SO often, when people find out about my love of cinema, I am immediately asked, as if it is an easy question, what is your favorite movie or who is your favorite director? People think just because you love movies you should instantly have an answer. Sadly that is not the case. It's a tough question, but, I've always tried to have a ready answer. Of all the great filmmakers in the world of cinema, I've never hidden the fact Ingmar Bergman probably means the most to me. Sure there are other great directors. Istvan Szabo, Miklos Jancso, Federico Fellini, Claude Chabrol, R.W. Fassbinder and Martin Scorsese but Bergman has always been at the top of my list.
Why Bergman? There is something about Bergman's work which has a way of getting inside of me. I've felt no filmmaker has been able to articulate their feelings on the human condition in such poetic ways since or before him.
Yes, many have described Bergman's style as bleak and depressing, so how can I say his work is poetic? Great art has a way of inspiring me. An argument can be made against Bergman's "Cries and Whispers" that it is really a depressing film. And you wouldn't get much of an argument out of me. But, because the film is so well made. And done with such craft, I can't help but become moved and inspired by what I see on-screen. Is it sad? Yes. But you have to remember that is how Bergman saw the world.
So if it is sad, why celebrate it? Well, Bergman's world view; we are all alone in the world, there is no God, life is meaningless, in certain ways mirror my own feelings. But even if they didn't, I still have to go back to the argument, great art inspires us. Even if I disagreed with Bergman's world view, I would have a very hard time arguing against his craft. His films are clearly the work of a man who had a love of cinema. He was able to take his viewers into a different world. What world in which we live in compares to the ones in "Persona", "Hour of the Wolf", or "The Rite"?
It is sad now that Bergman is gone. The cinematic giants are leaving us one by one. Gone are Bergman, Antonioni, Fellini, Truffaut and Tarkovsky. Luckily Bertolucci, Szabo, Chabrol, Allen, Scorsese and Godard are still with us. But with Bergman gone cinema seems kind of empty.
Here is a top ten list of my favorite Bergman films:
1. WILD STRAWBERRIES
2. PERSONA
3. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE
4. THE SEVENTH SEAL
5. CRIES AND WHISPERS
6. HOUR OF THE WOLF
7. FANNY AND ALEXANDER
8. THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
9. A PASSION OF ANNA
10. THE TOUCH
Why Bergman? There is something about Bergman's work which has a way of getting inside of me. I've felt no filmmaker has been able to articulate their feelings on the human condition in such poetic ways since or before him.
Yes, many have described Bergman's style as bleak and depressing, so how can I say his work is poetic? Great art has a way of inspiring me. An argument can be made against Bergman's "Cries and Whispers" that it is really a depressing film. And you wouldn't get much of an argument out of me. But, because the film is so well made. And done with such craft, I can't help but become moved and inspired by what I see on-screen. Is it sad? Yes. But you have to remember that is how Bergman saw the world.
So if it is sad, why celebrate it? Well, Bergman's world view; we are all alone in the world, there is no God, life is meaningless, in certain ways mirror my own feelings. But even if they didn't, I still have to go back to the argument, great art inspires us. Even if I disagreed with Bergman's world view, I would have a very hard time arguing against his craft. His films are clearly the work of a man who had a love of cinema. He was able to take his viewers into a different world. What world in which we live in compares to the ones in "Persona", "Hour of the Wolf", or "The Rite"?
It is sad now that Bergman is gone. The cinematic giants are leaving us one by one. Gone are Bergman, Antonioni, Fellini, Truffaut and Tarkovsky. Luckily Bertolucci, Szabo, Chabrol, Allen, Scorsese and Godard are still with us. But with Bergman gone cinema seems kind of empty.
Here is a top ten list of my favorite Bergman films:
1. WILD STRAWBERRIES
2. PERSONA
3. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE
4. THE SEVENTH SEAL
5. CRIES AND WHISPERS
6. HOUR OF THE WOLF
7. FANNY AND ALEXANDER
8. THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
9. A PASSION OF ANNA
10. THE TOUCH
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