INGMAR BERGMAN - ICON OF ART CINEMA

BIJELJINA, JULY 13 /SRNA/ - Ingmar Bergman /1918-2007/, a Swedish film director and screenwriter, one of the greatest representatives of art cinema, and a three-time Oscar winner who was primarily preoccupied with the ethical and psychological problems of man, passed away on July 14, 2007.

His pronounced lyricism often grew into hallucinatory stylizations of themes and motifs, while refined camera work and a disjointed narrative style contributed to a dark portrayal of human destinies.

Bergman's most famous films are: "The Seventh Seal", "Wild Strawberries", "Winter Light", "The Magician", "The Virgin Spring", "The Devil's Eye", "The Silence", "Persona", "Cries and Whispers", "Face to Face", "The Serpent's Egg", "From the Life of the Marionettes", and "Fanny and Alexander".

Bergman also directed 170 theatrical plays.

Most of his films are set in the landscapes of his native Sweden, and his themes are largely gloom, illness, betrayal, and madness.

Together with Federico Fellini, he is considered one of the most respected and influential directors of the 20th century.

Bergman was a cinematic psychoanalyst who tried to find the faith in God, authority, love, and friendship that he had lost in childhood.

The famous Bergmanesque endlessly long shots, focusing on the face of the person to whom the heroes are confessing, speak of the author's effort to take refuge in someone else's identity and watch his own, already prepared nervous breakdown from the sidelines.

Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, and Erland Josephson are merely borrowed acting props of this gentle dictator of auteur cinema, who does not deal with personalities, but with their fears.

A large number of Bergman's interior scenes were shot in the Filmstaden Studios, north of Stockholm.

Bergman had his best collaboration with cinematographer Sven Nykvist, with whom he shared a great professional relationship, meaning the famous director never had to worry about shot composition.

Although he is primarily known for his contributions to film, Bergman's other love was the theater.

At the age of 26, he became the youngest theater manager in Europe, heading the theater in Helsingborg.