Bergman, Ingmar
In the 1970s Bergman mainly focused his work on domestic issues, dramatized through traumatic, usually unworkable personal relationships, as in the harrowing Cries and Whispers (1972), the stormy Scenes from a Marriage (1974), and the psychological family drama Autumn Sonata (1978). Bergman briefly exiled himself from Sweden after a dispute (1976) with tax authorities, but returned to make his self-proclaimed final, and surprisingly optimistic, semiautobiographical film about family and childhood, Fanny and Alexander (1982, Academy Award).
Having successfully written and directed numerous works for the Swedish theater since the 1950s, he continued to work in theater, television, and opera late in his career, directing a number of classic plays for the Royal Dramatic Theater of Sweden, e.g., Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata (2001). His made-for-television drama Saraband (2003), a bleak epilogue to Scenes from a Marriage, was Bergman's final statement on film. Bergman also wrote autobiographical screenplays for the films The Best Intentions (1992), directed by Bille August; Sunday's Children (1993), directed by his son, Daniel Bergman; and Private Confessions (1996, later staged as well) and Faithless (2000), directed by Liv Ullmann.
See Four Screenplays of Ingmar Bergman (tr. 1960); S. Björkman et al., Bergman on Bergman: Interviews with Ingmar Bergman (1973, tr. 1975, repr. 1993); his autobiographies (1987, 1994); biographies by B. Steene (1967) and P. Cowie (upd. ed. 1992); studies by V. Young (1971), F. Marker and L.-L. Marker (1982, repr. 1992), F. Gado (1986), R. E. Long (1994), R. W. Oliver, ed. (1995), J. Vermilye (1998), J. Kalin (2003), L. Hubner (2007), and I. Singer (2007); documentaries dir. by M. Nyrerod (2006) and M. Von Trotta (2018).
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