From his first screenplay, Torment (1944), to his last, Saraband (2003), Bergman portrayed adolescent rebellion and often futile attempts at reconciliation. “I was an unwanted child in a hellish marriage”, recalls the protagonist in Wild Strawberries (1957), echoing the director’s own feelings. Unrequited love began at an early age for Bergman. Yet art can provide consolation: Bergman found “human holiness” in the music of Bach, which offers his characters “a flickering light”. For all his earnestness, Bergman had no pretensions about his art his work is sceptical of its own power, as seen in his 1958 film The Magician, and even more so of the virtue of artists, depicted as parasitical creatures feeding off the turmoil of their subjects.
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