Ingmar Bergman credited as playing...
Self
- [English subtitled version]
- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: The demons don't like fresh air. What they like best is if you stay in bed with cold feet.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: I always go for a walk after breakfast. Then I sit down, always at a fixed time, and write for three hours. Then, at three p.m., I go to my cinema. For a person as disorganized as I am, it's absolutely vital to have these strict routines.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: Ever since my childhood, we had a grandfather clock like this at home. And as there's so much silence here, it's wonderful to sit here, for example, at night and hear it ticking. You'll know form my films that I've always had a weakness for ticking clocks.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: I was a keen crier when I was a child and a keen cuddler. The one person whom I wanted to be loved and cuddled by was Mother. I besieged my mother with caresses. And she pushed me away. She even went to a pediatrician with me, as she thought I was a worry, in that I cried a lot and needed, wanted to be stroked and caressed. The doctor took all this seriously and said that she had to wean the boy off such behavior, as she had to remember that he was not a girl and must be brought up to be a boy - a young man.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: Father - and I've inherited this - was very sensitive to loud noises. What's more, he bottled up a terrible rage. At times, he was unable to contain his rage and we were beaten a great deal.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: [recalling a childhood memory] Once, someone thought it'd be fun to lock me in the morgue. I remember it as a terrifying experience. I can still recall how horribly frightened I was. There was a young woman lying there. She had a sheet over her, but her face was exposed. And I walked round her and looked at her. They hadn't closed her eyes fully and all of a sudden I noticed that she was watching me. I stood there screaming and hammering on the door. Someone eventually let me out, but I still sometimes have dreams about it.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: I loved going to Grandma's. I loved going to that big old fashioned apartment which had so many - which was so secretive. I think Grandma's apartment was partly transferred to "Fanny and Alexander".
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: When I directed my first film here, all I did was shout and quarrel. I didn't know anything. I was so lacking in self-confidence. At the same time, Victor Sjöström came to work here. He had been in Britain for a long time. Victor Sjöström was put on the staff as the artistic director at Filmstaden. He was told everyone was complaining about bloody Bergman.
- [English subtitled version]
- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: [referring to Victor Sjöström] He said, "I am told they're quarreling with you, Mr. Bergman. But, they're not the quarrelers, it's you who are! And I think we should have a little chat. I think we should have a chat." He said, as he shook me. People gathered at the windows to see me getting told off. And then we must have walked back and forth for an hour. He gave me my first real lesson in how to make films and, above all, in how to behave towards the people you're working with and towards the actors.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: It's extraordinary, I didn't even know that the film was being shown at Cannes. I had no idea. I remember I was sitting on the toilet that morning reading the "Svenska Dagbladet" daily paper. I suddenly was the headline: "Swedish Success in Cannes." "What fun!" I thought. Then I saw it was "Smiles of a Summer Night." They had sent it there without asking me. They never asked one in those days. So, I flew down to Cannes.
- [English subtitled version]
- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: Since the success of "Smiles of a Summer Night," nobody has interfered with my work. I have been able to do as I wished. It's unfortunate, in a way, that there's not been anybody with whom to discuss my scripts. I would really like to have someone within the profession, with whom I could discuss my work, not even - Even when the film is complete, there is nobody I can show it to that will give me their honest opinion and say what they think. The rest is silence.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: The core of that film is an insane fear of death. I was in a state of - It was the most appalling suffering. Well, suffering - It was a torment for me. I was terribly afraid of death. Anything to do with death was horrifying. Out of that horror and the business of the atom bomb and that sort of thing, this story arose about the plague and the journey back. And then of course there was the whole question posed by religion of "Is there a God? Is there no God at all?" "The Seventh Seal" has no answer to that question.
- [English subtitled version]
- Marie Nyreröd, Herself: When I looked through your parents' photo album, I saw many spots reminiscent of scenes in "Wild Strawberries."
- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: I expect you did.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: All the time you fetch things from a gigantic store of objects, of props, of things and of people. They often present themselves voluntarily and say they wish to participate.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: I experience things. Especially here when there's a full moon and the silence is total. Remember, I live alone in this house, which is fifty-six meters long. I have trouble sleeping so I walk back and forth. The light of the moon shines in here - of the full moon. It is like strangely-filtered daylight. It is incredibly intense and casts shadows. And I feel very strongly that I am surrounded by other realities. I feel surrounded by - by entities who might wish to tell me things. I don't know. It's not superstition. It's a fact. That's how it is.
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- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: This is where we did our first Fårö film: "Through the Glass Darkly." It was so fantastic. It was a rainy, cold and raw April day.
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- Marie Nyreröd, Herself: Where have you brought us now?
- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: To a place which, even back then, we thought was magical. And it always has been magical to me. Suddenly we found ourselves here and decided that here and nowhere else, was where we'd film "Persona." All the way here, and then on, on, up there. It was this remarkable proximity to the sea. The sound was very disturbing at times. But, to the actors and to me it was highly evocative.
- [English subtitled version]
- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: "Persona" is a great film and I'm glad I was able to make it.
- Marie Nyreröd, Herself: I can't help wondering when I see the three of you - A few years before, you'd been living with Bibi Andersson. And after the film you start living with Liv. What's that all about? And what did it mean for the filming?
- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: It's - well, now - answer that one if you can!
- [English subtitled version]
- Marie Nyreröd, Herself: [about filming "Persona", living with one of its female stars, Bibi Andersson, before filming, and its other female star, Liv Ullmann, after filming] You were forty-seven then.
- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: Was I? But I usually say that I left puberty when I was fifty-eight.
- [English subtitled version]
- Ingmar Bergman, Himself: Theater and film are incontrovertibly two forms of work both of which are immensely erotically charged. The director tries to be perfect, as a person, as an artist - in every way, one hundred percent. And the actors and actresses also try to be perfect. And this can easily give rise to incredibly pleasurable tensions.
