni. The Sweden Film Commission is also located in Stockholm, in the Filmhuset, and is available to film crews that are planning to shoot on location in Sweden. The Sweden Film Commission offers an e-mailed newsletter to subscribers. Among the articles recently included on the webpage of the Sweden Film Commision was an announcement of the election of Ase Kleveland to the European Digital Cinema Forum. In August of 2005, Ase Kleveland addressed the IFLA in Oslo, Norway in regard to the role of digital cinema as a contemporary literature and the importance of new technologies to modern culture; one of these signs of new technology is the forthcoming opening of Spanga Folken in Stockholm, a movie theater built in 1939 that is to screen films shot digitally. Borgvagen 5, Stockholm houses the Swedish Women's Film Association and also located in Stockholm's Film House, the Filmhuset, is the Sveriges Filmproducenter. Swedish directors that had participated in the 2003 annual conference at The Film House in Stockholm (April24-26) had included Maria von Heland (Move, Flyt), Manne Lindwall, Lisa Ohlin (Seeking Temporary Wife, Tillfallig Fru Sokes) and Cecilia Neant-Falk, where among those that had visited the Film House during the 2004 conference (April 23-25) were Carl Johan de Geer, Jens Jonsson and Tova Magnusson Norling. In the Filmhuset of the Swedish Film Institue is a conference area, named The Arena, where directors and screenwriters meet regularly. In addition to distributing contemporary Swedish films, Filmcentrum, located in Stockholm, distributes many classic Swedish films and publishes Film and TV. The Swedish Institute in Stockholm, which presently offers a publishing house as well as an information service and an image bank with photos for publication, can be visited at Skeppsbron 2. Its director general is presently Erland Ringborg. The Swedish Film Institute, premiered a collection of private films from Ingmar Bergman's home and office entitled Before Ingmar Became Bergman (Innan Ingmar blev Bergman) in Helsinki on August 27, 2003. Included in the exhibition was the first magic lantern of Ingmar Bergman, a cinematograph given to his as a Christmas present, as well as the film Karin's Face (Karin's ansikte), a film comprised of photographs of the film director's mother. While describing the projector, Ase Kleveland has been quoted by the Associated Press as having said, "This cinematograph made Bergman interested in movies. He has talked about it in his books and it is also a central theme in some of his films." It is certain that in some way the pioneer Victor Sjöström is watching the Stockholm of Charles Magnusson while Ingmar Bergman is at Faroe; the movie projector had disappeared during a recent exhibition, only to be found later in an unthought of location. A vernissage of the exhibition will be included at the Filmhuset of the Swedish Film Institute in Stockholm during its October 6-7, 2007 film series on Ingmar Bergman, Long, Live Bergman. The Swedish Film Institute offers an e-mailed update of its webpage. Jan Holmberg has been selected to manage the Bergman Interface, a website that will offer a filmography of the films of Ingmar Bergman. Editors Jan Holmberg and Mathias Rosengren sent the first updates of the emailed in English newsletter announcing the launching of the website and the appearance of its English version as having had been being May of 2006, it originally having had been being scheduled to appear in January. The emailed newsletter to the webpage includes a News in brief section summarizing recent news centering around Swedish Film director Ingmar Bergman. The Ingmar Bergman Face to Face webpage includes not only stills from many of the director's films, but also many of their trailers, in addition to film clips and footage of Ingmar Bergman introducing several of the films, including A Lesson in Love and Autmun Sonata. Jan Holmberg is currently the head of programming at Cinemateket at the Swedish Film Instititute. Ingmar Bergman has finished filming the last sequence to his film Saraband which was aired on Swedish television by pubcaster SVT; an e-mailed newsletter had announced its premiere as having had been being December 1, 2003. The assistant director of the film is Torbjorn Ehrnvall. The film was shot in Solna, at Stockholm's Filmstaden. Having been slated for theatrical release and at first thought to have been a possible entry in the competition at the Cannes Film Festival ( May 14-25, 2003), the film was still in post-production; Max Von Sydow was among those who visited the festival. According to an e-mailed newletter from the beginning of August,2003 Ingmar Bergman was then still at work with the digitally shot print of the film of the Swedish director's last film, which includes Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson in its cast. Greta Garbobiographer Richard Corliss, in an article entitled Last Roar From A Legend, quoted Ullmann as having said, "I take a pencil in my hand, and I write down what he says. Now he's chosen to isolate himself, and I don't understand it. But I know he really means it. This is the last script, the last film". In a subsequent article entitled That Old Feeling: To Live with Bergman, Corliss adds a fuller interview with the actress in which she says, "He doesn't see many people. Actually, he sees almost no one. He's reading. "This is the time in my life when I'm reading'." Shortly before the interview was published, Liv Ullmann, not unlike the actress Greta Garbo, returned to Stockholm and The Royal Dramatic Theatre, May 30, 2005 for a visit. In an article titled In the shadow of Ingmar Bergman in which he summarizes the history of contemporary Swedish film, Bengt Forslund writes about Bergman's teleplay, "He had announced that Saraband would be his last artistic endeavor- no more theater directing, no more films, no more television, no more radio. In this article I will take him at his word, though he's made that promise before." Julia Dufvenius was interviewed on Swedish television during the middle of August, 2003. On December 3, 2003, Swedish television aired the documentary In the Direction of Bergman (I regi av Bergman). To close the year 2003, Simon Hardh sent an e-mailed letter from Sweden through Yahoogroups about an account from author Peter Englund about Ingmar Bergman, "Since then I've heard Ingmar Bergman started using email. Swedish historian Peter Englund reported about his email correspondence with Bergman when Bergman asked him to write something about Mary Stuart for his stage production of the play. However I'm still sure that he wishes to keep his email to himself, if he has any, maybe he just borrowed Erland Josephson's at the time." In the e-mailed post, Simon Hardh added the address of Ulla Aberg at the Dramaten in Stockholm as where letters at that time could be sent to Bergman. In a webpage that Simon Hardh is currently updating there are included still photos from Ingmar Bergman's film for television, Saraband. In a webpage he is updating that is in Swedish, he includes screencaptures from Swedish television not only of interviews with Ingmar Bergman and Erland Josephson, but of an airing of the Swedish television film Bildmarkarna (Ingmar Bergman, 2000). On April 8, 2004 Swedish television began a three part series of interviews with Ingmar Bergman conducted by Marie Nyrerod with the broadcast Bergman and Cinema (Bergman och filmen), continuing April 9 with Bergman and Theater (Bergman och teatern) and April 12 with Bergman and Faro (Bergman och Faro). On the internet, SVT.SE presently offers online streaming video of interviews conducted with the director Ingmar Bergman. TV4 Film, a new Swedish film channel, began broadcasting on Swedish television on April 18, 2004. An e-mailed newsletter from the beginning of December, 2003 announced that Bergman had decided against theatrical release of the film. It was announced in September, 2004 that the film was slated to be given its premiere in the United States by digital projection at the New York Film Festival during the first weeks of October. The trailer to Saraband, by Ingmar Bergman is available over the internet.Ingmar Bergman then announced that he would continue with writing but not directing. Forthcoming from Bergman is the volume Three Diaries (Tre dagboecker). An e-mailed newsletter from Norway has quoted Ingmar Bergman as having agreed to a radio broadcast from his home and his having said, "After that, there will be nothing more." Ingmar Bergman, untill his death, resided on the island of Faro, where the magic lantern of Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman also resided; there is a theater seating fifteen that has a showing daily at 3:00. Director Marie Nyreröd (Ingmar Bergman Complete) was one of the visitors to Faro Island for its 2005 film festival. Joined by Ase Kleveland, who openened the screenings of Bergman week at the Faro film center, Kustparken, Farosund, was also the visitor Victor Sjöström, so as to signify the stroke of midnight, closing the festival on July 3, 2005 with the Swedish silent film Korkarlen (1921). In Images, Bergman writes, "He had made the move that, to me, was the film of all films. I saw it for the first time when I was fifteen; to this day I see it at least once every summer, either alone or in the company of younger people. I clearly see how The Phantom Carriage has influenced my own work..." Writing about Victor Sjöström's film in an anthology edited by Stephen Prince, Tyberg succinctly connects theme with plot in describing the film's "images of the macabre carriage that travels about, gathering the souls of the dead together" and "the new coachman in disembodied form" by summarizing that as the film moves towards its end the character transforms inwardly well. Whether or not the carriage is a merely similie for camera movement, or more properly, what was then more often the lack of camera movement and the filming of the moving object through camera placement, and technique of using pictorial composition for both Swedish film directors Ingmar Bergman and Victor Sjöström, there was, and maybe still is, something antiquainted on the part of Sjöström's prescence. Among the visitors to Faro Island for Bergmanveckan during June 27-July 2, was actress Harriet Andersson. While expressing her fondness for the island as a location on which to make films, Andersson was reminded that Bergman had decided upon the island in part for its landscape and its beauty. Peter Cowie in fact has written, "The first concerns the landscape and the elements. Their significance in all Nordic cinema is immense. One finds the shortness and intensity of summer, for example, emphasized in films like Summer Interlude and Summer with Monika." This may be true for not only the swedish classic film Summer Interlude, but may also be an undercurrent to the imagery behind the swedish classic film Through a Glass Darkly. It was during April of 1960 that Ingmar Bergman first came to Faro Island to film Through A Glass Darkly, the first of seven of films to be in part photographed there. Peter Cowie explains, "The Island looks as though it had emerged from the sea of its own volition. Liv Ullmann describes the ladscape as covered with 'gnarled spruce trees of strange green colors, most of them stunted and bent along the ground'", his continuing to add, "He could observe the waves advancing and retreating on the barren shore. He could write in peace." Whether or not the Island has symbolized the theme of the artist that Ingmar Bergman's early films are thought to have been concerned with, it has been internalized by the director, almost in the same way that there is a fleeting shot at the end of the film Persona where we in fact see the actress only briefly in costume during an insert shot; something known only to the theater appears on the screen only by its having had been being created in the solitude of the limestone and ocean. Faro Island will be soon be inviting another guest. An e-mailed newsletter from Oslo, Norway has quoted Swedish film director as having said that the new Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award will be given as "a tribute to the singular art of twenty four frames." It is to be presented at the Goteborg International Film Festival, which will be held during the end of January and beginning of February, 2007. The film festival director is Jannike Ahlund. The director of the winning film will be invited to Faro. Marie Nyrerod again made the film Bergman Island part of Bergman week by introducing the film during the fetival which was to end June and begin July 2007. The island also played a part in illustrating the invaluable work of a scriptgirl that is involved as a director puts a screenplay into the emotional and plastic dimensions it aquires during its shooting- a Safari directed by Katinka Fargo has been added as a tour of the island, films clips being included that show locations on the island where Bergman has filmed. To add to this, and the spectacular conversations of the island during the week that remained primarily off camera, director Stig Bjorkman was also part of the festival, his film Faro Document being one of the three films included in its opening. Bergman Week 2007 was opened by actress Bibi Andersson with a screening of Persona along with a screening of Ingmar Bergman's film The Image Makers. Photographer Bengt Wanselius exhibited his photos from the film, which, based on a play by Per Olov Enqvist, chronicles the shooting of The Phantom Carriage. It has been a decade since the filming of Svenska hjalter (1997) starring Emma Warg, Cajsa Lisa Ejemyr, Janne Carlsson, Anki Linden and Lena Endre, which only whispers the question as to whether its director Daniel Bergman will be shooting a sequence on location on the island of Faro as a tribute to his father as a filmaker, or whether the island will again appear on film during a motion picture. His daughter, Eva Bergman, wife of Swedish author Henning Mankell, was with Ingmar Bergman on Faro Island when he passed away, but has directed only a small number of short films. The Associated Press during the middle of August, 2007, in reporting that Ingmar Bergman had consented to there being a service held at the Faro Church, remarked upon the director's contribution to the history of Swedish Film and its legacy, "Bergman's film vision encompassed all the extremes of his beloved Sweden: the claustrophobic gloom of unending winter nights, the gentle merriment of glowing summer evenings and the bleak magnificence of the Baltic Sea where he spent his last years." In Sweden, a retrospective of 50 films was screened at the Goteborg International Film Festival during January, 2008- festival director Marit Kapla explained that it had already been scheduled for what would have been the Swedish Film director Ingmar Bergman's 90th birthday. It had been announced in an e-mailed newsletter by Jon Asp of Ingmar Bergman Face to Face that renowned Scandinavian film director Jorn Donner would be visiting Faro during Bergman week, held during June 24-29, 2008. Also announced was that with him would be actress Gunnel Lindblom and Margarethe von Trotta. As part of any tribute to Swedish director Ingmar Berman, it is more than well worth reading, or rereading, the volume The Personal Vision of Ingmar Bergman (Djavulens ansikte: Ingmar Bergmans filmer), written by Jorn Donner, which the present author is reading for the first time during the summer of 2008. The book was published in Stockholm in 1962 and in the United States shortly thereafter when the film critic had released his first feature as a director, A Sunday in September. It is difficult to immediately decide upon their being a favorite actress among those that acted under the director Ingmar Bergman, especially with the actresses Ingrid Thulin and Eva Dahlbeck being included among them. At Bergman Week 2008 three films were screened honoring the actress Eva Dahlbeck, who passed among earlier in the year during February. A Lesson in Love (1954), Waiting Women (1952) and Smiles of A Summer Night (1955) were given a special screening during Bergman Week 2008 adding to a new Faro Document that included a visit from the producer of A Lesson in Love and Smiles of a Summer Night, Alan Ekelund. |
The 100th birthday of Greta Garbo was a perfect time to recognize the efforts of Ase Kleveland, if only to introduce her as a proponent of classic film and the viewing of film with an interest in film history; she during September 2005 at the Cinemateket Filmhuset not only introduced Greta Garbo to Swedish audiences, but marked the love for the actress throughout Scandanavia. In an e-mailed correspondence to the present author, she wrote, "Many thanks for your greetings. I can assure that the Garbo celebrations was a great success indeed." There later was something almost faintly reminscient of Greta Garbo taking a train to Rasunda in 1912 where she was to meet Julius Jaenzon on the way to see Mauritz Stiller. As it almost neared a year after Garbo's 100th birthday, the letter from Ase Kleveland was forwarded to Hedvig Widmalm with the kindest regards and warmest of hopes. During a correspondence with the present author about the history of Swedish film, in particular the films of Mauritz Stiller, she had written, "I don't want to pry, but you got a letter from Ase Kleveland? I'm very curious." In a second letter she explained, "I'm very curious about Ase Kleveland. Even though I went to the film institute twice I met nobody. However, if there is any chance for me to find a job there int the future I would be happy to take a train to Stockholm every day." In a later letter from Sweden, Hedvig wrote about her having been at the screening of a film for which she had waited weeks to see, A Man There Was. "Victor Sjöström's daughter and grandaughter were in the audience. I don't know how old the daughter is, but it must have been amazing for her to see her parents in such an old movie." Also in Sweden, quietly after having retired, but hopefully with all enthusiasm, is photographer for Svensk Filmindustri Gunnar Fischer, who is waiting to celbrate his 100th birthday, his having been born on November 18, 1910. Swedish actress Ingrid Luterkort, who appeared in the film Annonsera (Anders Henrikson, 1936) and directed the film Vad vi gjort may be waiting more quietly than he; also born in 1910, her birthday falls earlier in the year- and yet again she has appeared on the screen under the direction of Swedish filmakers Hannes Holm, Kjell Sundvall and Hans Renhall. Since becoming general manager of the Swedish Film Institute, Cissi Elwin has added three RSS subscriptions to the internet: www.sfi.se Swedish Film Institute News Archive RSS www.sfi.se Swedish Film Institute Press RSS www.sfi.se Swedish Film Institute, publisher Photos and or links may be removed due to design consideration. Please write if you would like your webpage linked or have a video or poster that can be readed by the addition of your banner. Silent Film material that is linked is thought to be in main part public domain or that can be linked through fair use: please write with any questions regarding copyright or the copyright process. Since the principal photography on Ingmar Bergman's last film was completed, new filmographies have appeared on the internet; it is hoped that these have been consulted only within fair use of copyright and with a love of film , secondly, withthe acknowledgement that the filmographies were diligently compiled. Any page linked should be viewed for the interest of the stirring beauty of the silent films of Sweden. The top banner, All About Swedish Film, was designed for Scott Lord by Ullrich in Berlin in Germany, with whom I try to keep up with as he has desigened many european banners including the banner for the webpage of the Filmuseum in Potsdam. Although they carried links to trailers Swedish Films and introduced Swedish Film actresses, they can be updated, some of the material having been since withdrawn, and can also be revised and respidered, if you will allow me. I have since began a Flock Blog, and would like to add infornmation to the blogs using the Flock browser. Please find a link returning you to the webpage if the blogs lack anything of interest. |
