Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman, the celebrated Swedish film director and writer, has died at the age of 89.
One of the most influential figures in 20th century film, Bergman died "peacefully" early this morning at his home on the Swedish island of Faaro, his daughter, Eva, said. His death was confirmed by Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre.
As a director, Bergman was critically acclaimed for films such as The Seventh Seal (1957) and Fanny and Alexander (1982), which won four Oscars, including for Best Foreign Language Film.
For many movie buffs he was the greatest of the authorial film-makers of the 1950s and 1960s, outranking even such figures as Federico Fellini, Luis Bunuel or Jean-Luc Godard.
The demanding nature of his work, however, was such that the general public found him remote, and he was accused in his homeland of being partly responsible for Sweden being presented as a country of neurotics.
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, on July 14, 1918, the second of three children. His strict childhood - his father Erik was a clergyman - and family relationships influenced him profoundly and were reflected in all his work.
At Stockholm University he discovered his vocation when he chose the dramatic society over his literature and art history classes. He directed his first film Crisis in 1945 but it was not until 1956 that he won international acclaim when Smiles of a Summer Night was shown at the Cannes Festival.
For more than three decades he produced an average of a movie a year.
Known in Sweden mainly as a dramatist, Bergman obtained poor reviews for work that was considered dark and incomprehensible, with its focus on love, loneliness, anguish and relations with God.
Women also occupied a central role in his work, which often dwelt on the mysteries of the female soul. He had loved his mother intensely as a child, and when a doctor advised her to set her son aside or risk damaging him for life, he felt the loss deeply.
Mother-son relationships featured prominently in his work, as did his experiences from five marriages. He had nine children, including a daughter by the actress Liv Ullmann.
Bergman made profoundly personal films following his intellectual and spiritual preoccupations and tracing his loss of faith in God.
The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring (1960), Through a Glass Darkly”(1961), Winter Light (1963) and The Silence (1963) all lead progressively to a rejection of religious belief, leaving only the conviction that human life is haunted by“a virulent, active evil".
With Wild Strawberries (1957), Bergman turned increasingly to psychological dilemmas and ethical issues in human and social relations, once religion proved a failure.
For many years Bergman declined attractive offers to work abroad. But in 1976, after being charged by the Swedish tax authorities, he moved to Germany and worked as the director of Munich Residenz Theater.
After a six-year exile he returned to Sweden and remained there until his death. Officially“retired”, he continued to work tirelessly, directing television plays, writing screenplays -- such as the autobiographical saga The Best Intentions which, reduced to three-hour film length, won the 1992 Cannes Golden Palm for director Bille August.
One of the most influential figures in 20th century film, Bergman died "peacefully" early this morning at his home on the Swedish island of Faaro, his daughter, Eva, said. His death was confirmed by Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre.
As a director, Bergman was critically acclaimed for films such as The Seventh Seal (1957) and Fanny and Alexander (1982), which won four Oscars, including for Best Foreign Language Film.
For many movie buffs he was the greatest of the authorial film-makers of the 1950s and 1960s, outranking even such figures as Federico Fellini, Luis Bunuel or Jean-Luc Godard.
The demanding nature of his work, however, was such that the general public found him remote, and he was accused in his homeland of being partly responsible for Sweden being presented as a country of neurotics.
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, on July 14, 1918, the second of three children. His strict childhood - his father Erik was a clergyman - and family relationships influenced him profoundly and were reflected in all his work.
At Stockholm University he discovered his vocation when he chose the dramatic society over his literature and art history classes. He directed his first film Crisis in 1945 but it was not until 1956 that he won international acclaim when Smiles of a Summer Night was shown at the Cannes Festival.
For more than three decades he produced an average of a movie a year.
Known in Sweden mainly as a dramatist, Bergman obtained poor reviews for work that was considered dark and incomprehensible, with its focus on love, loneliness, anguish and relations with God.
Women also occupied a central role in his work, which often dwelt on the mysteries of the female soul. He had loved his mother intensely as a child, and when a doctor advised her to set her son aside or risk damaging him for life, he felt the loss deeply.
Mother-son relationships featured prominently in his work, as did his experiences from five marriages. He had nine children, including a daughter by the actress Liv Ullmann.
Bergman made profoundly personal films following his intellectual and spiritual preoccupations and tracing his loss of faith in God.
The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring (1960), Through a Glass Darkly”(1961), Winter Light (1963) and The Silence (1963) all lead progressively to a rejection of religious belief, leaving only the conviction that human life is haunted by“a virulent, active evil".
With Wild Strawberries (1957), Bergman turned increasingly to psychological dilemmas and ethical issues in human and social relations, once religion proved a failure.
For many years Bergman declined attractive offers to work abroad. But in 1976, after being charged by the Swedish tax authorities, he moved to Germany and worked as the director of Munich Residenz Theater.
After a six-year exile he returned to Sweden and remained there until his death. Officially“retired”, he continued to work tirelessly, directing television plays, writing screenplays -- such as the autobiographical saga The Best Intentions which, reduced to three-hour film length, won the 1992 Cannes Golden Palm for director Bille August.
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