2 DIRECTORS DEAD

Original poster for Persona,
Purchased in 1966, at movie theater in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) has died at age 89.
He died Monday morning, July 30th 2007, at his home on the island of Fårö.

"Film as dream, film as music. No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul. A little twitch in our optic nerve, a shock effect: twenty-four illuminated frames in a second, darkness in between, the optic nerve incapable of registering darkness. At the editing table, when I run the trip of film through, frame by frame, I still feel that dizzy sense of magic of my childhood: in the darkness of the wardrobe, I slowly wind one frame after another, see almost imperceptible changes, wind faster - a movement." (Ingmar Bergman, The Magical Lantern, 1987)

See BBC tribute to Bergman HERE.
See more about Bergman at Find a Grave

I saw my first Bergman film in 1960 while attending Swain School of Design, in New Bedford. it was Sawdust aned Tinsel (1959) retitled Naked Night at the local "adult cinema" where I viewed it. During the week this small movie theater, in a seedy section of the city, exhibited "adult" films (mostly movies of nudists, strip-tease, and the like) but on one night a week showed "foreign" films by Bergman, Fellini, etc.. with an emphasis on any nudity in these films. Great news!!, Sawdust and Tinsel is to be re-released by Criterion Collection.

Bergman & Sven Nykvist, cameramen [AFP]



MY FAVORITE BERGMAN FILMS INCLUDE:

The Early Films:


Monika (1952)
more



Sawdust and Tinsel (1953)
aka The Naked Night
aka Sunset of a Clown



The Seventh Seal (1957)
trailer



Wild Strawberries (1957)










The Magician (1958)

aka The Face

Middle Period Films:



The Silence (1963)
more




Persona (1966)
Bergman: Face to Face | more
Susan Sontag on Persona


Shame (1968)



Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Bergmanorama


The Passion of Anna (1969)
Bergmanorama

The Later Films:



Cries and Whispers (1972)
Bergmanorama



Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
Bergmanorama


Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Bergmanorama



BLOGS:

• Criterion Collection Blog | Criterion Forum
• Film Alert
• Flickhead
• I'm in a Jess Franco State of Mind
• Stale Popcorn
  

LINKS:

• Ingmar Bergman Face to Face
• Face to Face: the films
  
• Bright Lights Film Journal
• Senses of Cinema | Ingmar Bergman
• Bergmanorama | The Films
• Bergman Lets Death Checkmate Him
• An Island of His Mind by Andrew Sarris
• Laterna magica | galeria
  
• LiveJournal: Bergman
• Ingmar Bergman Gallleri
  
• Cinematheque | Ingmar Bergman
• Az embereelet utjanak vegen
• Cinencuentro
  
• They Shoot Pictures
• Sweden.se
  
• Jonathan Rosenbaum's 1000 Essential Films

Anders Ek in Sawdust & Tinsel

"Sawdust and Tinsel opens with a flashback story about the clown Frost and his wife Alma. Their story sometimes parallels and sometimes counterpoints the story of Albert and Anne which follows. Albert is the owner of a small, tawdry circus, and Anne, his mistress is a horseback rider in the circus." - Bergmanorama
"...The drama had its origin in a dream. I depicted the dream in the flashback about Frost and Alma [...]. To express it in musical terms, one could say the main theme is the episode with Frost and Alma. There follows, within an undivided time frame, a number of tematic variations of erotics and humiliation in ever-changing combination." Ingmar Bergman, ingmarbergman.se (more | more)

Michelangelo Antonioni dead at 94

On Monday, July 30th, it was Ingmar Bergman.



then on Tuesday, July 31th, Michelangelo Antonioni.

LINKS:

• Senses of Cinema: Antonioni