Research in Progress (April 2, 2022).
Despite the prominence of women in his work, Ingmar Bergman has never been described a woman’s director–unlike, say, George Cukor.
Just like the Japanese Misoguchi, British-born Hitchcock and all-American Woody Allen, there is strong emphasis on female intelligence.
Attributes of his Oeuvre:
Dialogue in his film has the sound of music; so do the prevalent silences…
He had relied on a regular repertory of spectacular actors and actresses.
The breadth and intensity of Bergman’s achievement
Karin, the name of Bergman’s real mother, is the name of the heroine in several of his films:
“The Seventh Seal,” “Through a Glass Darkly,” “The Virgin Spring,” “Winter Light,” “Cries and Whispers.”
Andrew Sarris on Bergman
The dourest Swede since Strindberg
Bergman’s stature is incontestable
No instinctive affinity to the film medium–he is not a natural filmmaker–but he remains obsessed with technique for its own sake.
His greatest talent is as a classicist writer of heavy psychological dramas.
His vogue began when audiences rejected the equation of art and politics.
There is no external politics in his work, because Sweden as a nation had lacked significant political tensions.
Bergman’s metaphysical concerns
The angst of alienation in his concerns are more relevant to the angst of sheer affluence
Bergman’s work was immune to the changes and corruption of mass taste.
(Sarris, March 27, 1967)
