An Unrequited Love of Music _ Ingmar Bergman

8/12/2019 An Unrequited Love of Music _ Ingmar Bergman

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27 min re

Universe

A n u n r e q u i t e d l o v e o f m u s i c

E x c l u s i v e e s s a y b y C h a r l o t t e R e n a u d o n B e r g m a n ' s r e l a t i o n s h i p t o

m u s i c .

An unrequited love of music The whole list (for those in a hurry)

I n g m a r B e r g m a

I f I h a d t o c h o o s e b e t w e e n l o s i n g m y s i g h t o r h e a r i n g I w o u l d k e e p

m y h e a r i n g . I c a n ' t i m a g i n e a n y t h i n g m o r e h o r r i b l e t h a n t o h a v e m y

m u s i c t a k e n a w a y f r o m m e .
http://ingmarbergman.se/en/universe


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' I

f I was forced to choose between losing my hearing or losing my sight, I would keep my

hearing. I can think of nothing worse than having music taken away from me.' This

confession by Ingmar Bergman is rather surprising, coming from a filmmaker

renowned for the astonishing beauty of his imagery. His 1975 version of Mozart's

Magic Fluteis, however, one of the most wonderful examples of this passion for

music. Other examples come through in his various opera productions, including

Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, staged at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm in 1961,

and Brtz's The Bacchae, 30 years later. Nevertheless, the silver screen is where we truly

witness Bergman's impassioned devotion to music, with its central placement in his films

and the way in which he borrows countless elements from the classical repertoire.

Many books have been written about Bergman, some of which speak of this infatuation.

Bergman himself spoke extensively of music. This essay attempts to comprehend the

indispensable role music played throughout his career from Crisisto Saraband.

Throughout this study, it becomes clear that Bergman was not only a music-loving

filmmaker, but also a true master of sound. For him, the art form closest to cinema was

neither drama nor literature, but music. What do music and film have in common? What

role does Bergman appoint music in his films? How does music affect the very act of

creation? Musical references are rarely listed in the credits, with occasional mentions of

the composer. The first step of this work has therefore been to identify the musical pieces,

listed here on the left.

Bergman's passion for music manifests itself very early on in his work. Music in Darkness,

from 1948, tells the story of a young pianist left blind in a shooting accident. To Joy(1950)

tells the misfortunate tale of an ambitious violinist. Summer Interlude(1951) recounts the

life of a ballerina at the Stockholm Opera. Excerpts from Beethoven, Mozart and

Mendelssohn appear in these films. BetweenWaiting Womenand The Virgin Spring,

musical references become more sparse and limited to piano pieces: Schumann, Liszt and

Chopin in Smiles of a Summer Night, Bach inWild Strawberries, and Scarlatti in The

Devil's Eye. Original compositions were more commonly featured during this time.
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Mai Zetterling and Birger Malmsten in Music in

Darkness.

Photo: Bengt Westfelt AB Svensk Filmindustri

The situation shifts with Through a Glass Darkly. In this 1961 film, the saraband from

Bach's Cello Suite No. 2appears four times, while original compositions have completely

disappeared. Nothing remains, except for Bach. From this point on, Bergman's usage of

classical music becomes increasingly more important, through to his final film, Saraband,

in 2003. This brief timeline enables us to classify the various uses of musical pieces in

Bergman's works, uses which appear to increase over time towards more and moremusicality.

C o n t e x t u a l a n d S t r u c t u r a l U s e s

Music can serve either to intensify or signify an emotional moment. When Martha gives

birth in Waiting Women, her happiness is highlighted by Gluck's Dance of the Blessed

Spirits. On the other hand sadness is brought to the forefront in Music in Darkness, when

Bengt, the young blind man, plays Beethoven's Moonlight Sonataand a Nocturneby

Chopin. He plays in the dark (both literally and figuratively), giving resonance to the titles

of the chosen musical pieces. These musical masterpieces from the Romantic Period

perfectly convey his loneliness and are superbly appointed in their role as emotional

factors. This use of musical referencing remains very conventional. Furthermore, Bergman

seems to parody himself a few years later in Smiles of a Summer Night, when Henrik,
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dejected by his emotional misfortunes, rushes to his keyboard to pound out passionately

short and very well appropriated excerpts from Chopin (Impromptu), Liszt (Dream of

Love) and Schumann (Soaring).

Music is also a means of conjuring up the past, often in a rather nostalgic manner. For

instance, in Summer Interlude, when speaking about Marie's late mother, Uncle Erland

accompanies himself with a Chopin Impromptu; when Marie goes back to the island whereshe fell in love for the first time, we hear one of Chopins Etudes. Music also plays a role in

Wild Strawberries, when Isaac dreams that his cousin marries another man, for whom she

plays a Bach Prelude. Dreamlike scenarios in Bergmans films are often accompanied by

Bach or Chopin, but another example is when Jacobi arrives to free Fanny and Alexander

from the bishop. This episode is paired with the seventh movement of Britten's Cello Suite

No. 3, aptly entitled Recitativo Fantastico, and the same suite accompanies Oscar's ghost as

he visits his mother. When it resounds, music both accompanies and strengthens the

narrative dimension.

In Bergmans work, music also plays a structural role. The number of films which start and

finish with the same musical piece is striking: Prison (a Bach cantata), To Joy (Beethoven's

Symphony No. 9), Summer Interlude (Swan Lake), The Devil's Eye (a sonata by Scarlatti ),

Through a Glass Darkly (Bach's Cello Suite No. 2), All These Women (Bach's Orchestral

Suite No. 3), Cries and Whispers (a Mazurka by Chopin), Fanny and Alexander (a quintet

by Schumann), In the Presence of a Clown (Schubert's Winterreise), and so on.

By using the same music at both the start and finish of a film, perhaps Bergman is hoping

to use an inclusive structure to enclose the film in its own temporality, to come full circle,

to put the closing bracket on the thought he began at the opening credits. By isolating the

film, music turns it into an object in itself, with its own individual intelligence. In To Joy,

the music determines the very dynamic of the narrative, instilling it with meaning for

example, the orchestra in which Stig plays is rehearsing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, when

he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident. The film is a long flashback during

which he recalls the years they spent together. At the end of the film, he returns to play in

the orchestra, and seems to overcome his grief when the choir sings Ode to Joy. The

conductor hands us the very key to the film when, as the musicians are preparing to

rehearse the final bars of the symphony, he says to them, This is an outburst of joy. Not

one that results in laughter or proclaims, 'I'm happy'. I'm talking about an immense

overwhelming joy, beyond pain and infinite grief. An incomprehensible joy!
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Stig Olin and Victor Sjstrm in To Joy.

Photo: Louis Huch AB Svensk Filmindustri

Summer Interlude, which was released directly after To Joy, uses Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake

in the same manner. Marie plays the role of Odette in Swan Lake, and is liberated by love,

ust as Odette was. The film starts at the dress rehearsal of the ballet and ends on the

opening night. Throughout the film, the young woman revisits her past and rediscovers her

interest in life. Music can also be used as a structure within the film itself, in order to

highlight the most important moments. In Through a Glass Darkly, for example, thesaraband of Bach's Cello Suite No. 2 appears four times: in the opening credits; after the

first third of the film, when Karin discovers her father's diary; after the second third (the

incest); and at the very end, when the helicopter carries Karin away. Each and every

musical placement also delimits a different section of the film, and structures it in three

parts of equal duration. In the same vein, Fanny and Alexanderuses Schumann's Piano

Quinteton four occasions.

The leitmotif plays the role of a temporal landmark in the narrative flow, a landmark that ismore adaptable and unpredictable than the one provided by objective time (from a watch

or a clock), but nonetheless equally effective. Michel Chion, in a book on film music,

notices that the leitmotif provides to the musical fabric a kind of elasticity of slippery

fluidity. He adds, It also seems to generate anxiety and obsessiveness, which is

particularly striking in In the Presence of a Clown, where the last Lied of Winterreise

appears seven times. This Lied was composed by Schubert in 1827, a few months before his

death, and the hurdy-gurdy player complains, No one wants to listen/ No one takes a scan/
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Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann in Shame.

Photo: Roland Lundin AB Svensk Filmindustri

And the dogs all growl/ Around the aged man. This work depicting loneliness is reduced

by Bergman to its introduction, repetitive and incessantly played in moments of anxiety,

and becomes an ominous refrain. On three separate occasions it foreshadows the arrival of

the white clown, the incarnation of Death, and concludes the film on Carl's final words,

Man is indeed sinking.Bergman sometimes even uses the same musical piece in various films. Such is the casewith Bachs Partita, heard in Hour of the Wolf, and then again in both Shame and The

Passion. These three films, shot with the same actors (Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow),

were often considered a trilogy of despair. The reappearance of the Partita strengthens this

assumption.

Conversely, the leitmotif can have a playful dimension. In The Devil's Eye, three different

sonatas by Scarlatti appear around 10 times. Each one seems to represent a character: the

famous Sonata in E-Majorintroduces us to Don Juan's world; the delicate pastorale

accompanies the scenes with Britt-Marie; the Sonata in D-Major, full of pizzazz, resounds

with each trick played by the demon watching over Don Juan. Throughout Bergmans films,

there are numerous malevolent references to the genre of classical music.

When Raoul turns up at his mistress in Thirst, he has no idea that his furious wife is

waiting there. The tune he is whistlingis precisely the one sung by Figaro in Mozarts The
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Marriage of Figaro, to warn Cherubino that his love affair has been uncovered.In Smiles ofa Summer Night, Frederik's nightly visit to Dsire is interrupted by his rival's arrival. To

keep up appearances, Frederik hums an airthat happens to be the same one Don Giovanni

tries to seduce a young bride with in Mozart's opera. But it is in All These Women where

Bergman draws the most outright parody. The aria of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 a slow,

lyrical and expressive movement appears six times, in rather short spurts at diverse

moments. The filmmaker deconstructs and manipulates the musical score, treating it like a

igsaw puzzle. He also plays with musical registers. In the beginning of the film, when

Cornelius arrives at the famous cellists home, he is playing the aria for a group of women.

Momentarily distracted, the critic knocks down a statue of the Master. The aria is thereby

immediately followed by a spirited ragtime, placing a comic contrast against the dampened

atmosphere of such an intimate concert.

M e t a p h o r i c a l U s e s

As in Music in Darkness, musical citations in Summer Interlude are intertwined with an

original film score, which highlight certain passages, such as the discovery of Henrik's

diary, the return to the island, or the memory of the accident. On the contrary, in Through

a Glass Darkly (1961), music is almost exclusively borrowed from the classical repertoire

and confined to specific moments. This film can be viewed as a turning point in the way

Bergman borrows music, which is certainly linked to his marriage to the concert pianistKbi Laretei, which took place in 1959. As he himself says, I dedicated this film to my wife

at the time. I was beginning to really enter into the music as a professional does. Through a

Glass Darkly was affected by my almost daily association with music. This deepening

relationship to music becomes obvious in Bergmans successive films, in turn developing

his listening abilities.

Michel Chion, previously cited in this essay, distinguishes between the screen music,

which comes from a source that is present or suggested in the action, and the pit music,which comes from a source that is imaginary and not present in the action. What is striking

in Bergman's films is that for the most part, the music falls into the screen music

category. The filmmaker seems to take pleasure in filming the performance of a piece of

music by its interpreter: the pianist in Music in Darkness; the violinist and orchestra in To

Joy; Uncle Erland in Summer Interlude; Cousin Sara in Wild Strawberries; the concert

pianists in Hour of the Wolf, Face to Face and Autumn Sonata; the cellist in this film; the

aunts in Fanny and Alexander, as well as the bishop and his flute; the pianist in In the
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Kbi Laretei instructing Ingrid Bergman on the set of

Autumn Sonata.

Photo: Arne Carlsson AB Svensk Filmindustri

Presence of a Clown; Karin and her father, playing Bach at the organ and cello in Saraband.

There are very few other instances of films featuring so many musicians playing on screen.

When no one is playing, the music is heard through a radio (The Silence, Persona, Shame)

or a gramophone (Summer with Monika, All These Women, Saraband). In all these

instances music is present on two levels, both on screen and in the narrative.

Consequently, Bergmans musical references are almost always literal. He never distorts

them. He only takes the liberty to simplify them when required by the screenplay. Such is

the case in Shame, when Jan wakes up humming a melodyfrom one of Bach's Brandenburg

Concertos, and also in In the Presence of a Clown, when Schuberts Ninth Symphonyis

simplified onto just a piano, as the main characters have nothing more than that to tell the

story of the composers life. This simplification also takes place in Fanny and Alexander,

when nothing more than a flute is featured in Bach's Sonata No. 2 for flute and

harpsichord. But for the most part, Bergman cites the musical works accurately. Bach's

pieces are played on period instruments. The Goldberg Variationsin The Silence, for

instance, are played on harpsichord, as recommended by the cantor himself, as are the

Scarlatti Sonatas in The Devil's Eye, (regardless of Kbi Laretei's reluctance to play out of

her fear that she was not as competent on the harpsichord as on the piano).

In The Silence, musical usages last for exactly three minutes and 16 seconds. During that

time, the action is suspended, the dialogue is interrupted, and real noises are erased. One
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should not only hear the music, but listen to it the spectators' faces are shot close up as

the overture resounds in The Magic Flute, as are those listening to Mozart's Fantasiain

Face to Face or the final Schubert sonata in In the Presence of a Clown. Many other

captivated listeners appear throughout Bergman's films: the sisters in The Silence,

Elisabeth in Persona, the demons in Hour of the Wolf, the couple in Shame, Carl in In the

Presence of a Clown, or Johan listening at full volume to the scherzo of Bruckner's

Symphony No. 9in Saraband. Bergman sometimes comments on the music through his

characters. In Hour of the Wolf, the demon Kreisler presents the chosen excerpt from The

Magic Flute. In Autumn Sonata, Charlotte sketches the figure of Chopin before beginning

to play Prelude. Bergman experiments with his sense of musical analysis throughout the

entire film In the Presence of a Clown, which recounts Schubert's last days in both a free

and erudite manner.During the period heralded in with Through a Glass Darkly, music acquires a new

dimension. It no longer strives to meld within the film in order to increase the drama, nor

to build up the structure. Music is there for its own sake, detaching itself from the film and

offers itself as an object to be listened to. Its presence is neither contextual nor structural,

but rather metaphorical. However, what does the metaphor stand for? Why does the film

suddenly give way to it? What is the meaning of this listening that Bergman invites us to?

The Silence, dominated by hatred and misunderstanding, allows for a moment of grace

when the radio broadcasts the Goldberg Variations. Esther can then exchange a few words

with the old groom, who also knows Bach.

One of the best scenes I have ever produced is the brief meeting in the darkness

between the waiter and Esther, while Bach can be heard over the radio. He comes in,

says the name Johann Sebastian Bach, and she says, The music is beautiful. It is a

sudden moment of communication so crisp.In the background, Johan is cuddling in his mother's arms. It is perhaps the first time the

two sisters speak kindly to each other. Anna stands up and says that she is going out. AfterEsther turns off the radio, the nightmare resumes. However, for a brief moment, the music

created a link between them. We all live in our prisons, in our dreadful loneliness,

surrounded by cruelty. The gift that music bequeaths us is to understand that there is a

reality of infinite harmony beyond our earthly exile.
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A moment of comfort: Goldberg variation No. 25 on the

radio.

AB Svensk Filmindustri

Prison, loneliness, cruelty, exile. Each word seems to be applicable to The Silence.

The break from this established by the Goldberg Variations in the middle of the film

appears as a sudden truce in this world of suffering. Bachs Partita, radio broadcasted in

Shame, also provides Jan and Eva with a moment of peace, while war rages on outside.

In Hour of the Wolf, Bergman cites a short extract of The Magic Flute by using a puppet

theatre. The performance takes place in the castle to which Johan and his wife have been

invited. The audience surrounding them consists of demonic creatures. Here is how

Bergman describes this scene: "The demons live the life of the doomed []. For a moment,

their suffering subsides: music offers them a few seconds of peace and solace. He later

explains:

In spite of the chaos that surrounds us, we must take care of the good things in life and

protect them. I'm thinking of The Magic Flute, when the young prince, in the darkness,

wonders if Pamina is still alive, and through which Mozart tells us, transmits to us

something about spiritual reality. [] Each moment that wrests us from our loneliness

and you know it is total is the best thing that can happen to us.

The passage cited in the film shows us Tamino at the moment when, lost and disheartened,

he questions to the darkness whether Pamina is still alive. His situation echoes that of

Johan, the main character in the film, an artist consumed by anxiety (Max von Sydow). And

when the choir answers, Pamina, Pamina lebet noch, the camera shifts to his new wife

(Liv Ullmann), a new Pamina. Hence, the piece by Mozart serves as a parenthesis in the
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overall structure of the film, a parenthesis shedding light on the narrative, arousing our

interest rather than distracting us from it. It serves not as a digression, but rather as an

explanation of what the characters are experiencing. Music becomes an active component

and offers a psychological commentary on the scene, which doesnt prevent it from serving

as a respite in the midst of a very dark film.One final example of music serving as a metaphor of communication between people isworthy of mentioning, this time from Cries and Whispers. In this film, the saraband of

Bachs Suite No. 5features twice. The first time it accompanies a brief reconciliation

between Maria and Karin. The cello turns into a voice, as if translating the inaudible words

whispered by the two sisters. By analysing this scene bar by bar (on the soundtrack) and

shot by shot (on screen), we understand that the first note is played at the very moment

Karin kisses her sister, whom she previously rejected. Then, the first two shots fit the first

two bars of the music score to a tee. Several distant shots shift from Karin to Maria and

back in a dazzling choreography the rhythm here is dictated by the music, as the motion

is consistently triggered by the second or third beat of the bar. Bergman seems to connect

the filming as much to the music as the music to the filming, so that the editing of this

sequence is in itself musical.

The saraband features once again, when Anna lulls Agnes like a Piet. Here too, music

stands as a metaphor of the communication between people, communication which (as in

The Silence) seems to suspend time and challenge death. The image remains unchanged

for three bars, and the obsessive ticking of the clock, which has regularly appeared since the

opening credits to remind us of the imminence of death, has stopped.

If music is a means of communication, is it not because it allows us to dispose of the

spoken language? In Bergmans work, words are often deceptive or offensive, at best

incomprehensible, as in The Silence. Words are used to conceal reality, aren't they? []

Music is a much more reliable means of communication, says the director in an interview.

Many illustrations of this concept can be spotted in his films.

In Persona, for example, Elisabeth wants to rid herself of the roleplaying and masks

(translation of the Latin word persona). As language is the most deceitful material of the

mask, where is this quotation taken from? she decides to remain silent. At the beginning

of the film, as she is lying in a hospital bed, Bergman features a long sequence of Bach's

Violin Concerto in E Major. On screen we witness a close-up of Elisabeth's face, staring

into the camera and slowly fading into obscurity. It is as if Bach's concerto leads us step by

step into her inner world. Music is a language which does not lie as it does not speak.
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We find this mask/music dialectic again in Hour of the Wolf. Bach's Partita No. 3 is played

on harpsichord by the demon Kreisler, as an equally demonic old lady literally removes her

face to better hear the music. In a more figurative manner, Charlotte reveals herself in

Autumn Sonata, when she plays a Prelude by Chopin. It is her own picture that she draws

when she says she is in pain, but does not show it. At this moment she seems to be

speaking truthfully, whereas previously she has always kept up appearances, as her

daughter accuses her in the following nocturnal confrontation. We can concur with France

Farago when she writes, Music plays a privileged role in Bergman's work: the fulfilled hope

of true communication, a song freed from all confines of language.

The audience filmed by Bergman in the opening of The Magic Fluteis composed of men

and women of every age and race, addressing the universal goal of Mozart's opera. Music

crosses all boundaries even those of death, according to Eva in Autumn Sonata. Her son

was killed when he was four years old. And yet, in his old nursery, still untouched, she tells

her mother,

He lives in his own world, but we can reach one another at any time. There are no

boundaries, no walls. [] There are no limits, neither in thought nor emotion. []

When playing the slow movement from Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata, surely you

feel that you're living in a limitless world, the movement of which you will never be

able to explore or penetrate.

This conviction is most strongly expressed in Saraband, Bergmans final masterpiece. Thesuitepreviously heard in Cries and Whispers appears several times and is associated with

Anna, Henrik's wife, who died two years previously, but whose loving presence radiates

throughout the film. The character is most likely modelled after Ingrid von Rosen,

Bergman's last wife, who died in 1995. In the fifth scene (central in all meanings of the

word), Henrik confesses to Marianne that he imagines Anna is waiting for him somewhere.

All our lives we wonder about death, about what comes and doesnt come next. It is so

simple. Sometimes, through music, I glimpse an idea of it, like with Bach.

As he is speaking the saraband plays, creating a bridge between this world and the next.

Bergman wrote inA Spiritual Matter, I have always believed that music brings us earthly

creatures closer to the unconceivable, to God.The filmmaker passed away on 30 July 2007. He hoped to meet his wife. Is this why he

requested that the very same saraband be played at his funeral? Regardless, it resounds like
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an echo from his last film art, more than ever, is reunited with life, even at death.

If music signifies a hope of communion, the lack of it signifies despair. In Shame, Jan's

violin is shattered in an air raid. This loss introduces the second part of the film, in which

Jan turns from a victim into a murderer.

Likewise, inWinter Light, we bitterly experience the absence of music except for a few

songs played during mass as a sign of Gods silence and the loss of faith. As Michel Estve

points out, Some of the most beautiful shots in the film close-ups of communicants,

Christ's face and crucified hand, mid-shots of Karin and her children viewed by the pastor

through a glass, Jonas's body wrapped in a tarp are completely silent shots. Bergmans

most desperate films, shot during his exile in Germany, feature no musical references. In

From the Life of the Marionettes, Peter dismally discovers that there is no way out, while

the hospital where Abel is working in The Serpent's Eggis an infernal labyrinth with no

escape. The closing credits feature a silent, looming crowd. All sound has disappeared. Thesilence is absolute and eerie, as in the initial nightmare in Wild Strawberries, when Isaac

encounters his own dead body. Likewise in The Seventh Seal, when Death arrives to take

the knight away: the sound of the ebb and flow of the waves ceases and life stands still.

M u s i c a s a S o u r c e o f I n s p i r a t i o n

Questioned about his relationship to music in an interview from 1982, Bergman asserts,

Music has always been [] one of the most important sources of inspiration for me,

perhaps even the most important. Even if no musical references appear in Winter Light,

the films origin is nonetheless musical. According to Bergman, the film began with his

discovery of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, which he heard on the radio, giving him the

idea to shoot a film in an isolated church in the Swedish countryside.

Music not only gave birth to Winter Light, but also to The Silence, which Bergman claims

was born out of Bartk's Concerto for Orchestra. My original idea was to make a film that

followed musical rules, instead of dramaturgical ones, a film that functioned through

association rhythmically, with themes and counter-themes. As I was putting it together, I

thought much more in musical terms than I had done before. All that remains from Bartk

is the very beginning. The film follows Bartk's music rather closely, with the dull

continuous tone, then the sudden explosion. The film begins in the muggy atmosphere of

a train, where the passengers fall into torpor. The rhythm is slow and heavy. Then comes
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Page from the handwritten script of Persona. Dated

Orn 17 June 1965.

Photo: Jens Gustafsson Stiftelsen Ingmar Bergman

the explosion a restless city, with its cacophony of car horns and people shouting. Hour

of the Wolf, according to the filmmaker, is based on The Art of Fugue. As in Bach's work,

with its open ending, Bergman's film stops in the middle of a sentence and remains

unfinished (we'll never know what happens to Johan).How does music inspire Bergman? I don't know exactly, but sometimes a piece of music

creates an emotional link, a situation. [] Music frees up something that wants to beexpressed and told. An emotional discharge sets the imaginary into motion. Kbi Laretei

tells, for example, how Chopin's Mazurka in A Minorgave birth to the final scene in Cries

and Whispers (where the Mazurka is featured). The title of the film can be linked to an

expression used by the critic Yngve Flyckt, when speaking of the final movement in

Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-Major.

'If I had been given that gift and hadn't become what I am, I would most probably have

become a conductor,' writes Bergman in The Fifth Act. Indeed, the filmmaker considers hiswork similar to that of a musical conductor, and he continuously resorts to musical

metaphors. First and foremost, he enjoys comparing scripts to music scores. In the preface

to Persona, he states, I didn't write a film script in the usual sense of the word. What I

wrote seems to me to be more like a music score that I will conduct during the filming.
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Ingrid Bergman (Charlotte) and Eva (Liv Ullmann)

instructed by the director.

Foto: Arne Carlsson AB Svensk Filmindustri

Bergman expands upon this metaphor, You write down a melodic line and after that you

work out the instrumentation with the orchestra. The actors are compared to valuable

instruments. You know, just as I have hugely enjoyed working with these actors, so does a

violinist enjoy playing a Stradivarius. The beat, dynamics, articulation and expression,

rhythm and musicality these words are frequently used during rehearsals. When asked

about Bergman during the shooting of The Touch, Max von Sydow replies, He gives you a

rhythmic sketch of your role the pauses, the increasing speed of the action, the point

where the explosion comes, or where it should have come when it doesnt. You think of

musical similes. Also, I have witnessed him as a man who intrinsically feels the rhythm of

the text, and very early on communicates this to the actors. Once again, music is used as a

model. It is such a precise art, everything is in the score. We must try to work with as

much precision, with silences and accentuations.Therefore, Bergman claims to be veryattentive to the precision of the voices and intonation used on the set. Hearing is the most

important sense of all. When studying a scene, I often close my eyes and listen. If it soundsright, it looks right. He further extrapolates, Your hearing is always more sensitive and in

tune with your feelings than your sight. This method caused confusion on the set of

Autumn Sonata, with Ingrid Bergman blaming the filmmaker for not looking at her during

the filming.

But the director viewed his role differently, with his relationship to the actors being above

all a matter of listening. When asked about how he directed his highly admired actors,


16/23

ke Grnberg and Annika Tretow in Sawdust and

Tinsel.

Photo: Hans Dittmer Sandrew Metronome

Bergman replied, There is nothing more mysterious about it than their trust in my hearing

and my trust in their perceptiveness. Liv Ullmann describes him as a great listener Thefilm editing stage is described as the vital third dimension, without which the film is

merely a dead product from a factory. According to Bergman, this stage provides the film

with its very breath. I learned that from a conductor. [] He said, Ingmar, music is

breathing. Cinema has much to learn from the pulse of music and its rhythmic

dimension. Everything is rhythm, more so in film than in anything else.

'As a creator of films, I have learned an enormous amount from my devotion to music,'

confesses Bergman. Music serves not only as a source of inspiration for him during the

writing process, but is also a tool during the filming and editing. Thus it comes as no

surprise that his films resemble musical compositions, even when they fail to feature any

musical works.

Such is the case in Sawdust and Tinsel. To use musical terminology, the main theme is the

episode with Frost and Alma. Then, within a uniform time period, a number of variations

take place both erotic and humiliating in ever-changing combinations. These variations

include the visit to the theatre, the reunion between Albert and his wife, and his final

humiliation in the fight with FranzA few years later, in The Devils Eye, the musicalmetaphor defines the true nature of the film. The film by-line itself is, A rondo capriccioso

with Ingmar Bergman.Autumn Sonatais also composed as a musical piece.
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17/23

When I began making notes for Autumn Sonata, the film was a dream about a mother

and daughter shown at three different times of the day morning, noon and night.

That was the entire idea. Just the two of them shot at those times, no explanation, no

story. Three movements, as in a sonata.

Indeed this film is made in three movements: the first is slow and peaceful (Charlotte's

arrival); the second, violent and passionate (the nocturnal showdown); the third one, calmand sad (Charlotte's departure). Just as in a sonata, two themes can be detected the

mother's and daughter's. In another light, the influence of music inspired what Bergman

refers to as his chamber films: Through a Glass Darklyin 1961, thenWinter Light, The

Silence, PersonaHe took the idea from Strindbergs Intimate Theatre, which is modelledon Max Reinhardts Kammerspielhaus. With chamber music as a guide, Bergmans goal was

to rediscover the essence of theatre, by limiting the number of actors and simplifying the

sets. In Through a Glass Darkly, there are only four characters: Karin, her brother Minos,

her father, and her husband a quartet. Michel Chion's remarks on the film are worth

citing.

The action begins as a strong chorus of instruments, which later pair off. [] Bergman

uses this separation to rapidly switch, through alternate editing, from one duet to the

other, in order to highlight differences in rhythm and tonality. The two young people

walk and speak with vivacity, whereas the two adults struggle to row a boat.They thenall gather outside to share a meal, which begins with an animated feeling but later is

imbued with an awkward silence. The father, attacked by guilt over his numerous

absences and self-centredness, escapes into the house and weeps. When he returns

outside, the other three welcome him rambunctiously, leading him around the

grounds, speaking on top of one another. [] From the offset, character combinations

alternate endlessly, as does the rhythm and tonality.

Bergman always considered his films to be pieces of music. Speaking about Persona, he

says, I thought about the happiness of musicians, for whom life is so easy they write

Opus 14, Sonata No. 9, and it says exactly what it intends to say. That was my intention

entitle my film Cinematography No. 27. How else could we interpret the title of his final

opus, Saraband? The saraband from Bach's Cello Suite No. 5features numerous times in

the film. But the reference runs deeper still. A saraband is actually a partner dance,

described as being very erotic and was even banned in 16th-century Spain. He adds, The

film follows the structure of the saraband, with two people meeting.The first scene bringsJohan and Marianne together, the second unites Marianne and Karin, while the third poses
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18/23

Julia Dufvenius and Brje Ahlstedt in Saraband.

Photo: Bengt Wanselius SVT Bild

Karin against Henrik. The fourth scene is a confrontation between Henrik and Johan, and

the film goes full circle. This chain of events is reminiscent of a dance and allows Bergman

to introduce the characters in succession. The title of this filmic legacy is also a way to

draw attention to the many sarabands Bergman used throughout his work: Suite No. 2,

featured in both Through a Glass DarklyandAll These Women, Suite No. 4, featured in

Autumn Sonata, and Suite No. 5, featured in Cries and Whispers. Saraband refers to all of

these. Likewise, the saraband from Partitaappears in Hour of the Wolf, ShameandA

Passion.

Furthermore, the reason behind why the movie seems like a saraband may be that, for

Bergman, film and music are nearly the same. They are both means of expression and

communication which bypass reason and reach our emotional centres. Is not this common

capacity of music and cinema to bypass reason that which allows them to express the

unspeakable? At the end of Saraband, Marianne pays a visit to her daughter Martha, who is

ill. Bach can be heard at the very moment when Martha, who until then had her eyes closedto the world, opens them to look at her mother. In this scene, Bergman achieves what he

himself defines as the common goal of music and cinema. When you hear one of the last

symphonies by Mozart, [] suddenly the roof opens up on something bigger than the

limitations of the human being. [] Filmmaking is an attempt to open that roof, so that we

can breathe.

If film and music are the same thing, the term film music is really absurd, says Bergman.
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19/23

It comes down to common sense you can't accompany music with music. So you must

place the music within the film as a new dimension. This statement from 1964 indicates

how Bergman's relationship to music evolved from Crisisto Saraband. Music featured in

his early films functions as a pleonasm, serving to intensify emotionally-charged scenes, as

does original film music. In Through a Glass Darklyand The Silence, however, the music

requires closer listening, as it brings its true meaning to the film, a new element that the

film allows it to express the fulfilled hope of real communication.From that point on,Bergman's musical choices become more personal. The figure of Chopin reflected in Music

in Darknessby the romantic Nocturneis the most conventional. A few decades later, the

Prelude played successively by Eva and her motherinAutumn Sonatais neither pleasant

nor well-known. However, the stern, repetitive melody expresses true suffering with an

exceptional harmonic audacity.Bergman refers to music as his most important source ofinspiration. He commonly wrote scripts as composers write scores, directed the actors as

conductors lead their orchestras, and entitled his films Sonatas and Sarabandes Thisdevice also encompassed his personal life, and Bergman most likely used music as Tamino

his flute to tame his demons. Charlotte Renaud 2008

Translation: Jon Asp, Sarah Snavely.

by Charlotte Renaud25 Apr 2013

S o u r c e s

Assayas, Olivier and Bjrkman, Stig, Conversation avec Bergman (Paris: Cahiers du

Cinma, 1990).Aumont, Jacques, Ingmar Bergman, Mes films sont l'explication de mes images (Paris:

Cahiers du cinma, 2003).Bergman, Ingmar, Four screenplays (1960) (New York: Sixth paperback printing, 1969).Bergman, Ingmar, Images: My Life in Film (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1994).

Bergman, Ingmar, The Fifth Act (New York: The New Press, 2001).

Bergman, Ingmar, New Swedish Plays (Norwich: Norvik Press, 1992).Bjrkman, Stig, Manns, Torsten and Sima, Jonas, Le cinma selon Bergman (Paris:

Seghers, 1973).Chion, Michel, La Musique au cinma (Paris: Fayard, 1995).
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20/23

K e y w o r d s

Bach, Bach's cello suites, Cries and Whispers, Kbi Laretei, music, Saraband, The Magic Flute

Cowie, Peter, Ingmar Bergman: A Critical Biography (New York: Charles Scribners

Sons, 1982).Jones, G. W., Talking with Ingmar Bergman (Dallas: Southern Methodist University

Press, 1983).Koskinen, Maaret ed., Ingmar Bergman Revisited (London: Wallflower Press, 2008). Laretei, Kbi, Ssom i en versttning (Stockholm: Bonniers, 2004).Long, Robert E. ed., Liv Ullmann Interviews (University Press of Mississippi/Jackson,

2006).Marker, Lise-Lone, A Conversation with Ingmar Bergman, in Ingmar Bergman: A Life

in the Theater (Cambridge University Press, 1982 (re-edited in 1992)).Samuels, Charles T., Encounter with Ingmar Bergman, in Ingmar Bergman: Essays in

Criticism, Stuart M. Kaminsky ed. (Oxford University Press, 1975).Shargel, Raphael ed., Ingmar Bergman Interviews (University Press ofMississippi/Jackson, 2007).Simon, John, Conversation with Bergman, in Ingmar Bergman Directs (New York:

Harcourt, 1972).Steene, Birgitta, An Interview with Ingmar Bergman, in Focus on The Seventh Seal

(Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972).Wirmark, Margareta, Regissr Ingmar Bergman och hans skdespelare, in Ingmar

Bergman Film och Teater i vxelverkan (Stockholm: Carlssons, 1996).

T h e w h o l e l i s t ( f o r t h o s e i n a h u r r y )

S t r i n d b e r g i n B e r g m a n

Exclusive essay by Professor Egil Trnqvist on August Strindberg's great influence on Bergman

and (in a manner of speaking) vice versa.

M o r e f r o m t h e u n i v e r s e
http://ingmarbergman.se/en/universe/strindberg-bergman


21/23

F i l m h i s t o r y a c c o r d i n g t o B e r g m a n

Having an interest in film is perhaps not so unusual for a

filmmaker. In Bergman's case, however, 'interest' is a definite

understatement.

B e r g m a n a n d V i s u a l A r t

New exclusive essay on ingmarbergman.se Egil Trnqvist sheds

light on a neglected subject.

E g e r m a n , V o g l e r & C o .

Many Bergman characters have the same name. Why? Well, who

knows. But here's at least the full list!

B e h i n d t h e M i r r o r

As subject matter, metaphors and symbols, mirrors abound in

Bergman.

T h e m y t h , t h e m a n
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Ingmar Bergman's life and work are hard to differentiate, and that's putting it mildly.

F a m i l y V a l u e s

The family plays a central part in most Bergman films, but happy

families are rare.

A n g e l s a n d D e m o n s

Bergman's own private demons are legendary.

D e a t h a n d i t s D i s c o n t e n t s

One hardly needs to have seen a Bergman film to know what

Death looks like.

A r t a n d A r t i s t s

The artist is the most ubiquitous of all Bergman's characters.
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23/23

B e r g m a n a n d S w e d e n

The relationship between Bergman and his country of birth was

a complex affair.

U n d e r a n e m p t y , c r u e l s k y

Bergman was, to quote a phrase, the son of a preacher man.

Stiftelsen Ingmar Bergman
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Documents

An Unrequited Love of Music _ Ingmar Bergman