By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Dheeraj Akolkar
Country: india, norway, united_kingdom
Year: 2013
Running time: 116
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2327430/combined
Bruce says: “A love affair that evolved into a friendship spanning five decades is the best way to describe the relationship between Swedish director Ingmar Bergman and Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann. They met during the filming of Bergman’s PERSONA on Faro Island, just off the coast of Sweden, and quickly began having an affair. At the time both were married. Her marriage soon ended in divorce but his continued during their romantic involvement that lasted five years. Ullmann describes herself at that time as, ‘shy, overwhelmed and so much in love.’ They didn’t talk about their love, they just lived through it.
“LIV & INGMAR is Liv’s story. The film is split into chapters describing her emotions and feelings. Since Bergman died in 2007, his only presence in the film is through archival footage. One can assume Ullmann is an accurate reporter for she surely has no axe to grind and her reminiscences are realistic, neither bitter nor saccharine. Much of the film is her verbal description of their relationship, sometimes as a talking head and at other times, a voiceover, passages from her 1977 biography Changing.
“Ullmann talks about the intensity of the romance and the fact that she was overwhelmed by it. In fact, she escaped back to Norway after the filming of PERSONA, pregnant and determined to go forward alone without husband or lover. Bergman had other ideas – he flew to Norway and took her back to Sweden. He built his dream house on Faro Island and it changed both of their lives. It was isolated, remote. Ullmann says she felt ‘I’m taking part in someone else’s dream,’ not her own. Bergman wanted no visitors – he even built a wall of stone around the house to complete the isolation. ‘Bergman wrote masterpieces and listened to music, while I…..,’ Ullmann wistfully states. She was confused and lost, yet bright enough to realize that her pain was helping her evolve and develop. She and Bergman also collaborated on SHAME, HOUR OF THE WOLF, and THE PASSION OF ANNA while their romance flourished and floundered. Ullmann claims that her anger all came out in those performances.
“One day Ullmann packed suitcases to visit Norway and put all of her clothes in them. She never returned. Only after that did she and Bergman become true friends. CRIES AND WHISPERS, SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE, FANNY AND ALEXANDER, THE SERPENT’S EGG, AUTUMN SONATA and SARABAND were their films made together after they separated. Footage from many of these films is interspersed with her dialogue. Until his death they remained close friends. Ullmann remembers Bergman telling her, ‘You are my Stradivarius.’ “‘It was the best compliment I ever got,’ she recalls. 5 cats
“(LIV & INGMAR screened at the 2013 Miami International Film Festival.)”