Lendle

Known for their repeating motifs and signature tropes, the films of Ingmar Bergman
also contain extensive variation and development. In these reflections on Bergman’s artistry and
thought, Irving Singer discerns distinctive themes in Bergman’s filmmaking, from first intimations
in the early work to consummate resolutions in the later movies. Singer demonstrates that while
Bergman’s output is not philosophy on celluloid, it attains an expressive and purely aesthetic
truthfulness that can be considered philosophical in a broader sense. Through analysis of both
narrative and filmic effects, Singer probes Bergman’s mythmaking and his reliance upon the magic
inherent in his cinematic techniques. Singer traces throughout the evolution of Bergman’s ideas
about life and death, and about the possibility of happiness and interpersonal love. In the overtly
self-referential films that he wrote or directed (The Best Intentions, Fanny and Alexander, Sunday’s
Children) as well as the less obviously autobiographical ones (including Wild Strawberries, The
Seventh Seal, and the triad that begins with Through a Glass Darkly) Bergman investigates problems
in his existence and frequently reverts to childhood memories. In such movies as Smiles of a Summer
Night, Scenes from a Marriage, and Saraband, Bergman draws upon his mature experience and depicts
the troubled relationships between men who are often weak and women who are made to suffer by the
damaged men with whom they live. In Persona, Cries and Whispers, and other works, his experiments
with the camera are uniquely masterful. Inspecting the panorama of Bergman’s art, Singer shows how
the endless search for human contact motivates the content of his films and reflects Bergman’s
profound perspective on the world.

Irving Singer is Professor of Philosophy at
MIT. He is the author of Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique, Three Philosophical
Filmmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir (both published by The MIT Press), and many other
books.