9 Moments From Ingrid Bergman on her 99th Birthday

Aside from all the moments in Ingrid's work, there are a few that come to mind that are a bit out of the ordinary. This list changes, but I thought I'd give 9 of them to you on her 99th birthday!

9. The champagne scene from "Anastasia." Because all they serve there is champagne.

8. The dancing scene from "Cactus Flower." The film is scored by Johnny Williams (aka John Williams) and why aren't we still doing these moves? I am. I'm still doing these moves.

7. The patriotism scene from "Notorious." I've used this line too many times. It's fantastic, especially after a night of drinking and driving.

6. The bed scene from "Indiscreet." "When Harry Met Sally" totally stole this technique from Stanley Donen, but I'm not complaining. It's sexy, funny and WORKS.

5. The Chopin scene from "Autumn Sonata." This one isn't funny, but it's one of the most moving scenes in her work. Liv Ullmann, Ingmar Bergman and Ingrid Bergman all in the same room, plus Ingrid shows off how she can tickle the ivories. 

4. The dream sequence from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." This is a colorized version, which normally I'm not a fan of, but in this case, it makes it more terrifying and creepy. Ivy is a hot mess, and I think that's great.   

3. The piano scene from "Intermezzo." Women can play piano faster than men can play violin. Also, never hire a hot piano teacher because she will steal your husband and your children will love her more.

2. The dancing scene from "Indiscreet." Cary Grant hopping around like an idiot and Ingrid pretending to be mad at him. Two words: Gold dress. 

1. The psychotic break scene from "Gaslight." You know you've earned your Oscar when they coin a phrase after your performance, and I'm not just "gaslighting" you about this one.  

Autumn is the Time For Bergman

I recently had a revelation that I haven't posted her in a long time and that I would like to attempt to get back in to Bergman blogging.

I just wrote a post on my blog, Alexis Morrell Comedy, about Ingrid Bergman and the film "Autumn Sonata."

I'd like it to be available to everyone here as well, so here is a link: "Autumn Sonata"

I feel badly for not continuing my work here. I have been in graduate school and then have been working in film since. I guess I have to, like Ingrid, follow my dreams.

I did visit the TCM Film Festival this past year, I also thought about Ingrid on her birth/death day and have been longing to write to you all once again.

If you went to the TCMFF, please feel free to post comments and thoughts! I hope that I can figure out a way to go again this year. I have lost my status as a student, so those passes are no longer at my disposal... Official first world problems.

Next Movie Post

I know that the last post for a movie was quite long and took me a while to actually get up there but I'd like to know if you want me to do another Ingrid film review?

I was thinking the next one could be of one of the following:

Autumn Sonata

Casablanca

or

The Bells of St. Mary's

Let's have a vote! Let me know what movie you'd like to see...

Please vote in the poll on the side bar or leave a comment-- better yet--DO BOTH! :)

Thanks for your readership and your contributions

<3>

The Movie Projector Blog

I recently stumbled upon The Movie Projector blog and I absolutely love it. I think it's a well organized blog, intensely and educatedly written.

Here is a link to the analysis of Autumn Sonata composed by R.D. Finch.

Thank you R.D. Finch for your blog.

A.V. Club Review "Autumn Sonata"

I was looking around the A.V. Club and found this review of Autumn Sonata. I think it is a fantastic review and reveals my sentiments in perfect context.

Autumn Sonata (VHS&DVD) By Keith Phillips March 29, 2002.

When it was released in 1978, Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonatareceived positive to indifferent reviews, written off by many as a minor work from a great director. In the grand scheme of things, that may be a fair assessment, but it must have been quite a golden age if a film this strong warranted dismissal. Like many of the later films of Bergman (and, for that matter, Fellini, Kurosawa, Truffaut, Godard, and others), Autumn Sonata has been only sporadically available on video, and then sometimes in inferior incarnations. Now, however, viewers finally have the opportunity to reappraise it in this fine restored form. A chamber piece for a handful of actors, Autumn Sonata stars frequent Bergman collaborator Liv Ullmann and first-time Bergman star Ingrid Bergman as a mother and daughter who reunite after seven years to spend a long, dark night turning over their differences. With cinematographer Sven Nykvist, the director turns the film's theatrical elements—the soliloquies, the long exchanges—into virtues, creating a film that's alternately warm, claustrophobic, and brutally raw, telling the story largely through long close-ups and close, two-character compositions. It doesn't hurt that they're given the remarkable performances of Ullmann and Ingrid Bergman to work with. Sonata would be the latter's last big screen role; she was already aware of the cancer that would kill her four years later, a fact revealed on the insightful DVD commentary track by Scandinavian film scholar Peter Cowie. Her performance as a famous concert pianist whose humanity comes through more in her art than in her life—there's more than a touch of her character in Woody Allen's Sweet And Lowdown—reveals a well of sadness perfectly in tune with the movie as a whole. With the burden of high expectations lifted, Autumn Sonata can finally be seen as an austerely beautiful meditation on death and the not-always-realized possibility of reconciliation across generations.

Intermezzo: A Love Story and Ingrid's First American Film

TCM is showing some of Lesley Howard's films and of course this means they are showing Intermezzo: A Love Story in which he co-stars opposite Ingrid Bergman. This version of the film was made in 1939 and used a lot of clips and words from the original.


This movie is one of her best. The film is a re-make of the 1936 hit in Sweden, in which she starred with Gustaf Molander



This movie is incredible. I love the messages of returning to love and independence. Ingrid's Character, Anita Hoffman, is an accomplished Piano teacher as well as a skilled pupil. She abandons her dreams of scholarship and concert piano playing to follow a man, Holgar Brandt, who is an accomplished concert violinist. They tour together, which allows them to both fulfill their dreams of playing in concert, but then they fall in love, abandon family and dreams and try to live a lie.

There are some specific things I'd like to entice you with...in honor of this movie.

REASONS TO SEE THIS MOVIE

• Anita decides to take her scholarship and she wears pants...all the clothes are SUPER chic.

• Lesley Howard and Gustaf Moleandar both used stand in hands to make the notes and fingering correct on the violin. It looks silly if you look too closely, but really innovative as far as problem solving on set.
• The dog in the movie is both cute, from 1939 and funny.
• The "ice flow" scenes and story lines are used in both: weather is a big theme in these films.
  
• I like this quote Anita: “I have been an intermezzo in his life”
  

• “ you gave me a good word once, courage, I’m trying to use it, trying.” --This quote shows how determined Anita is, and even at this time, when it would be uncommon for a female character to take it into her hands to determine her own fate (in film) Ingrid's character chooses her story and her next step. Independence and scholarship!

I'm going to slightly switch gears and talk about Ingrid Bergman's skillz (yes, with a "z") playing the Piano. In Intermezzo, Ingrid shows off her abilities to play accurately and passionately.
There are I think 3 scenes of her playing the Piano, and they are all marvelous.
Here is an example of one: TCM CLIP

Another example of her playing is in Autumn Sonata. I have written about this before, so feel free to check out the entry: Comment Clarification

Be sure to check out both versions of Intermezzo: A Love Story. The Swedish one is a little more satisfying (as far as story goes) the American one is fine tuned (as far as visuals). They are both amazing and capture my heart, mind and ears every time!

Oh-- One more example of Ingrid playing Piano-- Though I'm sure I could probably find a couple more-- in Saratoga Trunk:



Enjoy!

Comment Clarification

I was checking out a comment I received from last night's blog. It's from Lolita and it says:
"

Lolita said...

The Autumn Sonata was dubbed?!?! Blasphemy! On no. Why not have intertitles instead? Things like this makes me sad.

Great post! I really like your blog."

Maybe I should clarify.
It was dubbed in English for English speaking audiences... So really it was just so they could avoid subtitles when it was released Internationally, mostly for when it was released in the U.S.
Now, on DVD, it is kind of nice to have 2 options (Swedish or English) so if you look down for a minute or want to view the action and just listen, it's an option.*

You can watch Autumn Sonata with subtitles or English--NO WORRIES!! I <3 style="font-style: italic;">Autumn Sonata

Something that is not dubbed (beyond the normal post production tweaks);Ingrid played her own music in this one! YEY! Ingrid shows off bother her SKILLZZZZ and beauty while playing Chopin's Prelude Opus 28 #2. This scene is one of the best in cinematic history. The women are in two different worlds and both entirely selfish in what they want in life...anyway... Liv Ullman's part was dubbed by one of Ingmar Bergman's ex-wives (who was a concert pianist). But Ingrid is ALL Ingrid!

So I hope this helps to brighten your day and make all things Bergman clear!
This movie is a masterpiece and all Ingrid fans should see it. Her strength and endurance as well as her grace and prescence are all evident here, despite her fight with breast cancer and illness.