Else Fisher
Who was Ingmar Bergman 's spouse from Mar 1943 to 1945?
Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman ( 14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007 ) was a Swedish film director , screenwriter , and producer . Considered to be among the most accomplished and influential filmmakers of all time , Bergmans films include Smiles of a Summer Night ( 1955 ) , The Seventh Seal ( 1957 ) , The Silence ( 1963 ) , Wild Strawberries ( 1957 ) , Persona ( 1966 ) , Cries and Whispers ( 1972 ) , Scenes from a Marriage ( 1973 ) , and Fanny and Alexander ( 1982 ) ; the last two exist in extended television versions . Bergman directed over sixty films and documentaries for cinematic release and for television screenings , most of which he also wrote . His theatrical career continued in parallel and included periods as Leading Director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm and of the Residenztheater in Munich . He also directed over 170 plays . He eventually forged a creative partnership with his cinematographers Gunnar Fischer and Sven Nykvist . Among his company of actors were Harriet Andersson , Bibi Andersson , Liv Ullmann , Gunnar Björnstrand , Erland Josephson , Ingrid Thulin , and Max von Sydow . Most of his films were set in Sweden , and many films from Through a Glass Darkly ( 1961 ) onward were filmed on the island of Fårö . Philip French referred to Bergman as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century .. . he found in literature and the performing arts a way of both recreating and questioning the human condition . Director Martin Scorsese commented : If you were alive in the 50s and the 60s and of a certain age , a teenager on your way to becoming an adult , and you wanted to make movies , I dont see how you couldnt be influenced by Bergman ...Its impossible to overestimate the effect that those films had on people . Bergman was ranked 7th in directors poll on Sight & Sounds 2002 list of The Greatest Directors of All Time . Biography . Early life . Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born on 14 July 1918 in Uppsala , Sweden , the son of Erik Bergman , a Lutheran minister and later chaplain to the King of Sweden , and Karin ( née Åkerblom ) , a nurse who also had Walloon ancestors . He grew up with his older brother Dag and sister Margareta surrounded by religious imagery and discussion . His father was a conservative parish minister with strict ideas of parenting . Ingmar was locked up in dark closets for infractions such as wetting himself . While father preached away in the pulpit and the congregation prayed , sang , or listened , Ingmar wrote in his autobiography Laterna Magica , I devoted my interest to the churchs mysterious world of low arches , thick walls , the smell of eternity , the coloured sunlight quivering above the strangest vegetation of medieval paintings and carved figures on ceilings and walls . There was everything that ones imagination could desire—angels , saints , dragons , prophets , devils , humans .. . Although raised in a devout Lutheran household , Bergman later stated that he lost his faith when aged eight , and only came to terms with this fact while making Winter Light in 1962 . His interest in theatre and film began early : At the age of nine , he traded a set of tin soldiers for a magic lantern , a possession that altered the course of his life . Within a year , he had created , by playing with this toy , a private world in which he felt completely at home , he recalled . He fashioned his own scenery , marionettes , and lighting effects and gave puppet productions of Strindberg plays in which he spoke all the parts . Bergman attended Palmgrens School as a teenager . His school years were unhappy , and he remembered them unfavourably in later years . In a 1944 letter concerning the film Torment ( sometimes known as Frenzy ) , which sparked debate on the condition of Swedish high schools ( and which Bergman had written ) , the schools principal Henning Håkanson wrote , among other things , that Bergman had been a problem child . Bergman wrote in a response that he had strongly disliked the emphasis on homework and testing in his formal schooling . In 1934 , aged 16 , he was sent to Germany to spend the summer holidays with family friends . He attended a Nazi rally in Weimar at which he saw Adolf Hitler . He later wrote in Laterna Magica ( The Magic Lantern ) about the visit to Germany , describing how the German family had put a portrait of Hitler on the wall by his bed , and that for many years , I was on Hitlers side , delighted by his success and saddened by his defeats . Bergman commented that Hitler was unbelievably charismatic . He electrified the crowd . .. . The Nazism I had seen seemed fun and youthful . Bergman did two five-month stretches in Sweden of mandatory military service . Bergman enrolled at Stockholm University College ( later renamed Stockholm University ) in 1937 , to study art and literature . He spent most of his time involved in student theatre and became a genuine movie addict . At the same time , a romantic involvement led to a physical confrontation with his father which resulted in a break in their relationship which lasted for many years . Although he did not graduate from the university , he wrote a number of plays and an opera , and became an assistant director at a local theatre . In 1942 , he was given the opportunity to direct one of his own scripts , Caspars Death . The play was seen by members of Svensk Filmindustri , which then offered Bergman a position working on scripts . He married Else Fisher in 1943 . Film career until 1975 . Bergmans film career began in 1941 with his work rewriting scripts , but his first major accomplishment was in 1944 when he wrote the screenplay for Torment ( a.k.a . Frenzy ) ( Hets ) , a film directed by Alf Sjöberg . Along with writing the screenplay , he was also appointed assistant director of the film . In his second autobiographical book , Images : My Life in Film , Bergman describes the filming of the exteriors as his actual film directorial debut . The film sparked debate on Swedish formal education . When Henning Håkanson ( the principal of the high school Bergman had attended ) wrote a letter following the films release , Bergman , according to scholar Frank Gado , disparaged in a response what he viewed as Håkansons implication that students who did not fit some arbitrary prescription of worthiness deserved the systems cruel neglect . Bergman also stated in the letter that he hated school as a principle , as a system and as an institution . And as such I have definitely not wanted to criticize my own school , but all schools . The international success of this film led to Bergmans first opportunity to direct a year later . During the next ten years he wrote and directed more than a dozen films , including Prison ( Fängelse ) in 1949 , as well as Sawdust and Tinsel ( Gycklarnas afton ) and Summer with Monika ( Sommaren med Monika ) , both released in 1953 . Bergman first achieved worldwide success with Smiles of a Summer Night ( Sommarnattens leende , 1955 ) , which won for Best poetic humour and was nominated for the Palme dOr at Cannes the following year . This was followed by The Seventh Seal ( Det sjunde inseglet ) and Wild Strawberries ( Smultronstället ) , released in Sweden ten months apart in 1957 . The Seventh Seal won a special jury prize and was nominated for the Palme dOr at Cannes , and Wild Strawberries won numerous awards for Bergman and its star , Victor Sjöström . Bergman continued to be productive for the next two decades . From the early 1960s , he spent much of his life on the island of Fårö , where he made several films . In the early 1960s he directed three films that explored the theme of faith and doubt in God , Through a Glass Darkly ( Såsom i en Spegel , 1961 ) , Winter Light ( Nattvardsgästerna , 1962 ) , and The Silence ( Tystnaden , 1963 ) . Critics created the notion that the common themes in these three films made them a trilogy or cinematic triptych . Bergman initially responded that he did not plan these three films as a trilogy and that he could not see any common motifs in them , but he later seemed to adopt the notion , with some equivocation . His parody of the films of Federico Fellini , All These Women ( För att inte tala om alla dessa kvinnor ) was released in 1964 . Largely a two-hander with Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann , Persona ( 1966 ) is a film that Bergman himself considered one of his most important works . While the highly experimental film won few awards , it has been considered his masterpiece . Other films of the period include The Virgin Spring ( Jungfrukällan , 1960 ) , Hour of the Wolf ( Vargtimmen , 1968 ) , Shame ( Skammen , 1968 ) and The Passion of Anna ( En Passion , 1969 ) . With his cinematographer Sven Nykvist , Bergman made use of a crimson color scheme for Cries and Whispers ( 1972 ) , which received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture . He also produced extensively for Swedish television at this time . Two works of note were Scenes from a Marriage ( Scener ur ett äktenskap , 1973 ) and The Magic Flute ( Trollflöjten , 1975 ) . Tax evasion charges in 1976 . On 30 January 1976 , while rehearsing August Strindbergs The Dance of Death at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm , he was arrested by two plainclothes police officers and charged with income tax evasion . The impact of the event on Bergman was devastating . He suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of the humiliation , and was hospitalised in a state of deep depression . The investigation was focused on an alleged 1970 transaction of 500,000 Swedish kronor ( SEK ) between Bergmans Swedish company Cinematograf and its Swiss subsidiary Persona , an entity that was mainly used for the paying of salaries to foreign actors . Bergman dissolved Persona in 1974 after having been notified by the Swedish Central Bank and subsequently reported the income . On 23 March 1976 , the special prosecutor Anders Nordenadler dropped the charges against Bergman , saying that the alleged crime had no legal basis , saying it would be like bringing charges against a person who has stolen his own car , thinking it was someone elses . Director General Gösta Ekman , chief of the Swedish Internal Revenue Service , defended the failed investigation , saying that the investigation was dealing with important legal material and that Bergman was treated just like any other suspect . He expressed regret that Bergman had left the country , hoping that Bergman was a stronger person now when the investigation had shown that he had not done any wrong . Although the charges were dropped , Bergman became disconsolate , fearing he would never again return to directing . Despite pleas by the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme , high public figures , and leaders of the film industry , he vowed never to work in Sweden again . He closed down his studio on the island of Fårö , suspended two announced film projects , and went into self-imposed exile in Munich , Germany . Harry Schein , director of the Swedish Film Institute , estimated the immediate damage as ten million SEK ( kronor ) and hundreds of jobs lost . Aftermath following arrest . Bergman then briefly considered the possibility of working in America ; his next film , The Serpents Egg ( 1977 ) was a German-U.S . production and his second English-language film ( the first being The Touch , 1971 ) . This was followed by a British-Norwegian co-production , Autumn Sonata ( Höstsonaten , 1978 ) starring Ingrid Bergman ( no relation ) , and From the Life of the Marionettes ( Aus dem Leben der Marionetten , 1980 ) which was a British-German co-production . He temporarily returned to his homeland to direct Fanny and Alexander ( Fanny och Alexander , 1982 ) . Bergman stated that the film would be his last , and that afterwards he would focus on directing theatre . After that he wrote several film scripts and directed a number of television specials . As with previous work for television , some of these productions were later theatrically released . The last such work was Saraband ( 2003 ) , a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage and directed by Bergman when he was 84 years old . Although he continued to operate from Munich , by mid-1978 Bergman had overcome some of his bitterness toward the Swedish government . In July of that year he visited Sweden , celebrating his sixtieth birthday on the island of Fårö , and partly resumed his work as a director at Royal Dramatic Theatre . To honour his return , the Swedish Film Institute launched a new Ingmar Bergman Prize to be awarded annually for excellence in filmmaking . Still , he remained in Munich until 1984 . In one of the last major interviews with Bergman , conducted in 2005 on the island of Fårö , Bergman said that despite being active during the exile , he had effectively lost eight years of his professional life . Retirement and death . Bergman retired from filmmaking in December 2003 . He had hip surgery in October 2006 and was making a difficult recovery . He died in his sleep at age 89 ; his body was found at his home on the island of Fårö , on 30 July 2007 , sixteen days after his 89th birthday . ( It was the same day another renowned existentialist film director , Michelangelo Antonioni , died. ) The interment was private , at the Fårö Church on 18 August 2007 . A place in the Fårö churchyard was prepared for him under heavy secrecy . Although he was buried on the island of Fårö , his name and date of birth were inscribed under his wifes name on a tomb at Roslagsbro churchyard , Norrtälje Municipality , several years before his death . Filmography . Selected work : Style of working . Repertory company . Bergman developed a personal repertory company of Swedish actors whom he repeatedly cast in his films , including Max von Sydow , Bibi Andersson , Harriet Andersson , Erland Josephson , Ingrid Thulin , Gunnel Lindblom , and Gunnar Björnstrand , each of whom appeared in at least five Bergman features . Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann , who appeared in nine of Bergmans films and one televisual film ( Saraband ) , was the last to join this group ( in the film Persona ) , and ultimately became the most closely associated with Bergman , both artistically and personally . They had a daughter together , Linn Ullmann ( born 1966 ) . In Bergmans working arrangement with Sven Nykvist , his best-known cinematographer , the two men developed sufficient rapport to allow Bergman not to worry about the composition of a shot until the day before it was filmed . On the morning of the shoot , he would briefly speak to Nykvist about the mood and composition he hoped for , and then leave Nykvist to work , lacking interruption or comment until post-production discussion of the next days work . Financing . By Bergmans own account , he never had a problem with funding . He cited two reasons for this : one , that he did not live in the United States , which he viewed as obsessed with box-office earnings ; and two , that his films tended to be low-budget affairs . ( Cries and Whispers , for instance , was finished for about $450,000 , while Scenes from a Marriage , a six-episode television feature , cost only $200,000. ) Technique . Bergman usually wrote his films screenplays , thinking about them for months or years before starting the actual process of writing , which he viewed as somewhat tedious . His earlier films are carefully constructed and are either based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors . Bergman stated that in his later works , when on occasion his actors would want to do things differently from his own intention , he would let them , noting that the results were often disastrous when he did not do so . As his career progressed , Bergman increasingly let his actors improvise their dialogue . In his later films , he wrote just the ideas informing the scene and allowed his actors to determine the exact dialogue . When viewing daily rushes , Bergman stressed the importance of being critical but unemotive , claiming that he asked himself not if the work was great or terrible , but rather if it was sufficient or needed to be reshot . Subjects . Bergmans films usually deal with existential questions of mortality , loneliness , and religious faith . In addition to these cerebral topics , however , sexual desire features in the foreground of most of his films , whether the central event is medieval plague ( The Seventh Seal ) , upper-class family activity in early twentieth century Uppsala ( Fanny and Alexander ) , or contemporary alienation ( The Silence ) . His female characters are usually more in touch with their sexuality than their male equivalents , and unafraid to proclaim it , sometimes with breathtaking overtness ( as in Cries and Whispers ) as would define the work of the conjurer , as Bergman called himself in a 1960 TIME cover story . In an interview with Playboy in 1964 , he said : The manifestation of sex is very important , and particularly to me , for above all , I dont want to make merely intellectual films . I want audiences to feel , to sense my films . This to me is much more important than their understanding them . Film , Bergman said , was his demanding mistress . While he was a social democrat as an adult , Bergman stated that as an artist Im not politically involved .. . I dont make propaganda for either one attitude or the other . Bergmans views on his career . When asked in the series of interviews later titled Ingmar Bergman – 3 dokumentärer om film , teater , Fårö och livet conducted by Marie Nyreröd for Swedish TV and released in 2004 , Bergman said that of his works , he held Winter Light , Persona , and Cries and Whispers in the highest regard . There he also states that he managed to push the envelope of film making in the films Persona and Cries and Whispers . Bergman stated on numerous occasions ( for example in the interview book Bergman on Bergman ) that The Silence meant the end of the era in which religious questions were a major concern of his films . Bergman said that he would get depressed by his own films : jittery and ready to cry.. . and miserable . In the same interview he also stated : If there is one thing I miss about working with films , it is working with Sven ( Nykvist ) , the third cinematographer with whom he had collaborated . Theatrical work . Although Bergman was universally famous for his contribution to cinema , he was also an active and productive stage director all his life . During his studies at what was then Stockholm University College , he became active in its student theatre , where he made a name for himself early on . His first work after graduation was as a trainee-director at a Stockholm theatre . At twenty-six years , he became the youngest theatrical manager in Europe at the Helsingborg City Theatre . He stayed at Helsingborg for three years and then became the director at Gothenburg city theatre from 1946 to 1949 . He became director of the Malmö City Theatre in 1953 , and remained for seven years . Many of his star actors were people with whom he began working on stage . He was the director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm from 1960 to 1966 , and manager from 1963 to 1966 , where he began a long-time collaboration with choreographer Donya Feuer . After Bergman left Sweden because of the tax evasion incident , he became director of the Residenz Theatre of Munich , Germany ( 1977–1984 ) . He remained active in theatre throughout the 1990s and made his final production on stage with Henrik Ibsens The Wild Duck at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2002 . Personal life . Marriages and children . Bergman was married five times : - 25 March 1943 – 1945 , to Else Fisher ( 1 March 1918 – 3 March 2006 ) , choreographer and dancer ( divorced ) . Offspring : - Lena Bergman , actress , born 1943 . - 22 July 1945 – 1950 , to Ellen Lundström ( 23 April 1919 – 6 March 2007 ) , choreographer and film director ( divorced ) . Children : - Eva Bergman , film director , born 1945 - Jan Bergman , film director ( 1946–2000 ) - the twins Mats and Anna Bergman , both actors and film directors , born in 1948 . - 1951 – 1959 , to Gun Grut ( 1916–1971 ) , journalist ( divorced ) . Offspring : - Ingmar Bergman Jr. , retired airline captain , born 1951 . - 1959 – 1969 , to Käbi Laretei ( 14 July 1922 – 31 October 2014 ) , concert pianist ( divorced ) . Offspring : - Daniel Bergman , film director , born 1962 . - 11 November 1971 – 20 May 1995 , to Ingrid von Rosen ( maiden name Karlebo ) . Offspring : - Maria von Rosen , author , born 1959 . The first four marriages ended in divorce , while the last ended when his wife Ingrid died of stomach cancer in 1995 , aged 65 . Aside from his marriages , Bergman had romantic relationships with actresses Harriet Andersson ( 1952–1955 ) , Bibi Andersson ( 1955–1959 ) , and Liv Ullmann ( 1965–1970 ) . He was the father of writer Linn Ullmann with Ullmann . In all , Bergman had nine children , one of whom predeceased him . Bergman eventually married all the mothers of his children , with the exception of Liv Ullmann . His daughter with his last wife , Ingrid von Rosen , was born twelve years before their marriage . He had dozens of mistresses throughout his life and would justify the affairs to his various wives by telling them : “I have so many lives.” Although Bergman once described himself as one who had lost his faith in an afterlife , Max von Sydow stated in an interview that he had had many discussions with him about religion , and indicated that Bergmans belief in the afterlife was restored . Awards and nominations . In 1958 , he won the Best Director award for Brink of Life at the Cannes Film Festival , and won the Golden Bear for Wild Strawberries at the Berlin International Film Festival . In 1960 Bergman was featured in the cover of TIME , the first foreign-language filmmaker to do so since Leni Riefenstahl in 1936 . In 1971 , Bergman received the Irving G . Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards ceremony . Three of his films ( Through a Glass Darkly , The Virgin Spring , and Fanny and Alexander ) won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film . In 1997 , he was awarded the Palme des Palmes ( Palm of the Palms ) at the 50th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival . He won many other awards and has been nominated for numerous other awards . Academy Awards Legacy . Bergmans work was a point of reference and inspiration for director Woody Allen . He described Bergman as “probably the greatest film artist , all things considered , since the invention of the motion picture camera” . Bergmans films are mentioned and praised in Annie Hall and others of Allens films . Allen also admired Bergmans longtime director of photography Sven Nykvist and invited him to be his DP on Crimes and Misdemeanors . In 2002 , Bergman was listed at number nine on the British Film Institutes Sight & Sound list of the top ten film directors of modern times . In 2017 New York magazine ranked Bergman at number 55 on their list of The 100 Best Screenwriters of All Time . After Bergman died , a large archive of notes was donated to the Swedish Film Institute . Among the notes are several unpublished and unfinished scripts both for stage and films , and many more ideas for works in different stages of development . A never-performed play has the title Kärlek utan älskare ( Love without lovers ) , and has the note Complete disaster ! written on the envelope ; the play is about a director who disappears and an editor who tries to complete a work he has left unfinished . Other canceled projects include the script for a pornographic film which Bergman abandoned since he did not think it was alive enough , a play about a cannibal , some loose scenes set inside a womb , a film about the life of Jesus , a film about The Merry Widow , and a play with the title Från sperm till spöke ( From sperm to spook ) . The Swedish director Marcus Lindeen went through the material , and inspired by Kärlek utan älskare he took samples from many of the works and turned them into a play , titled Arkivet för orealiserbara drömmar och visioner ( The archive for unrealisable dreams and visions ) . Lindeens play premiered on 28 May 2012 at the Stockholm City Theatre . Terrence Rafferty of The New York Times wrote that throughout the 1960s , when Bergman was considered pretty much the last word in cinematic profundity , his every tic was scrupulously pored over , analyzed , elaborated in ingenious arguments about identity , the nature of film , the fate of the artist in the modern world and so on . Danish Director Thomas Vinterberg has cited Bergman as one of his major influences , Bergman is always in my head . He is part of my upbringing and I was fortunate to meet him and get advice from him . In 1996 , Entertainment Weekly ranked Bergman at No . 8 in its 50 Greatest Directors list . Bergman was ranked at No . 36 on Empire magazines Top 40 Greatest Directors of All-Time list in 2005 . In 2007 , Total Film magazine ranked Bergman at No . 7 on its 100 Greatest Film Directors Ever list . Writer and director Richard Ayoade counts Bergman as one of his inspirations . In 2017 , the British Film Institute ( BFI ) hosted an Ingmar Bergman season and Ayoade said in a Guardian interview that he saw everything in it , which was one of the best two months ever . The BFIs programme included a discussion with Ayoade on Bergmans 1966 film , Persona , before a screening .