Movie Review: Searching for Ingmar Bergman

Searching for Ingmar Bergman **** / *****

Directed by: Margarethe von Trotta and Bettina Böhler and Felix Moeller.

Written by: Margarethe von Trotta and Felix Moeller.

 

Back in the 1990s, when I started getting interested in film and film history, when it came to foreign masters there were three names that you kind of had to confront first – Italy’s Federico Fellini, Japan’s Akira Kurosawa and Sweden’s Ingmar Bergman. I’m not arguing that these are the three greatest filmmakers ever – just that they occupied a space in film history that made any aspiring film buff at least start there – before delving into the art house cinema from the around the world. The three filmmakers certainly left a lasting impact on me – and their vast filmographies offer lots of interesting work to watch, re-watch and mull over. In 2018, Bergman would have turned 100 – which is why there seems to be renewed interest in his work – including the documentary Searching for Ingmar Bergman, directed by Margarethe von Trotta – which misleading title aside I think would be a great place to start for newbies in terms of exploring Bergman’s work – and offers some interesting stories for those of us who are longtime fans. It is a tribute from one great filmmaker to the one of the filmmakers that inspired her the most.

 

The film opens with von Trotta describing the opening shots of the first Bergman film she ever saw – The Seventh Seal – and remarking on the effect they had on her. It was the early 1960s, and she wasn’t even much of a film fan yet – certainly wasn’t thinking of becoming a filmmaker herself – but those shots, and that movie, moved her so deeply that she started down the rabbit hole of film, and ended up a brilliant filmmaker in her own right. Over the course of the movie, von Trotta will talk to many people about Bergman – other filmmakers about how Bergman’s cinema inspired them, Bergman’s collaborators to get to how he worked, and one of Bergman’s many children to see what he was like in his life outside the cinema.

 

Von Trotta, I think, holds no delusions about Bergman. She gets at stories that are not overly flattering of her hero – the way he could treat people on the set – all but the actors, who he was never cross with, but he would yell at anyone else who angered him. Or his personal life – where it is clear, he wasn’t much of a father or husband to his children or his wives over the years. His son describes Bergman’s 60^th Birthday party, which is the first time he met many of his siblings at all – despite the fact he was nearly a teenager by then. It is curious to Von Trotta that a filmmaker like Bergman – who was capable of so capturing childhood in films like The Silence or Fanny and Alexander – had so little time for his own children, and could never really relate to them. He didn’t seem to keep this a secret from them as well.

 

But her film mainly concentrates on Bergman’s films – and he allows his interview subjects leeway to talk about their favorite films, and stories, and how those films worked on them. It is a curious decision that she spends more time on lesser Bergman films like The Serpent’s Egg or From the Life of the Marionettes than she does on say Persona – which gets a passing reference or Cries and Whispers, which is barely mentioned at all. Then again, those were Bergman’s German films – and being from Germany, they obviously mean more to her than they do to others. This is a personal exploration as well.

 

The interviews subjects are well chosen – even when initially they don’t seem to be. Of course, you would be Olivier Assayas, who published a book of interviews with Bergman and who is incredibly insightful into his work. And the great Liv Ullman, who worked with him so often. But even an interview with Swedish director Ruben Ostlund (Force Majeure, The Square) is interesting – in part because it seems like Ostlund isn’t a huge fan of Bergman. He even remarks that no one from Sweden would interview him – because he’s from the “other” side of the Swedish film industry – those who hold Bo Widerberg in higher esteem. Still, his interview is fascinating.

 

Much like what seems to be a growing number of films about director – like last year’ Hal for example – I think the best thing a film like Searching for Ingmar Bergman can do for people is make them go back and watch the films of Ingmar Bergman. There are so many of them – and no, not all of them are masterpieces. But films like Smiles of a Summer’s Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Through a Glass Darkly, The Silence, Persona, Cries and Whispers, Scenes from a Marriage, Autumn Sonata and Fanny & Alexander certainly are – with Sawdust & Tinsel, The Magician, The Virgin Spring, Winter Light, Hour of the Wolf, Shame, The Passion of Anna and Saraband all being pretty damn close as well. It’s one of the best filmographies in screen history. This film, as wonderful as it is, is just the tip of the iceberg with the riches that Bergman created in his career. Do yourself a favor, and explore it.