The extraordinary and unparalleled career of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman can be divided into four periods: his apprenticeship (1946-55), his first flowering (1955-64), his maturity, during which he produced several masterpieces (1965-83) and post-retirement (1983- ). Throughout the years, the prolific director and writer also managed to stage numerous theatrical and television productions. Acknowledged as one of the masters of cinema, Bergman concentrated on themes of spiritual and psychological conflicts complemented by a distinctly intense and intimate visual style. As he matured as an artist, he shifted from an allegorical to a more personal cinema, often revisiting and elaborating on recurring images, subjects and techniques.
The middle child born to a Lutheran minister and his wife, Bergman became enamored of the theater at a young age. After seeing his first stage production, he built a puppet playhouse complete with revolving stage and elaborate lighting system where he and his sister would produce entertainments. Trips to the cinema with his older brother instilled a love for film. By the time he broke with his parents over their restrictions, Bergman had decided to pursue a career in theater and film.
As an undergraduate, Bergman began directing stage plays and in 1944 began his professional career at the Helsingborg City Theatre. Over the course of his long and distinguished theatrical career, he held similar posts at the Goteberg City Theatre and Malmo City Theatre, culminating in a three year (1963-66) stint as chief director at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. For the next thirty odd years, Bergman continued to stage acclaimed and innovative productions, several of which were presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
In 1943, Bergman began his film career when he was hired in the script department of Svensk Filmindustri. The following year, his first effort, "Torment" was filmed by director Alf Sjoberg. He was given his first chance to direct with "Kris/Crisis" (1946), adapted from a play by Dane Leck Fischer. In this film, the nascent stylings can be evidenced: There is a trace of latent sadism that runs through much of his work. Although it was not a box-office success, the film did launch his directing career. In the 16 films he directed in this apprenticeship period, one see Bergman struggling to master the medium, honing his craft, developing his trademark stylings and introducing themes that he would explore in detail in later masterpieces (e.g., "Summer Interlude" 1951 and "Monika" 1953, both studies of adolescent love and its disappointments). "Sawdust and Tinsel/The Naked Night" (1953) introduced the recurring theme of humiliation and the utter loneliness of the human condition.
With "Smiles of a Summer Night" (1955), Bergman entered into a period of international recognition which saw him experimenting and solidifying his technical prowess. "Smiles of a Summer Night" is an ironic comedy that examines sexual frustration, lost loves and debasement. Two year later, he won further acclaim with "The Seventh Seal", a medieval allegory in which a knight plays chess with Death. The silhouetted long shot of Death leading a group of peasants across the horizon has become one of the most famous images in modern cinema. That same year, Bergman wrote and directed the journey narrative "Wild Strawberries", considered one of his masterworks. Following the events of a day in the life of an aging professor (played by veteran director Victor Sjostrom), the film is a model of fluidity, with flashbacks and dream sequences creating a penetrating investigation of life and death, emphasizing the relationships between desire, loss and guilt contrasted with compassion, restitution and celebration. It is not accidental that these two films were made back-to-back; Bergman has stated he was exploring how an individual may find "peace and clarity of soul" and concluding a) that God is silent and b) the individual must examine the truth of his/her existence by careful consideration of both the past and the present. Bergman further explored religion symbolically in "The Magician" (1958) and overtly in "The Virgin Spring" (1960), which earned a Best Foreign Film Oscar. The former starred Max Von Sydow as a Christ-like occultist who appears to die and is resurrected while the latter. set in the Middle Ages, depicts the rape and murder of a virginal maiden and the avenging of the crime by her father father. God "speaks" to the farmer through a miraculous spring of water that spouts when the dead girl's body is moved.
Bergman gradually moved to a more intimate chamber style of filmmaking as the 60s progressed, beginning with his trilogy that intensely examined psychological and spiritual themes: "Through a Glass Darkly" (1961), in which love proves to be a virtue and is an example of God's presence. "Winter Light" (1962), in which love is depicted as cold and sterile but where there is possibility, and "The Silence" (1963), which depicted a world without love and therefore without God.
Over the next decade, Bergman moved to a deeper probing of the human psyche and a closer examination of male-female relationships. "Persona" (1966) was the first of his great films that examined how individuals play roles in their lives. By using actors or artists at the core of the story, he demonstrated his beliefs that there is a harrowing separateness between people, even in the most private relationships. "Persona" is about an actress who undergoes a psychological breakdown and refuses to speak. Gradually, she assumes the persona of the loquacious nurse caring for her, much in the same way she assumed the identities of the characters she portrayed onstage. "Hour of the Wolf" (1968) shows a painter gradually descending into madness despite or because of those around him. "Shame" (also 1968) depicts the breakdown of a marriage between a musician and his wife as war rages around them. He further explored the same themes on a grander scale in "The Ritual/The Rite" (1969).
The 70s saw Bergman at the height of his powers culminating in "Cries and Whispers" (1973), a Gothic period piece revolving around three sisters, one of whom, Agnes, is dying, and their maid. Each of the sisters is symbolic of a particular theological concept and the film uses overt religious symbolism. Agnes reclines in a cruciform position and seems to be resurrected. There is an exquisite shot of her held by the maid that invokes the Pieta that is a highlight of this masterwork. Bergman returned to exploring the relations between the sexes in the superb six-part TV drama "Scenes From a Marriage" (1973) which was edited for theatrical release. The well-acted film depicts in a straightforward manner the disintegration of a seemingly perfect marriage. An anomaly for the period was his excellent rendering of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" (1975). "Face to Face" (1976) was another TV drama reshaped for theatrical release that followed the psychological disintegration of a therapist who is driven to attempt suicide. After helming his first English-language film, the flawed melodrama "The Serpent's Egg" (1977), Bergman returned to surer ground with "The Autumn Sonata" (1978). A chamber piece about a woman (Liv Ullmann) and her neglectful pianist mother (Ingrid Bergman), it was a gem-like character study of an artist who could not love. In 1982, Bergman announced his intention to retire and his last feature (actually made for Swedish TV) was the autobiographical "Fanny and Alexander". Perhaps the director's most personal film, it was infused with memories of childhood.
While he has not directed a feature film, Bergman has remained busy directing for the stage (although in 1995 he announced plans to curtail that activity). Several of his TV projects ("After the Rehearsal" 1983; "In the Presence of a Clown" 1998) have received theatrical release. He has also scripted semi-autobiographical projects helmed by others, including the Bille August-directed "The Best Intentions" and "Sunday's Children" (both 1992), directed by his son Daniel. In 1998, he announced that Liv Ullmann would be directing his script "Faithless" (set to lens in 1999 for release in 2000), to star Lena Endre and Erland Josephson as Bergman.