Ingmar Bergman: Trending quotes

Ingmar Bergman trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection
Ingmar Bergman: 150 quotes10 likes

“Faith is a torment, did you know that? It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.”

Ingmar Bergman

Source: The Seventh Seal

“Death: Do you never stop questioning?
Antonius Block: No. I never stop.”

Ingmar Bergman

Source: The Seventh Seal

“I am living permanently in my dream, from which I make brief forays into reality.”

Ingmar Bergman

Source: Images: My Life in Film

“I have always had the ability to attach my demons to my chariot. And they have been forced to make themselves useful.”

Ingmar Bergman

Source: Images: My Life in Film

“Occasionally I sense an insane wail deep down in the pit, the echo alone reaching me, striking without warning, a child weeping uninhibitedly, imprisoned forever.”

Ingmar Bergman

Source: The Magic Lantern

“If you have a faith, if you've some deep conviction, whether you're a Nazi or a Communist or what the hell else you are — then you can sacrifice yourself and others to your faith. But from the moment you've no faith — from that moment you live in a deep inner confusion — from then on you're exposed to what Strindberg calls 'the powers.”

Ingmar Bergman

Bergman on Bergman (1970)

“I want very much to tell, to talk about, the wholeness inside every human being. It's a strange thing that every human being has a sort of dignity or wholeness in him, and out of that develops relationships to other human beings, tensions, misunderstandings, tenderness, coming in contact, touching and being touched, the cutting off of a contact and what happens then.”

Ingmar Bergman

As quoted in Ingmar Bergman Directs (1972) by John Simon

“I had recklessly dared to do what I wouldn't dare to do today. The knight performs his morning prayer. When he is ready to pack up his chess set, he turns around, and there stands Death. 'Who are you?' asks the knight. 'I am Death.' Bengt Ekerot and I agreed that Death should have the features of a white clown. An amalgamation of a clown mask and a skull. It was a delicate and dangerous artistic move, which could have failed. Suddenly, an actor appears in whiteface, dressed all in black, and announces that he is Death. Everyone accepted the dramatic feat that he was Death, instead of saying, 'Come on now, don't try to put something over us! You can't fool us! We can see that you are just a talented actor who is painted white and clad in black! You're not Death at all!”

Ingmar Bergman

But nobody protested. That made me feel triumphant and joyous.
Images : My Life in Films (1990)

“For me he's just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of — is all the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie's got is absolutely unbelievable.”

Ingmar Bergman

On the work of Orson Welles
Jan Aghed interview (2002)

“I think he's a very good technician. And he has something in Psycho, he had some moments. Psycho is one of his most interesting pictures because he had to make the picture very fast, with very primitive means. He had little money, and this picture tells very much about him. Not very good things. He is completely infantile, and I would like to know more — no, I don't want to know — about his behaviour with, or, rather, against women. But this picture is very interesting.”

Ingmar Bergman

On Alfred Hitchcock in an interview with John Simon (1971).

“This damned ranting about doom. Is that food for the minds of modern people? Do they really expect us to take them seriously?”

Ingmar Bergman

"Jöns" (Gunnar Björnstrand) in The Seventh Seal (1957).
Films

“The Seventh Seal is one of the few films really close to my heart. Actually, I don't know why. It's certainly far from perfect. I had to contend with all sorts of madness, and one can detect here and there the speed with which it was made. But I find it even, strong, and vital.”

Ingmar Bergman

Images : My Life in Films (1990)

“Love her? You're devoid of all feeling. You lack common decency. You know how to express yourself. You always have just the right words. There's just one thing you haven't the slightest clue about: life itself. You're a craven coward, but a genius at evasions and excuses.”

Ingmar Bergman

"Martin" (Max von Sydow) in Through a Glass Darkly (1961).
Films

“I don't want to produce a work of art that the public can sit and suck aesthetically…. I want to give them a blow in the small of the back, to scorch their indifference, to startle them out of their complacency.”

Ingmar Bergman

As quoted in "Film master Ingmar Bergman dies at 89" by Myrna Oliver in Los Angeles Times (31 July 2007) http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-me-bergman31jul31,0,3877362,full.story?coll=la-home-world.

“He's done two masterpieces, you don't have to bother with the rest. One is Blow-Up, which I've seen many times, and the other is La Notte, also a wonderful film, although that's mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Il Grido, and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade… He concentrated on single images, never realising that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don't feel anything for L'Avventura, for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress.”

Ingmar Bergman

On Michelangelo Antonioni
Variant translation: Antonioni has never properly learnt his craft. He's an aesthete. If, for example, he needs a certain kind of road for The Red Desert, then he gets the houses repainted on the damned street. That is the attitude of an aesthete. He took great care over a single shot, but didn't understand that a film is a rhythmic stream of images, a living, moving process; for him, on the contrary, it was such a shot, then another shot, then yet another. So, sure, there are some brilliant bits in his films... I can't understand why Antonioni is held in such high esteem.
Jan Aghed interview (2002)

“The demons are innumerable, arrive at the most inappropriate times and create panic and terror… but I have learned that if I can master the negative forces and harness them to my chariot, then they can work to my advantage…. Lilies often grow out of carcasses' arseholes.”

Ingmar Bergman

As quoted in "Bergman talks of his dreams and demons in rare interview" http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Exclusive/0,,617467,00.html by Xan Brooks The Guardian (12 December 2001).

“I stick to what I know. If I've objected strongly to Christianity, it has been because Christianity is deeply branded by a very virulent humiliation motif. One of its main tenets is 'I, a miserable sinner, born in sin, who have sinned all my days, etc.' Our way of living and behaving under this punishment is completely atavistic. I could go on talking about this humiliation business for ever. It's one of the big basic experiences. I react very strongly to every form of humiliation; and a person in my situation, in my position, has been exposed to whole series of real humiliations. Not to mention having humiliated others!”

Ingmar Bergman

Torsten Manns interview <!-- pages 80-81 -->
Bergman on Bergman (1970)

“I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images.”

Ingmar Bergman

The New York Times (22 January 1978).

“Say anything you want against The Seventh Seal. My fear of death — this infantile fixation of mine — was, at that moment, overwhelming. I felt myself in contact with death day and night, and my fear was tremendous. When I finished the picture, my fear went away. I have the feeling simply of having painted a canvas in an enormous hurry — with enormous pretension but without any arrogance. I said, 'Here is a painting; take it, please.”

Ingmar Bergman

Interview with Charles Thomas Samuels (1971).