WHO is he?
Widely celebrated
Swedish film and theatre director, scenarist and producer who made over
60 feature and television movies in a 60-year career spanning the 1940s
and the 2000s. Three of his films — The Virgin Spring (1960), Through A Glass Darkly (1961) and Fanny and Alexander (1983) — won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film while Wild Strawberries (1957) took away the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival.
WHAT are his films about?
Themes
Bergman
hailed from a conservative Protestant background and, consequently,
religious Faith, Doubt and godlessness are key elements of his oeuvre.
Protagonists of his films seek the solace of God’s presence, cope with
His silence or downright see Him as a force of hatred. Despite this
strong Christian influence, Bergman’s cinema remains deeply existential
and probes the condition of man in a godless universe. They also deal
with sexuality as a means of coping with life’s voids.
Style
It
would not be far from the truth to say that Bergman’s cinema is a
cinema of human faces. Like Carl Dreyer or G. Aravindan, Bergman, along
with master cinematographer Sven Nykvist, studied the texture of the
human face, its contours, its geography and the play of light on it.
Numerous extreme close-ups, a predominantly indoor setting, a small set
of ace stock actors, lack of conventional musical soundtrack, a distinct
lack of humour and a relentlessly bleak tone are some of the major
characteristics of his films.
Why is he of interest?
Among
the most revered and groundbreaking of film directors in the history of
the medium, Bergman is cited to be a vital influence by a plethora of
current-day filmmakers. His cinematic chamber dramas — stories that
unfold within confined spaces with a handful of actors — can be seen as a
direct inspiration for the Berlin School filmmakers. For better or
worse, Bergman’s intense body of work has been endlessly cited, adapted,
imitated and parodied the world over.
WHERE to discover him?
Despite not being among the canonical Bergman films, Winter Light (1963)
is perhaps the director’s greatest achievement and the most coherent
articulation of all his religious and existential preoccupations.
Through the character of the doubtful priest Tomas (Gunnar Björnstrand),
the film explores the impossibility and the necessity of Faith in an
increasingly strange, hostile world.
Courtesy- http://www.thehindu.com
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