A beginner's Bergman

April 27, 2009 8:25 PM

MeFi cinemaphiles, where should I start in Ingmar Bergman's filmography?

Being a fan of Woody Allen's stronger films, I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I haven't seen any of his greatest influence's work except for maybe 10 minutes of Scenes From A Marriage when I was a kid. Is Scenes the best place to start, or would other Bergman works provide a better introduction to his style?

posted by thisjax to media & arts (19 comments total)

Not sure if it's best, but "The Seventh Seal" was a great film.
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith at 8:28 PM on April 27

I would definitely check out

Seventh Seal
Wild Strawberries
Persona
posted by meta87 at 8:28 PM on April 27

I was cold to the few Bergman films I've seen, except for Persona. I was shocked and hooked by its overture. The DVD I rented featured an interesting scholar's commentary. I don't know if it's the best place to start, but it's the only Bergman I can recommend.
posted by jchgf at 8:30 PM on April 27

Wild Strawberries worked for me.
posted by scody at 9:08 PM on April 27

The only Bergman I've watched all the way through is Fanny and Alexander. I really liked it--it was beautiful and absorbing, a good story well filmed. I have heard it is his most accessible work, so it might be a good place to start.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:10 PM on April 27

Scenes is a challenging place to start, because it was originally a TV miniseries. The full run is quite long (~ 5 hours), but there's a theatrical edit that you may or may not find satisfying. That said, it's absolutely absorbing.

I'd avoid his early period pieces (Seventh Seal and The Virgin Spring) for now. If you want a good introduction to early Bergman, try Wild Strawberries, which is just wonderful.

You might also consider starting with his "spiritual" trilogy: Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence. These films are very deliberate, and maybe a little "slow", you should be warned.

I would avoid Persona off the bat, Liv Ullmann or no. If you want to see Bergman directing Ullmann, Scenes is the way to go.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:33 PM on April 27

Bergman's most severe movies probably are not the place to start. So: No Cries and Whispers or The Virgin Spring or Shame. Fanny and Alexander is warm and deep; Smiles of a Summer Night is not ironically titled. Persona is the one that does it for me, though; very close to the skin — and Bibi Andersson's monologue about an episode on the beach is one of the most erotic in cinema.
posted by argybarg at 9:36 PM on April 27

Most people start with "The Seventh Seal", because that's his most famous film. It's probably the first one Woody Allen saw too. "Smiles of a Summer's Night" preceded "The Seventh Seal" and is a completely different kind of film, that's right, a comedy by Ingmar Bergman. If you've enjoyed Woody Allen's various homages to Bergman, then you'll have to check out "Cries and Whispers" whose style is echoed to a degree in "Interiors". "Persona" is an incredibly powerful film and also quite challenging, so while I consider it required viewing, I would not watch it first as a Bergman neophyte.

Here's the order I'd go in (limiting myself to titles I consider essential):

The Seventh Seal
Smiles of a Summer Night
Wild Strawberries
Fanny and Alexander
Scenes From a Marriage
Winter Light
Through a Glass Darkly
Cries and Whispers
Persona
posted by wabbittwax at 9:38 PM on April 27 [1 favorite has favorites]

The Seventh Seal is probably the best movie out there that's set in the Middle Ages, for what it's worth. Bergman's brilliance was setting the film during the Black Death, which allowed his characters to voice existential ponderings that seem to be quite in keeping with medieval people's own questions concerning God and the seeming random nature of the carnage around them.
posted by hiteleven at 9:39 PM on April 27

Years ago the Little Carnegie did a Bergman retrospective- two films every Tuesday. This was around the time Scenes was hitting the theatres. Some of his imagery is with me to this day. Max vonS chopping wood, furious, while Liv U pleads with him in her red scarf is one image (Passion of Anna). The movie that does it, though, is Persona.
posted by pointilist at 9:51 PM on April 27

The films of Ingmar Bergman can pretty easily be broken into two distinct periods.

The first period was his period of ascendancy in Sweden. The chief film of this period, and probably his most famous movie, is Det Sjunde Inseglet, (1957) or The Seventh Seal, one of the great classics of cinema; it was his sixth or seventh film all told, but it was a major leap forward even for him, a director who had already made some very good films. (Gycklarnas Afton, or The Naked Night, is particularly good as well.) The Seventh Seal is the story of a knight returning home to Sweden after the crusades; at the beginning of the film, he meets death, but averts his demise by challenging death to a chess game. It's one of the most achingly beautiful and carefully drawn films ever made; the characters are exquisite and yet subtle, and it has some of the best parts of both the greatest films and also the greatest stage plays. Thematically, it deals with the difficult questions faced by the religious seeker who is incapable of simply believing in spiritual mysteries.

The other notable film of this period is Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries), a contemporary piece about a professor reconsidering his life and disappointments as he faces death. Bergman directed this film shortly after he filmed The Seventh Seal; it, too, is remarkably brilliant in its lyricism and beauty.

I haven't seen the last few films of this time in Bergman's life; they (Såsom i en Spegel or Through a Glass Darkly, 1961; Nattvardsgästerna, or Winter Light, 1962; and Tystnaden, or The Silence, 1963) form what Bergman called his "religious trilogy." From what I've heard, these films are outstanding. However, in 1965, Ingmar Bergman fell ill, and didn't make another film until 1966.

The film he returned with, Persona, was the first film of a new 'period,' or at least it was strikingly different from the films that'd come before; by this time, Bergman had absorbed the aesthetics and techniques of the nouvelle vague directors in France and shot his films much less like stage plays and used the camera to focus closely on faces and expressions; Persona is in many ways a study of the face and its connection to our identity. It is another of the greatest films ever made, although strikingly different from The Seventh Seal in both style and substance. The change in Ingmar Bergman by 1966 was in fact deeper than his technique; he'd decided by this time that the themes he'd pursued over the last decade and a half, the themes of religious seeking and the attempt to reconcile the desire for faith with the will to reason, were really unnecessary. He was ever after often saying that if he had it all to do again, he wouldn't make The Seventh Seal and the religious trilogy; what was the point in finding conflict between faith and reason, he said, when one can just choose reason and leave faith to those foolish enough to follow it?

I wish I could say that I'd seen most of the films from this period of his career, but I haven't. I can tell you that En Passion (1969) and The Touch (1970) are, like every Bergman film I've seen, quite good; personally, I think En Passion is probably the best switch to color any director ever made, and Bergman's fantastic eye shows in just how well he works with colors in that movie. I haven't seen Scenes From A Marriage, though it's widely acclaimed. His rendition of Mozart's great Masonic-mystical opera Der Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) is wonderful and very humorous; he finally completed it in 1975, after having wanted to do the project just before he'd gotten sick ten years before. His 'swan song' is Fanny And Alexander, his beautiful and literary last film, which seems to be an autobiographical tale about his youth and family moments.

Bergman is indeed fantastic. I think one of the things that attracts Woody Allen to Ingmar Bergman is the fact that Bergman, too, finally decided that the battle between faith and reason is ultimately a waste of time overall. That aside, Bergman's earlier films are still fantastic in style and theme, despite what Bergman himself may say, and live, I believe, as some of the greatest movies ever made. I can't think of another director who's made so many films that are so very different and at the same time so exceptionally brilliant.

If you're trying to approach this in a systematic way, I'd do this: if you can find a copy of The Naked Night (also known as Sawdust and Tinsel, 1953); it's both a fantastic film and a good illustration of where Bergman's iconic early style developed from. Then, it's probably best to move to the great classic, the one everyone talks about: The Seventh Seal (1957). I can't recommend this movie enough; I've seen it a good six or seven times, and it still nearly has the power to move me to tears every time. You should probably follow that up the same way Bergman did: with Wild Strawberries, (1957) another undisputed classic, a more subtle and yet still deeply beautiful film.

If you're digging the themes and love the ambiance of these movies, I'd go ahead and watch the religious trilogy; it is supposed to be quite good. After that, move on to Persona; (1966) you'll see here how amazing the difference is between this film and the films that came before in nearly every way, and yet how still incredibly skillful and brilliant it is. From there, you should at least see Fanny and Alexander, but by then you'll have seen all the movies any film buff ought to have seen by Ingmar Bergman.

You're in for some fun. Enjoy!
posted by koeselitz at 9:57 PM on April 27 [3 favorites has favorites]

hiteleven: The Seventh Seal is probably the best movie out there that's set in the Middle Ages, for what it's worth.

Close, but not quite.
posted by koeselitz at 9:59 PM on April 27 [2 favorites has favorites]

By the way, argybarg and wabbittwax are absolutely right: Smiles of a Summer Night is really not to be missed. Add that one to the list.
posted by koeselitz at 10:10 PM on April 27

hiteleven: The Seventh Seal is probably the best movie out there that's set in the Middle Ages, for what it's worth.

Close, but not quite.

Looks interesting, but I'd consider period cinema about medieval Russia (particularly late medieval), including Alexander Nevsky, to be in something of a different class. No less important or meaningful, mind you, but more dealing with Russian history than with Western medieval history.

What I mean is, if I was screening a movie to a class that I felt captured best the general mentalities of the high to late Middle Ages, I would show The Seventh Seal, no question.
posted by hiteleven at 10:36 PM on April 27

I caught The Virgin Spring on IFC last week, Wes Craven's Last House on the Left (1972) is supposedly based on it. I actually enjoyed the film for it's cinematography and the haunting images of rape, retribution, and the titular final scene. I'm adding The Seventh Seal to my Netflix queue.
posted by plokent at 12:18 AM on April 28

hiteleven: Looks interesting, but I'd consider period cinema about medieval Russia (particularly late medieval), including Alexander Nevsky, to be in something of a different class. No less important or meaningful, mind you, but more dealing with Russian history than with Western medieval history.

Fair enough. I mentioned it partly because it was directed by Andrei Tarkovsky—who Ingmar Bergman himself called the greatest film director of all time:

My discovery of Tarkovsky's first film was like a miracle.

Suddenly, I found myself standing at the door of a room the keys of which had, until then, never been given to me. It was a room I had always wanted to enter and where he was moving freely and fully at ease.

I felt encouraged and stimulated: someone was expressing what I had always wanted to say without knowing how.

Tarkovsky is for me the greatest, the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.

But now I'm just derailing. I'm going to go get some Bergman and watch it.
posted by koeselitz at 12:39 AM on April 28

Well firstly you're in for a treat.

I'm going to go against the grain and suggest you delay the Seventh Seal until you have seen a couple others. The Seventh Seal is great but I know I would have been put off by it, compared to some of his other work.

You'll be fine with any of these. A quick chronological overview of some of his best, accessible works -

Summer Interlude (1951.) This is a great, sometimes overlooked film. He is finding his voice here and although this is early there are many themes that would inform a lot of his later films. Perhaps just a little weak for your very first Bergman film, but I have to suggest it because I love it.

Wild Strawberries (1957.) I'll just echo everything written above. He hits his stride here and this is a beautiful, enchanting film.

Through a Glass Darkly (1961.) You will need to be on your toes but I can imagine this film really hooking someone approaching it for the first time with an open mind. Great performances from Harriet Andersson and Max von Sydow.

Winter Light (1962.) A masterpiece and my favourite Bergman film. Heavily religious and probably a bit too portentous for some, but another beautiful film.

Scenes from a Marriage (1973.) It's now the 70's, we've swerved to avoid Cries and Whispers (leave that one for a good while) and we're in colour. This was a lengthy tv series but the edited version is great too.

Autumn Sonata (1978.) It's grim and heavy (hey, why are you here?) but another incredible film that features a brilliant, stomach churning performance from Liv Ullman.

Saraband (2003.) It's not essential, but it helps to have seen Scenes from a Marriage first. Some people don't really rate Saraband but it's a magnificent film. Maybe not the one to see first, and it's a little weird to see Bergman done with modern technology, but it won't hurt to see it early on.


By all means dive in and watch Cries and Whispers. YMMV, but it is an exceedingly grim, despairing film and you may want to put off watching it for a while. Roger Ebert's review is a good one.

I've left both Seventh Seal and Fanny and Alexander off the list above, I would personally see two or three of the smaller films before tackling the "blockbusters."

This question is often asked on the IMDB Bergman board so if you want a handful of other opinions check that out.

Have fun!
posted by fire&wings at 4:42 AM on April 28 [1 favorite has favorites]

If you're looking for "movies you'd like," you should subscribe to MovieLens. It's a collaborative filtering system. You rate a bunch of movies, then it finds other people who rated the same movies the same way you did, and gives you their ratings of movies you haven't seen. I've found it to be incredibly accurate: that is, if it tells me I "must see" a movie, I always agree (after I've seen it).
posted by RichardS at 5:24 AM on April 28

Thank you everyone, these answers are fabulous and informative. I'm slightly weary of starting off with a period piece, so I'm probably going to start with Wild Strawberries, then The Seventh Seal, and then toss some coins to figure out which later works I should tackle next.
posted by thisjax at 5:50 AM on April 29