Being a Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) does not belong to the national film movements like French New Wave and Italian Neorealism. He is quite alone but rather successful to represent a Swedish sound in European art cinema, as he was adopted by Cahiers du Cinema as an auteur in 1956[1] and Godard has written an article of “Bergmanorama” to celebrate him. With his forty-five feature films in six decades, it is impossible to tell that all his films stick to one united style or theme; yet there are still some Bergmanesque signs to be traced. In Hess’s “La Politique des Auteurs (Part One)”, he asserts that “the director becomes the camera which records his perceptions” who expresses himself or herself and presents the “moral and spiritual struggles” in the characters’ “vie interieur” through the “visual means of mise-en-scène”. These struggles, regarded as the “basic world view of and at the heart of films”, are to be revealed and freed by spectators[2]. According to these rules, this essay will argue that Bergman is an auteur instead of a metteur en scène with his consistent exploration on the themes of the inwardness and dualism of human minds, indicated by his emphasis on faces, nature and a theatrical and simplistic setting in terms of mise en scène. His three films, Wild Strawberries (Swedish: Smultronstället, 1957), Persona (1966) and Hour of the Wolf (Swedish: Vargtimmen, 1968),will be discussed to demonstrate his cinematic identities.
From the level of narrative, the synchronisation of events in different times and spaces could be found in all three films. Wild Strawberries mixes the present and the past of Isak’s life through his dreams in his journey to imply the future death of a prestigious aging professor; in Persona and Hour of the Wolf, the present, the past through memories, and dreams with imagination are blended together to emphasise the bizarre characteristics and psyche. In Persona, a nurse, Alma, takes care of a mute actress, Elisabet, who live together in a seaside cottage owned by the doctor. They become friends at first, mainly due to Alma’s eloquence and confession of her sex experience; after she reveals that Elisabet seems to make fun of her, they have quarrels and torture each other. With their faces melting together in a dreamlike image, it seems that their personae also melt together. As to Hour of the Wolf, the protagonist Johan Borg is an extremely introverted artist who lives with his wife Alma on an isolated island. He severely suffers from insomnia and frightening hallucinations and is consequently killed by ghosts in his dream.
The close-up shots of faces and the natural landscape are repeatedly utilised which, according to Kovacs, are the two typical elements in modern Bergman films to intensify the mental status of the characters and the tension between them[3]. In Persona and Hour of the Wolf, there are quite a few extreme close-up shots of the characters’ faces, which seem grotesque considering their speech and facial expression directly towards the camera and their unstable mental state. The climax of Persona appears when half of Alma’s and Elisabet’s face are dissolved to form one face after two sequences about Elisabet’s story each demonstrating either of their faces. When Johan is killed in Hour of the Wolf, only the faces of each ghost are shown with close-up shots, which may imply that the ghosts do not have tangible and authentic bodies but only souls reflected through their faces. Although in Wild Strawberries there are far fewer shots of merely human faces, the significance of visage is still intensified through Sara’s mirror reflecting Borg’s aged and embarrassed face. As the mere and detailed shots of faces are efficacious to convey every emotion, a minimalist style with great power is attributed to this simplistic framing and to the characters’ directness and frankness to confess themselves.
In terms of the landscape, Kovacs argues that Bergman “was one of the modern era’s emblematic creators of bare landscapes”, who represents the nature as fertile and mysterious[4]. In Wild Strawberries, there are gardens, bushes, trees, flowers and lakes, etc. in Borg’s dreams except his first one. Both his first love Sara and his wife appear among the bushes, and they have talks in nature instead of indoor. In the end, Borg sees his father fishing and his mother reading by the lake, which implies a condition of serenity. In Persona and Hour of the Wolf, although there are more indoor scenes than outdoor ones, the main settings are both seaside cottages on a desolate island with bare rocks and empty seashore, where misfortune happens to the protagonists. As Godard regards Bergman as “the last great Romantic”[5], the interaction between nature and characters adds a sense of Romanticism to his exploration on human nature and imply the fate of death which is a common topic in Romantic literature. In addition, nature in Bergman’s films is closely related to dreams, secrets and a sense of isolation that contribute to the characters’ psychological reflection or abnormality. In Kovacs’s words, “a desolate environment is truly a projection of the characters’ state of mind”[6], which is exactly the case for Persona and Hour of the Wolf where Elisabet and Johan are as cold and indifferent as the cold surroundings; yet the correlation between the environment and the state of mind could also be used to interpret Borg’s psychological shift in Wild Strawberries, as he becomes warmer and more considerate after being surrounded by the flourishing trees and plants both in his dreams and in reality.
Apart from the outdoor natural backgrounds, Bergman’s indoor settings share a theatrical style which is either extremely simplistic, exemplified by the seaside cottages in Persona and Hour of the Wolf, or extremely complicated, shown as the bourgeois-style interior scenes in Wild Strawberries. Generally, the outdoor and natural scenes tend to be brighter than the indoor ones. Dazzeling whites of the exterior sequences are sharply contrasted with the dark interiors exemplified by the home of Isak’s mother’s and the Borgs’ dark cottage with only one candle lit in Hour of the Wolf, registering the dual perceptions of the “life-affirming” and “life-denying”[7]. Yet nearly all the dream and illusion sequences seem quite bright, implying Bergman’s penchant for Freudian psychoanalysis and his trust in sub-consciousness with more authenticity of human minds. Harcourt comments Bergman as “a most inward director”[8], and I would argue that this inwardness is embodied in the shared coldness of his characters. Isak Borg, his son Evald Borg and his mother in Wild Strawberries are all cold and reluctant to show warmth even to their intimate family members. They seem unable to care for others and expose their inner selves. In other words, their inwardness is achieved by their protection and even obscurity of their true thoughts. Similarly, Elisabet in Persona and Johan Borg in Hour of the Wolf also belong to the group of cold characters who tend not to talk or express themselves and therefore torture both themselves and their partners both named Alma. In this way, Bergman’s inward trait is demonstrated in his depiction of these mute and closed characters, and meanwhile, in his implicit guidance for the spectators to explore these sealed human minds. Yet it is difficult to determine whether the level of sub-consciousness in the form of dreams or hallucinations under their speechlessness is a medium of life or death, as Isak Borg reminisces about his youth and first love and gains vitality from his journey in dream while Johan Borg is killed by ghosts probably generated by his desires and hallucinations. It is even unknown what happens to Elisabet in the end since she just disappears and seems to return to the theatre implied by the shot of her turning her head which has been used before. In this sense, the dualism of life and death with unknowns is formed in the interaction of sub-consciousness and reality.
Bergman tends to use “doubling time-image”[9] to reflect the reality in an indirect way, either through dreams or through memories. In Wild Strawberries, Isak’s aging and death are foreboded by the passing coffin and the clock without hands in his first dream. At the end of the film, it is his sleep with his last dream that is shown instead of his death. The relationship of the young Sara between Isak and his cousin in the past is also reflected on that of the hitchhiker Sara in the present, thus the double Saras indicate “a journey in the present that absorbs the past”[10]. In Persona, the reality and the dreams are weaved together that it is difficult to distinguish them. The murmuring “Nothing” from Elisabet seems to be heard in Alma’s dream, and Elisabet returns to the theatre or disappears in the end. She becomes “nothing” for Alma in the reality afterwards, yet her influence of her persona in the dream has changed Alma who raises her fringes just as how Elisabet did in her dream. Johan Borg’s meetings with ghosts in Hour of the Wolf seem to happen in a folded space of reality and illusion as the ghosts should not appear in reality, but he is truly killed by them. His memory of killing a boy at the cliff seems to be mixed with imagination and dream, as the boy behaves in a rather weird way and the killing is almost unreasonable. The delineated narrative is thus achieved by the disturbance of illogical dreams and memories, generated by “the disturbed mind of a bourgeois subject” who is discrete and imaginary, allowing for an exploration in moving image and a form of cinematic poetry named by Pasolini[11]. It could be argued that not only the narrative but also the reality of the characters is disturbed by mental status and psyche, which forms what Wood names as “neurotic resistance” including an assertion of an intolerable life and “the resistance to any concept of ideology”[12]. This seems to be an ultimate denial of life, yet with all the open endings in his three films, it is arguable whether he has left some space for alternatives.
There are duo characters to be found in Bergman’s films, who are either reflecting each other like Isak’s first love Sara and the hitchhiker Sara, or serve as opposite characters but with potential similarities, like Elisabet and Alma whose faces dissolve together and Johan and Alma evidenced by Alma’s saying to become like her husband because of her love. This dualism of characters is often utilised as a metaphor for dualism of life and death and the latent unity of these opposite themes. The two Saras almost share similar personalities and the relationship between two men and the hitchhiker Sara seems to extend the life of the first love Sara. The Borg couple in Hour of the Wolf are quite different, with Alma being sincere, authentic and a bit naïve and Johan being silent, doubtful and disturbed by ghosts. Similarly in Persona, Alma, the nurse, is energetic and Elisabet, the patient, is silent and “vampirish”[13]. The latter two sets of dualistic characters are fairly explicit and contrasted, and the silent ones, Elisabet and Johan, disappear or die in the end. Even Isak Borg in Wild Strawberries who has sharp contrast with the energetic hitchhiker (played by the same actress of Sara) becomes more open and warmer, he still approaches his death due to his old age.
Among the duos, Bergman tends to put the emphasis on the silent and lonely characters of Isak, Elisabet and Johan who share a mistrust of intellect, which makes them “inseparable from their human limitations”[14]. Being “high priests of artistic culture” and “aristocrats of the spirit”[15], Elisabet and Johan are silently struggling with their hatred in everyday banality and their impotency to defeat this banality through their identity as artists. This ambivalence forces them to live, but emotionally lonely. Kovács takes this demonstration of lonely artists as Bergman’s reflection on “the loneliness of the filmmaker-auteur” and the emptiness of banal everyday life compared to the glamorous artistic life[16]. Similarly, Isak also experiences the loneliness despite his profession as a scholar, with the same trait reflected on his mother and his son. Yet he is luckier to be able to embrace the banality of life at the end after reminiscing his youth and realising that even the prize awarding ceremony is unworthy. As a result, Bergman’s characters are not like real people, but tend to be representatives of a group of people with shared personalities and symbols of the values Bergman plans to convey in his films. Thus, it is not unexpected that Harcourt would criticise that Bergman’s dualism might be too extreme and psychologically unconvincing and make the incomplete characters to be only “characters”[17]. Yet this is understandable and acceptable if regarding his films and characters as allegorical discussions on human life and human nature, and the polarity of the personalities still maintains the complexity of the characters.
Beyond the human characters, there are “demonic forces” incarnated in Bergman’s films[18]. In Hour of the Wolf, the demons are tangible as the ghosts who kill Johan in the end; while in Persona and Wild Strawberries, they are invisible and nuanced. Elisabet might manifest, to some degree, this demonic force as she manipulates Alma to confess and seems to seize the spirits of innocence and kindness from her, yet she herself is also a victim of this force to be mute. Isak and his family’s coldness and indifference could also be a sort of demonic force, and the couple getting a short free ride between whom the husband keeps criticising and verbally abusing the wife are another manifestation. As Isak, Elisabet and Johan are the most related to demonic forces in each of the three films, they are interpreted as incubators of these forces that threaten the civilisation[19]. The atmosphere of this Gothic, demonic abstract is hinted by the duo characters and their faces, the completely white or black backdrops, and the isolated geography, all of which contribute to the whole of Bergman’s identifiable style. By concealing the demons beneath or within the depiction of secular life, Orr argues that according to Bergman, “demonic disorder equals secular malaise”[20], thus becomes haunting and unsolvable in life. This is a religious and philosophical explanation of Bergman’s exploration in human traits, which discusses upon almost the same representations of Freudian psychoanalysis, but is subtlety correlated to a Romantic perspective referring to the Gothic and demons.
To conclude, Bergman as an auteur director is consistent to explore the inner world of human beings which contains their emotions, memories and imagination. The outdoor settings of nature can reveal characters’ mental status and add a sense of Romanticism, and the interiority tends to be set in a simplistic and theatrical way thus emphasising the personalities of the characters. The close-up shots of their faces are shocking as it serves as an approach of confession and revelation. The duos of similar or opposite characters are utilised to compare the human traits of coldness and warmness, indifference and kindness, silence and talkativeness, etc. and more emphases are placed on the former ones. The cold and silent characters tend to be more artistic or intelligent and show dominance in relationships, yet their spiritual limitations, impotence and hidden “demonic forces” are explored and revealed. With a penchant to weave dreams and hallucinations into the narrative, Bergman shows interest in Freudian psychoanalysis and enables the process of watching his films as a self-reflexive exploration for the audience.
[1] Birgitta Steene, “About Bergman: Some Critical Responses to His Films,” Cinema Journal 13, no. 2 (1974): 1, https://doi.org/10.2307/1225246.
[2] John Hess, “La Politique des Auteurs (Part One) World View as Aesthetics,” Jump Cut, no. 1 (1974): 19–22, accessed December 20, 2019, https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC01folder/auturism1.html.
[3] András Bálint Kovács, Screening Modernism: European Art Cinema, 1950-1980 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 166–67.
[4] Kovács, 163.
[5] Jean-Luc Godard, “Bergmanorama,” in Godard on Godard: Critical Writings, ed. Tom Milne and Jean Narboni, trans. Tom Milne (London: Da Capo, 1972), 76.
[6] Kovács, Screening Modernism: European Art Cinema, 1950-1980, 165.
[7] Peter Harcourt, Six European Directors: Essays on the Meaning of Film Style (Harmondsworth, England; Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1974), 171.
[8] Harcourt, 171.
[9] John Orr, The Demons of Modernity: Ingmar Bergman and the European Cinema (New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2014), 53.
[10] Orr, 56.
[11] Orr, 56; Pier Paolo Pasolini, “The Cinema of Poetry,” in Movies and Methods. Vol. 1, ed. Bill Nichols (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), 550.
[12] Robin Wood, “Responsibilities of a Gay Film Critic,” Film Comment 14, no. 1 (1978): 16.
[13] Harcourt, Six European Directors, 172.
[14] Harcourt, 174.
[15] Orr, The Demons of Modernity, 25.
[16] Kovács, Screening Modernism: European Art Cinema, 1950-1980, 340–46.
[17] Harcourt, Six European Directors, 171.
[18] Orr, The Demons of Modernity, 25.
[19] Orr, 26.
[20] Orr, 26.
Bibliography
Godard, Jean-Luc. “Bergmanorama.” In Godard on Godard: Critical Writings, edited by Tom Milne and Jean Narboni, translated by Tom Milne, 75–80. London: Da Capo, 1972.
Harcourt, Peter. Six European Directors: Essays on the Meaning of Film Style. Harmondsworth, England; Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1974.
Hess, John. “La Politique des Auteurs (Part One) World View as Aesthetics.” Jump Cut, no. 1 (1974): 19–22. Accessed December 20, 2019. https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC01folder/auturism1.html.
Kovács, András Bálint. Screening Modernism: European Art Cinema, 1950-1980. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Orr, John. The Demons of Modernity: Ingmar Bergman and the European Cinema. New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2014.
Pasolini, Pier Paolo. “The Cinema of Poetry.” In Movies and Methods. Vol. 1, edited by Bill Nichols, 542–58. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.
Steene, Birgitta. “About Bergman: Some Critical Responses to His Films.” Cinema Journal 13, no. 2 (1974): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.2307/1225246.
Wood, Robin. “Responsibilities of a Gay Film Critic.” Film Comment 14, no. 1 (1978): 12–17.
Filmography
Wild Strawberries. Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Sweden: Svensk Filmindustri (SF), 1957.
Persona. Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Sweden: American International Pictures (AIP), 1966.
Hour of the Wolf. Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Sweden: Svensk Filmindustri (SF), 1968.
Maggie 叶芷灵 