Ingmar Bergman Films

This thesis examines seven films from the cinemas of Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky—Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), and The Silence (1963), and Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979), Nostalghia (1983), and The Sacrifice (1986).

These films were chosen as they represent the deepest periods of two directors’ engagements with the possible death of God and the subsequent loss of intrinsic existential meaning—topics with which this thesis is principally concerned.

As a starting point, this thesis argues that the films present the silence of God as the primary indicator of God’s absence from the human world. Becoming aware of this silence thus causes one to interrogate religious certainties which have hitherto been taken to be timeless and true. This thesis then contends that, when faced with this silence and its implications, Bergman desperately sought evidence of God’s existence while Tarkovsky unyieldingly maintained an attitude of faith.

The directors’ progressions toward these contrasting positions are evident through the uses of sound elements in their films. As Bergman unsuccessfully pursued evidence of God’s existence, the soundscapes in his four films become increasingly minimal. The sparse use of sound reveals Bergman’s conception of a Godless void. On the other hand, metaphysical silence in Tarkovsky’s films was not perceived as emptiness. Instead, “silence” in his films was, paradoxically, often depicted through complex layers of sounds. Presented as manifestations of the metaphysical, the sounds of “silence” in Tarkovsky’s films consequently become affirmations of faith.

Through this sound-based approach to film analysis, this thesis sets out to explain why Bergman and Tarkovsky understood metaphysical silence so differently by examining how they portrayed literal silences.

Статья посвящена средневековой аллегории Danse macabre и ее кинематографическим интерпретациям. Отмечается особая концентрированность, мотивная многосоставность данной средневековой эмблемы, позволяющая интерпретировать ее как понятие, обобщающее разнообразную — визуальную и звуковую — символику Средневековья, связанную с идеей всеобщего равенства в Смерти.
В качестве отличительной особенности данной аллегории отмечается также ее контекстуальная укорененность в катастрофическом типе сознания, присущем позднему Средневековью. Это делает ее подобием специфической призмы, путешествующей сквозь столетия и преломляющей в себе эстетические, этические, социокультурные ориентиры эпох со схожими кризисными аспектами в становлении картины мира.
В данной работе нас интересует, как авторский кинематограф ХХ столетия, обращающийся к Средневековью с его символической системой мышления, воспроизводит мотив Danse macabre на новом языковом уровне — впрямую или косвенно — через отдельные аудиальные и визуальные элементы аллегорических построений. И здесь две картины — «Седьмая печать» И. Бергмана и «Декамерон» П. Пазолини представляют весьма примечательную пару. Обе обращаются к исторической ситуации Черной смерти (XIV век). Однако, разница трактовок аллегории
Danse macabre у двух художников словно воспроизводит перелом самого исторического сознания (и в следствие этого — меняющейся на протяжении эпохи сути самой аллегории) — от средневекового эсхатологического ужаса и поисков подлинности бытия к ренессансному амбивалентному видению.

Penser la projection comme un opérateur entre littérature et cinéma comporte un risque méthodologique évident, celui de la métaphore : comment se prémunir de la facilité improductive d'une réflexion sur le film qui, du moment qu'il adapte un livre, « projetterait » naturellement des images sur un texte ? Comment, à l'inverse, ne pas considérer toute description littéraire d'images filmiques comme un appel à la projection mentale du lecteur ? L'un des moyens de contourner ce danger est peut-être de prendre la projection à la lettre, c'est-à-dire comme le dispositif spectaculaire spécifique du cinéma, et de bâtir un corpus d'étude mixte où des récits écrits et filmiques sont liés par un processus de réécriture transmédiatique qui, sans relever de l'adaptation, les articule à travers le motif d'une projection d'images dans une salle obscure.

The Seventh Seal (NC) with Post-Screening Talk

Sunday 18 March at 6.15pm

97 mins – Sweden 1957 – Subtitles – Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot and Nils Poppe

This allegorical drama – centred on a medieval knight who challenges Death to a game of chess in order to postpone his demise – remains fascinating as a study of faith in crisis.

**Special Announcement**

This screening of The Seventh Seal will be followed by a talk entitled

'Ingmar Bergman & The Human Condition: A Discussion on Film and Philosophy'

by Juliana de Albuquerque.

Juliana de Albuquerque has been a student of Ingmar Bergman’s cinema for many years. In 2014 she was awarded a creative residence at The Bergman Estate on Fårö Island, the location where Bergman shot Persona (1966) and lived for the last forty years of his life.

Juliana is currently working on a doctorate in German Literature & Philosophy at University College Cork.

This winter she has also been teaching an adult education course on Existentialism.

In her talk at the Triskel Arts Centre, Juliana will discuss Bergman’s work in connection with philosophy. She will also talk about the time she spent at The Bergman Estate, and how that contributed to her understanding of Bergman's oeuvre.

Read more about Juliana at https://ucc-ie.academia.edu/julianadealbuquerque, or visit her Twitter profile https://twitter.com/the_stardust.

O Sétimo Selo, Gritos e Sussurros e Sonata de Outono, três importantes obras do cineasta sueco Ingmar Bergman, oferecem, respectivamente, a religião, a doença e a família como objetos de estudo, uma vez que são os principais condutores da narrativa de cada filme. Pretende-se vincular os acontecimentos de cada enredo a seus elementos norteadores por meio de um estudo teórico e da desagregação e remontagem de fragmentos técnicos (fotografia, cenário e roteiro) em cada obra. A investigação do conhecimento acadêmico já produzido auxilia na contextualização do universo de Bergman, enquanto a separação e a junção dos elementos técnicos originam interpretações singulares que estendem o conhecimento sobre este recorte do universo cinematográfico. Por ser uma pesquisa crítica, ela não visa a produzir teorias que se aplicam a toda a extensão de uma área do conhecimento (como o cinema), mas a desenvolver interpretações sobre uma delimitação de um tema abrangente.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book intro in downloadable .pdf] 

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." --John Steinbeck Scientific research confirms what people have always known: answers, ideas, and inspiration do come to us in dreams. Harvard psychologist and world-renowned dream specialist Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., offers this rich collection of examples of how the world's most creative practitioners in art, music, film, science, literature and other fields have used the revelations of their dream life to inform their work. Dr. Barrett offers insights showing us how to encourage lucid, meaningful dreaming, and how to apply the meanings of our dreams to solving problems--from the everyday to the extraordinary. This is the stuff dreams are made of. In the visual arts, Jasper Johns couldn't find his unique artistic vision until he dreamed it in the form of a large American flag. Salvador Dali and his colleagues built the startling new genre of surrealism out of dreams. Kubla Kahn dreamed the design for his stately pleasure dome; thousands of years later, Lucy Davis, chief architect at a major firm, continues the tradition of dreaming designs into life in her extraordinary buildings. Film is a fertile avenue for dreams: "Twice I have transferred dreams to film exactly as I had dreamed them," confides director Ingmar Bergman, as have Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, and John Sayles. From Mary Shelley's terrible nightmare, which became Frankenstein, to Stephen King's haunting dream as a little boy, which led to his first bestseller, countless writers have consulted the Committee. Musicians from Beethoven to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney have whistled the Committee's tunes. In science, physiologist Otto Loewi dreamed the medical experiment that earned him the Nobel Prize. In sports, Marion Jones dreamed she'd broken a world record, then brought the dream to life. Gandhi translated his dream of resistance into a movement that changed the world. Since Freud, we take it for granted that our dreams reflect our past. In The Committee of Sleep, Barrett reveals how dreams can also tell us about our future potential--and how to reach it.

Em geral, as teorias da religião colocam em relevo o aspecto de fundamentação e construção de sentido que o discurso religioso estabelece. Assim, a religião é tida como fixação de uma ordem frente ao caos, de um sentido frente ao vazio, de um abrigo frente ao desamparo... enfim, religião tem a ver com construção de mundo. Na contramão dessa percepção, um traço comum dos filmes aqui analisados é apontar para o aspecto de abismo que constitui a religião. Ela não somente desempenha esse papel de fundamentação, mas também pode ser aquilo que desestabiliza, por meio do qual o caos emerge, sendo crítica de si mesma e a desconstrução do mundo constituído. Isto é, a religião pode ser também subversão de mundo.

El presente artículo recorre diferentes proyectos específicos elaborados para la televisión por cineastas trabajando en la órbita de alguna de sus fuentes de origen: teatro en Renoir, novela realista en Pialat, televisualidad en Lynch, y oralidad en Welles. Los específicos de la duración, la repetición o la serialidad, más otras coordenadas afines a la televisión como la simultaneidad, la intimidad y el alcance popular del medio, han convertido a la televisión en un territorio de infinitas posibilidades a explorar a partir de asumir una cierta pobreza de la imagen, esbozada ya en los trabajos televisivos de esos cuatro cineastas.

Show Me Love is Sweden’s first and until recently only lesbian coming-
out story.4 It has become a cult film of modern European and
international gay cinema. Show Me Love is both a coming-of-age
and a coming-out story, simultaneously a Hollywood-inspired high school film and a serious feature that foregrounds lesbian romance.
It oscillates between convention and innovation, between the mundane
and the unusual, and between conformity and radicalism. The
film is a product of its time and place—small-town Sweden in the
late 1990s—yet its reach extends far beyond national borders. Its
complexity derives from the multiple levels of character portrayal,
genre references, aesthetics, allusions to Swedish film history, the
conditions of production, and divergent receptions by audiences and
reviewers in Sweden and all over the world—most notably its Teddy
Award for Best Gay and Lesbian Film at the Berlin Film Festival in
1999 and subsequent screenings at dozens of international gay and
lesbian film festivals. This chapter examines  what it is
in this multilayered mix that has made the film a classic.

Anna Westerstahl Stenport book about Lukas Moodysson presents the director to a broad audience. Known for his English-language film Mammoth (2009) as well as his heartbreaking indictment of sex-trafficking in Sweden, Lilya 4-Ever (2002), Moodysson debuted as a writer and director while still in his twenties with Show Me Love (1998). The film received four Guldbaggar - the Swedish equivalent of the Academy Awards - including best film, best director, best screenplay, and best actresses. A coming-of-age and coming out film about two young women in a stiflingly oppressive small town, Show Me Love is widely considered a youth film classic and was called a "masterpiece" by Ingmar Bergman.

This book includes discussions of the film's genre, aesthetics, and style, and situates the film in both contemporary Swedish cinema and broader Swedish culture. It includes sequence and dialogue analysis and discusses how and why this particular film became so important: its queer significance, its unusually realistic depiction of youth, and its critical reception. Anna Stenport conducted extensive interviews with the cast and crew, including several enlightening discussions with Moodysson himself. Lukas Moodysson's Show Me Love offers an incisive introduction to Moodysson for readers interested in contemporary film, as well as a history and close analysis of changes in the Swedish film industry.

Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966) is, undoubtedly, one of the most influencing films in the history of cinema. Its plot, montage, and direction, apart from being unprecedented, are unusually open to interpretation. Numerous theoretical approaches have been made to decipher or highlight the content of the film, yet not in the theoretical framework of Phenomenology and Ethics.  In my dissertation, I have examined the gradual collapse of the face as we see it in the familiar merging shot of Elisabet’s and Alma’s faces, highlighting elements that have remained mostly unrecognized by the prevalent literature: the child which appears in the film and is present to both  Elizabet’s and Alma’s stories and the iconic picture of World War II  of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising “Forcibly pulled out of bunkers”. The Deleuzian film theory of the affection-image, Jean-Paul Sartre’s phenomenology of the look as manifested in Being and Nothingness, and Paul Ricoeur’s concept of narrative identity was the theoretical framework in which I investigated the collapse of the Face. As a way of reconstructing the Face, I demonstrated, on the one hand, the first-person narrative in the example of Primo Levi’s If This is a Man, and on the other hand, the experience of Otherness through Emmanuel Levinas’ metaphysics.

Ingmar Bergman was an internationally respected Swedish film and theatre director and writer whose diverse and complex works continue to captivate audiences worldwide. His films have been considered art and he a poet whilst the themes and emotions present in his cinema have relevance and profundity to anyone questioning the human condition. His works have influenced many other directors including Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky and Krzysztof Kieslowski and his films have inspired much respectful imitation and homage from, amongst numerous others, the works of Woody Allen. As an admirer of film art and an aspirant to be involved in the production of cinema I believe it will prove valuable for me to understand the techniques and themes of Bergman’s work and it is for that reason I am pursuing this project. As this is a research lead essay, it is my intention to provide evidence that supports the idea that Ingmar Bergman was a major creative influence on his filmography and that he channelled his personal experiences into the screen imagery he produced. I intend to first establish the personality of Bergman and then offer evidence of how the themes and imagery of his films reflect his individuality thus establishing him as an auteur (author) or artist of cinema.

A critical review of Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Ida', within the frame of the controversies raised by the film in Poland, and with a look at its implication in the broader debate of Jewish-Polish relations, both in Poland and abroad. The paper also investigates the film's 'political unconscious', and points out to its aesthetic lineage to the high modernist films of Ingmar Bergman.

is a Swedish cinematographer whose work belongs to what is called "the serious cinema." Ordinarily he writes his own screenplays and directs the filming of them. The title of this particular film, "The Seventh Seal," comes from the book of Revelation in the Bible and thus sets an apocalyptic tone to give a feeling that the film deals with ultimate issues, such as the ultimate reality for human beings, the actual or possible significance of human action, the meaningfulness or unmeaningfulness of religion, and the dilemma of modern people.

I am writing a research paper in my Film and Philosophy course that explores Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal in relation to Bergman's own fear of death. I will eventually expand on the topic, but I figured I would post the mini version that I have written now. This is a 1st draft, so expect it to be a little rough around the edges.

PERSONA gilt sicherlich als einer der rätselhaftesten und experimentellsten Filme Bergmans Oeuvre. Seine wesentliche Ambiguität bringt unvermeidlich riesige Auslegungsschwierigkeiten, auf die die Kritiker seit der Filmpremiere von 1966 immer wieder stoßen, hervor. Dies hat eine der maßgeblichsten Stimmen der internationalen Kulturlandschaft dazu gebracht, den Verzicht auf eine Interpretation, die die Analyseinstrumente der traditionellen Erzähltechnik einschließt, zu erklären. 1 Der Film stellt nämlich eine Zäsur in der bergmanschen Filmografie dar, denn der Regisseur zeigt erst in diesem Werk deutlich den Einfluss des internationalen Kunstkinos der 60er Jahren und untersucht dabei weitere Möglichkeiten des Mediums, die in den früheren Werken noch nicht experimentiert werden. 2 Verschiedene Aspekte dieses wie anderer Kunstfilme können (und wollen?) auf vielfältige Weise die ZuschauerInnen frustrieren, da die Neugierde des Publikums durch Unklarheiten betreffend die Handlung, die Charakterisierung der Figuren bzw. die Aufführung der Mise en Scène nicht erfüllt wird. Darüber hinaus ist oftmals irgendeine Botschaft seitens des auteurfalls vorhandenschwer zu entziffern. 3 Vor diesem Hintergrund entwickeln sich unterschiedliche Ansätze auf den Film seitens der Kritik, die einerseits dem Werk eine ‚unanfechtbare' Bedeutung zu geben versuchen, andererseits sich innerhalb der Grenzen eines verkleinerten und äußerst subjektiven Horizonts kristallisieren. Es sieht aus, dass ein rechtkräftiges Urteil über dieses allgemein anerkannte Meisterwerk definitiv ausgeschlossen sei. Es wäre daher an dieser Stelle vernünftig, auf den "Primat des Inhalts" 4 zu verzichten, um das Potenzielle der Form zu erlösen. Allerdings scheint es zweckmäßig, die Möglichkeit eines kombinierten Ansatzes zu berücksichtigen: Das heißt die Aussicht, sowohl die Sonderstellung der Form bei der Analyse anzuerkennen als auch Interpretationsperspektiven anzubieten. Angesichts dessen wird in dieser Arbeit der Fokus auf formale sowie inhaltliche Aspekte des Films liegen. 1 Nämlich Susan Sontag, die PERSONA (neben anderen Meisterwerken wie LETZTES JAHR IN MARIENBAD) eine Sonderstellung gibt, wonach das Material, aus dem der Film besteht, als thematische Ressource behandelt werden soll. Vgl. Susan Sontag: "Bergman's Persona", in: Lloyd Michaels (Hrsg.): Ingmar Bergman's Persona,

After a basic outline of the characteristics of film dreams, the essay will use four case studies to give a survey of their history between 1945 and 1990, concentrating on the affiliation of film dreams with dominant cultural themes and movements in intellectual history. Alfred Hitchcock’s "Spellbound" (1945) shows the importance of the reception of psychoanalysis for the inclusion of dreams in films of the classic period, but also the needs to avoid strict adherence to psychoanalytic dogmas. Hans Richter’s Narcissus- dream in his "Dreams That Money Can Buy" (1947) draws on the legacy of avant-garde cinema and blends it with a new interest in existential psychology, thus combining the two most important functions of dreams in film: psychological characterization and filmic innovation. In a similar way Ingmar Bergman’s "Face to Face" (1976) brings the innovations of Existential Modernism to mainstream cinema. Akira Kurosawa’s "Dreams" (1990) is in many respects a special case: It draws freely on East-Asian traditions of dream theory and dream representation but combines them with Westernstyle auto-fiction and new CGI technology.

Il presente lavoro mira a fornire un approfondimento dell’opera di Ingmar Bergman e dei contesti filosofici, biografici e storico-culturali in cui prende forma, ponendo altresì l’accento sugli sviluppi del modernismo letterario svedese e sul pensiero del finlandese Eino Kaila. Il testo propone un’analisi comparativa degli autori conterranei e non a Bergman – tra cui Søren Kierkegaard, August Strindberg, Pär Lagerkvist, Stig Dagerman e Albert Camus – che gli hanno permesso di impostare le sue future ricerche filosofiche sul silenzio di Dio, sul dubbio e sull’angoscia (ångest) come strumenti della conoscenza, sul concetto centrale di utplånande (l’essere annichilito dallo scorrere del tempo) e sulla dialettica problematica tra agnosticismo puro e nostalgia fideistica. Giusta rilevanza sarà data alla produzione sia drammaturgica che letteraria di Bergman la quale ha rappresentato l’iniziale output creativo con cui il futuro regista – non abbandonando la scrittura per il teatro – darà espressione al clima angoscioso degli anni Quaranta. I risvolti e le risoluzioni dell’iniziale pessimismo che Bergman erediterà dal suo humus culturale saranno incarnati sul valore attribuito alla libertà dell’agire come fine supremo a cui l’uomo tende, in questo riallacciandosi alla filosofia di Immanuel Kant. Il fecondo rapporto con Kaila, eminente personalità dell’empirismo logico, è stato più volte sottolineato dal regista il quale dichiarò – nella prefazione al volume Quattro film – che da un punto di vista filosofico vi è stato un libro che ebbe un’enorme influenza su di lui: la psicologia della personalità (Persoonallisus in lingua originale) di Eino Kaila. La tesi centrale di questo testo, che l’uomo vive strettamente a contatto con i propri bisogni, negativi e positivi, ebbe su Bergman un effetto sconvolgente e costruì su questa base. Il lavoro presenterà in che modo alcuni snodi concettuali sorti dal pensiero di Kaila – rientrante anch’esso nelle cosiddette filosofie del doiazein (δοιάζειν) – siano confluiti nell’operato di Bergman e come al tempo siano stati rielaborati personalmente dal regista svedese. Successivamente una parte sarà dedicata all’analisi del secondo film della trilogia del silenzio di Dio, Nattvardsgästerna, in cui tutti i temi cari all’autore prenderanno corpo nei loro risvolti più ardui e drammatici. Come chiosa finale, in appendice, il testo si conclude con una disamina dettagliata di Ormskinnet, il saggio che il regista scrisse in occasione della celebrazione del premio Erasmus, conferitogli nel 1965 in ex aequo con Chaplin. Contenuto in Artiklar, essäer, föredrag, una silloge antologica curata dalla Norstedts, Ormskinnet – tradotto in italiano “la pelle di serpente” – indaga le cause della fame artistica, del ruolo che all’artista è concesso di coprire in un’epoca in cui l’impulso vitale della creazione, il suo orizzonte di senso, pare essersi estinto sotto lo spesso strato di nichilismo estetico delle avanguardie (in cui le arti iniziano a influenzarsi e a generarsi a vicenda) e dove l’arte si è emancipata dalla fede: il taglio del cordone ombelicale. Ciò che più conta per Bergman, riprendendo una massima del drammaturgo americano Eugene O’Neill, è il rapporto dell’uomo con Dio. Tutto il resto è privo di importanza

"I nostri rapporti con il prossimo si limitano per la maggior parte al pettegolezzo e a una sterile critica del suo comportamento. Questa constatazione mi ha lentamente portato a isolarmi dalla cosiddetta vita sociale e mondana. Le mie giornate trascorrono in solitudine e senza troppe emozioni. Ho dedicato la mia esistenza al lavoro e di ciò non mi rammarico affatto. Incominciai per guadagnarmi il pane quotidiano e finii con una profonda deferente passione per la scienza. Ho un figlio, anche lui medico, che vive a Lund. È sposato da anni ma non ha avuto bambini. Mia madre vive ancora ed è molto attiva e molto vivace, malgrado la sua tarda età. Mia moglie, Karin, è morta da diversi anni. Ho la fortuna di avere una buona governante. Dovrei aggiungere che sono un vecchio cocciuto e pedante, e questo fatto rende sovente la vita difficile sia a me sia alle persone che mi stanno vicine. Mi chiamo Eberhard Isak Borg, ed ho settantotto anni. Domani nella cattedrale di Lund si celebrerà il mio giubileo professionale". Questo (magnifico) monologo in voce over accompagna le immagini che precedono i titoli di testa. La sequenza successiva si risolve in un sogno (primo inserto soggettivo: l'incubo degli orologi senza lancette), carico di presagi di morte. Al risveglio Isak decide di partire da Stoccolma prima dell'alba, in automobile anziché in aereo. Nel viaggio lo accompagna la nuora Marianne, in crisi col marito. In mattinata i due si fermano presso una villa dove Isak rivive in sogno un episodio della propria adolescenza (secondo inserto: l'onomastico dello zio Aron) e ritrova, nel posto delle fragole, la cugina Sara di cui era innamorato. L'uomo è richiamato alla realtà dall'arrivo di una ragazza, anche lei di nome Sara, che gli chiede un passaggio sino a Lund, insieme a due suoi amici autostoppisti.

Es ist schon über 10 Jahre her, daß ich die Filme Ingmar Bergmans für mich entdeckte. Sie zogen mich sofort in ihren Bann. Ich dachte mir, da wird in einer Unmittelbarkeit und Tiefe, die selten erreicht wird, nach den sogenannten wesentlichen Dingen des Lebens wie Liebe, Glück, Sinn, Tod und Gott gefragt. Damit erklärte ich mir damals auch meine Betroffenheit. Heute denke ich, daß nicht diese Fragen an sich die Anziehungskraft für mich ausmachen, sondern der narzißtische Blickwinkel, von dem aus sie gestellt und untersucht werden. In den letzten Jahren hat sich zunehmend der Wunsch aufgedrängt, mich intensiver und -von der Psychoanalyseausbildung her gesehen -professioneller mit Bergman und seinen Filmen zu beschäftigen. Nun hat sich die Abschlußarbeit der Ausbildung als Anlaß dafür angeboten. Ich bin viele Filme und Literatur zunächst mit dem versuchsweisen Thema "Narzißtische Charaktere in den Filmen Bergmans" durchgegangen. Da sich das als zu umfangreich herausgestellt hat -es gibt kaum einen Filmregisseur, über dessen Werk so viel geschrieben wurde -, habe ich beschlossen, mich auf einen Film zu beschränken: Wilde Erdbeeren aus dem Jahre 1957.

Σε αυτή τη μελέτη οι έννοιες του χώρου και του χρόνου προτείνονται σαν θεωρητικό εργαλείο ανάλυσης με σκοπό να αποτελέσουν μια χαρτογράφηση του έργου “Οι Κοινωνούντες”, του Ίνγκμαρ Μπέργκμαν διότι αποτελούν μια αλλαγή παραδείγματος στον τρόπο που προσλαμβάνουμε τον κόσμο στη μοντέρνα εποχή. Εν προκειμένω, η έρευνα έχει στόχο να προσεγγίσει το εχγείρημα του Μπέργκμαν, την απάντηση που προσπαθεί να δώσει στο μεταφυσικό ερώτημα της ύπαρξης του Θεού, χρησιμοποιώντας ως αφετηρία τις θεμελιώδης έννοιες εποπτείας. Κατοικώντας μαζί με τον Μπέργκμαν το πνευματικό κενό επιχειρείται η ανάδυση της μεταφυσικής εμπειρίας την οποία κατασκευάζει ο σκηνοθέτης με τις μοναδικές κινηματογραφικές του ποιότητες.

Wyprodukowany w 1957 roku film Siódma pieczęć Ingmara Bergmana, to jedno z najbardziej znanych dzieł szwedzkiego reżysera. Mimo że widzowie postrzegają ten obraz przede wszystkim jako film, za kulisami tej produkcji kryje się kilka interesujących przykładów, które mogą potwierdzić tezę, że jest to jeden z utworów, w których Bergman zebrał najwięcej elementów, które można uznać za korespondencję sztuk. W niniejszej pracy postaram się dowieść, że na film Bergmana olbrzymi wpływ miało malarstwo. Wskażę również inspiracje literackie, choć ich znaczenie wydaje się być nieco mniejsze. Prowadzą one jednak do związku filmu z teatrem, uznałem więc za stosowne wspomnieć również o nich. Podstawowym materiałem badawczym, oprócz filmu Bergmana, będą dla mnie jego własne wspomnienia oraz opracowania badaczy, dotyczące jego twórczości.

Este trabalho se propõe a realizar uma análise comparativa entre dois produtos audiovisuais lançados nos anos 1950, o filme de Bergman O sétimo selo e o episódio da série de TV Além da imaginação “One for the angels” a partir da maneira com que estas produções, em seus respectivos meios, encontram abordagens epistemológicas diferentes a respeito do problema metafísico da morte. Enquanto o filme de Bergman se ocupa do discurso moderno do cinema para buscar um tipo de dialética com o incognoscível imaginário medieval (assumindo a falência de seu próprio modelo), o episódio de TV abandona uma abordagem histórica da morte e da arte para assumir o potencial recriador da cultura de imagens, produzindo ao mesmo tempo uma solução sem referentes para a morte e para a cultura pós-midiática em si.

Bu çalışmada İsveç'in dünya sinemasına kazandırdığı bir usta olan Ingmar Bergman sineması, filmlerinin temaları çerçevesinde incelenmiş ve yönetmenin sinema tarihinde önemli bir yeri olan Yedinci Mühür filmi ele alınmıştır. Bu çerçevede Bergman sinemasına yön veren tematik özelliklerin, sembolik anlamlarla fazlaca yüklü olan Yedinci Mühür'de de yer aldığı dikkati çekmektedir. Bergman Sineması'nı anlamak; onun aile ilişkilerini, yaşantısını, düşüncelerini anlamaktır. Çocukluk ve gençlik yıllarında yaşadıkları, daha sonra filmlerini tümüyle etkileyecek olan Bergman, kendine ait film dili, yarattığı mizansenler ve filmlerinin temalarıyla bir auteurdür ve birçok yönetmeni film dilini oluştururken etkilemiş, onlara esin kaynağı olmuştur. 1956 yapımı olan bu film, gerek sinematografik özellikleri, gerekse senaryosu açısından günümüzde de dünya sinemasının başyapıtları arasındadır. Anahtar sözcükler: Ingmar Bergman, İsveç Sineması, Yedinci Mühür, şövalye. AN AUTEUR FROM SWEDISH CINEMA: INGMAR BERGMAN AND "SEVENTH SEAL"

From the back cover:

"‘Post-War Modernist Cinema and Philosophy: Confronting Negativity and Time' represents an advanced, sophisticated, extremely well informed and challenging contribution to the rapidly growing area of film-philosophy scholarship. It will become an important moment in (re)establishing the philosophical significance of cinema (and film studies’ efforts in addressing this) well before the current trend in Anglo-American Philosophy’s 'discovering' of film emerged. . . . Ford draws on a wide range of research across film, modernist cultural and aesthetic theory and continental philosophical terrains. The work engages both with more recent film-philosophy scholarship and the disciplinary resources of film studies work on the movements and individual filmmakers in question. A successful and important contribution to scholarship on these films, their historical and aesthetic significance and their capacity to 'do' philosophy."
— Patrick Crogan, University of the West of England, UK

"Often, work in this area is far too devoted to a particular theoretical corpus and tends to lose originality; alternatively it falls into being a merely impressionistic mention of philosophy to make otherwise unremarkable claims. Hamish Ford’s book is remarkable for its engagement with the deepest problems of modernist aesthetics and the presentation of time. He works closely with cinema, philosophy and criticism while always maintaining his own argumentative position."
— Claire Colebrook, Penn State University, USA
                                                     
"Hamish Ford’s energetic and erudite work is both theoretically and historically engaged and highly accessible to a broad readership. He is ideally positioned to contribute significantly to the discussion of post-war European cinema through this important book."
— Adrian Danks, RMIT University, Australia, co-editor of Senses of Cinema

'Post-War Modernist Cinema and Philosophy: Confronting Negativity and Time' is a unique study of four feature films chosen as emblematic works of 1960s modernist cinema. 'Persona' (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) and 'Two or Three Things I Know About Her' (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967) are explored through the theme of negativity, while 'L’eclisse' (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) and 'Last Year in Marienbad' (Alain Resnais, 1961) are examined for their violent rendering of time. The book argues that these films exemplify film modernism at its peak of philosophical interest, substance and significance. Its focused analysis of four emblematic works selectively draws on the work of German philosopher and aesthetic theorist Theodor Adorno, in particular his account of negativity, and French poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s analysis of temporality in post-war cinema, amongst other theoretical and critical sources. Grounding this study is a close consideration of the critical and aesthetically remarkable gaze these particular films cast upon their immediate social real and modernities as presented on screen. But rather than a strictly historical analysis, the book suggests that such complex and profoundly ambivalent renderings of the modern world have much to say to us today via what amounts to a genuinely challenging return in digital form, the films' remarkable aesthetic surfaces and layers looking even more properly science fiction-like than ever. 'Post-War Modernist Cinema and Philosophy: Confronting Negativity and Time' will appeal both to an academic audience, from upper-level undergraduate through to career researcher level, and a wider readership attracted by the book’s extensive analysis and appreciation of films that have countless and increasing admirers the world over."

Published review: Michael Godard, Senses of Cinema, July 2016, Issue 79, online: http://sensesofcinema.com/2016/book-reviews/post-war-modernist-cinema-and-philosophy/

ÖZET Yönetmenliği ve senaryosu Ingmar Bergman tarafından yapılmış bir film klasiği olan Yedinci Mühür'de İsveç Kraliyeti'nin Haçlı Şövalyeleri'nden biri olan Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), kutsal topraklar için on yıl savaştıktan sonra yanındaki silahtarı Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand) ile birlikte ülkesi İsveç'e döner. Zaman 14. yüzyıldır. Veba, İsveç'te hızla yayılmakta, salgının neden olduğu ölümler her geçen gün artmaktadır. Şövalye, güneş doğmadan önce hiç uyumamış gibi görünmektedir. Kalkar, denizin kenarına yürür, yüzünü yıkar, dua eder. Atını ve eşyalarını yol için hazırlarken, etrafa sessizlik hakimdir. İzlenildiğini hisseder ve siyahlar içerisinde yüzü bembeyaz hareketsiz bir figür görür. Ölüm (Bengt Ekerot), doğrudan kameraya (izleyiciye) bakmaktadır. Ölüm, şövalyenin canını almak üzere kameraya doğru yürür. Şövalye ölüme satranç oynamayı teklif eder. Eğer şövalye kazanırsa ölüm, onun canını bağışlayacaktır. Antonius Block, Jöns'le birlikte evine doğru yolculuk ederken oyun da devam edecektir. Jöns filmdeki en ilginç figürdür. Filmdeki diğer insanların aksine bilinçli, bir şeylerin farkında olarak yaşar. Materyalist ve şüphecidir. Diğer insanların acılarına karşı duyarsız değildir. Şövalye Tanrı'nın varlığına dair soru sormaya devam ederken Jöns diğerlerine yardım eder. Jöns, hayattan olabildiğince zevk almaya çalışır. Kuzu'nun (Hz. İsa) Yedinci Mühür'ü açtığını duyuran bir sesle ve şövalye Antonious Block'un karşısında ansızın Ölüm'ü bulmasıyla başlar. Adını Kutsal Kitap'ın vahiyler bölümünden alan filmin klasik temel sahnesi şövalyenin, sonu ertelemek, zaman kazanmak ve inancını doğrulamak amacıyla ölüm ile giriştiği satranç oyunudur. Şövalye ölümün önünde diz çökerek, ona boyun eğerek göçüp gitmeyi içine sindiremez. Ölümü anlamlandırmak, ne için öldüğünü, niye ölümü hak ettiğini bilmek ister. Riske girmeli, kendini kanıtlamalı, gerekirse meydan okumalı, fakat her ne olursa olsun anlamlı bir an yaratmalıdır. Oyun bu anın, ölüm karşısındaki bu "anlam arayışı"nın sembolüdür. Şövalye eğer ölecekse, niye öleceğini bilmeli, hiç olmazsa "Oyunu kaybettiğim için öleceğim" diyebilmelidir. Şövalye ve silahtarı Jöns yolculuk boyunca filmdeki öbür karakterlerle karşılaşırlar. Jof (Nils Poppe) ve Mia (Bibi Andersson), iki yaşındaki bebekleriyle mutlu bir ailedir. İşleri oradan oraya gezerek; küçük tiyatro oyunları ve hokkabazlık yaparak insanları eğlendirmektir. Skat (Erik Strandmark) da bu aileye eşlik eden ve oynanan oyunların yönetimini üstlenen bir başka karakterdir. Mia ve Jof, basit sorular sorarlar, onların varlığı, birlikte olmanın gücüyle derinlik kazanır. Jof ve Mia için dünya açıktır, aşikardır. Ölüm sorusu onları ilgilendirmez, sadece yaşarlar. Jof, Mia ve Mikael'den (Tommy Karlsson) oluşan bu küçük aile sanatı ve sanatçıyı temsil ettiği kadar, erdemi, saflığı, birlikteliği ve tutku dolu, içten bir yaşam sevgisini de temsil eder. Şövalye ve Jöns, yol boyunca yalnız bu aileyle değil kilise duvarlarını süsleyen ressamdan, şeytanla ilişki kurduğu ve vebaya neden olduğu gerekçesiyle yakılarak öldürülmek istenen genç kıza, bir keşişe, demirci ustası olan Plog (Åke Fridell) ile onun karısına (Inga Gill) ve Raval (Bertil Anderberg) adında bir sahtekâra varıncaya kadar çok çeşitli karakterlerle ve olaylarla karşılaşırlar. Şövalye, en sonunda yanındakilerle birlikte evine, karısına ulaşmayı başarır. Fakat ölümle oynadığı oyunu kaybetmiştir. Bu yüzden kendisiyle birlikte yanındakiler de ölüme yenileceklerdir. Ancak şövalyenin ölümle oyunu sırasında bilerek taşları yere düşürmesi; Jof, Mia ve bebekleri Mikael'in ölümden kurtulmalarını sağlar. Filmin son sahnelerinde ölüm yine sessizdir ve bu muhteşem bir sessizliktir. Yedinci mühür açılmış, son gelmiştir. Şövalyenin başarısızlığına hiçbir açıklama verilmez. İnsan Tanrı ile karşılaşmak için boşuna didinmiştir. Yalnızlığını diğer insanlarla kurduğu sevgi ilişkileri ile tedavi edecektir. Yedinci Mühür'ün sonunda insan korkusuna ve yalnızlığına kurtarıcı bir cevap bulamaz.

This article concerns the complex nature of post-war European film modernism’s historicity. According to András Bálint Kovács, this cinema rose in an arc starting from the mid-1950s, peaking in the 1960s, and slowly petering out by 1980. At its best such historicizing produces precise contextual detailing, rather than romantic, hermetic affirmation or subsequent backlash dismissal, in the process creating room for new accounts of films and filmmakers beyond their role in the heated politics of then-contemporary critical taste and the competitive linear regime of vanguard innovation. But we also need to look closely at the peculiarities of this particular modernist cinema’s apparent ‘past-ness’ as revealing crucial elements of modernism’s perennial (if variously contested or disavowed) power, challenge and attraction. This article explores the uncanny, untimely return of such cinema’s 1960s apogee, embedded in a very real past while also emerging from virtual
futures, as it complicates anew our unstable present.

Paul Schrader's 'First Reformed' (2017) is in many ways a thorough embodiment of the aesthetic principles that constitute the so called 'transcendental style in film', as put by the book that Schrader wrote and was published in 1972. This book chapter is aimed at exploring how the transposition of these principles into a particular film has been meaningfully influenced by Schrader's religious worldview.

My dissertation entitled, “Ingmar Bergman’s portrayal of death and dreams in his autobiographically influenced films leading to a new film language” argues that the films of the Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman has been inspired from his early life. This autobiographical element in his art forms lead to the creation of unique masterpieces with stylistic techniques which are unprecedented thus giving rise to a completely new language of film.
By analysing four of his films: “Fanny and Alexander” (1982), “Cries and Whispers” (1972), “The Seventh Seal” (1957) and “Wild Strawberries” (1957); I have drawn attention to the way he focused on the metaphysical world unlike his contemporary film makers who made social and economic conditions after the World War II as the central themes of their work of art.
The oppressive adult society which led him to create his own world of imagination as a child and escape reality through it gets translated into visual masterpieces through films later in his life. Dreams help to shape our inner psyche just like real experiences do. The unique portrayal of dreams permeating reality and acting as a means of self-realization is focused in the thesis. The realization of the real meaning of life upon confrontation with the timelessness of death plays a central role in many of his films.
The thesis argues how Bergman’s films serve not only as an inspiration to other film-makers and as entertainment for the viewers but also takes the spectators on a journey to a parallel world of imagination and dreams rooted in reality, in turn leading to introspection and finally affecting our life’s philosophy.

Is silence torture or transcendence? Film scholar Phoebe Pua examines the presence of metaphysical silence in the cinemas of the two great auteurs Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky. Foregrounding essential similarities and differences, Phoebe explores the complex duality of silence and asks whether silence is intrinsically empty or expressive.

This essay is a revised version of Chapters 1 and 4 of Compositions of crisis: Sound and silence in the films of Bergman and Tarkovsky, which can be accessed in full via https://www.academia.edu/7553371/Compositions_of_crisis_Sound_and_silence_in_the_films_of_Bergman_and_Tarkovsky