filmmakers
Ingmar Bergman
On this date in 1918, Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, the son of a strict Lutheran minister. He studied art and literature at the University of Stockholm, went into theater, and made his directorial film debut in 1944. His 1955 “Smiles of a Summer Night” attracted international acclaim, followed by “Wild Strawberries (1957) and “The Seventh Seal” (1957), in which a knight portrayed by Max von Sydow challenges Death to a chess match.
He then made “The Virgin Spring” (1960), “Persona” (1966), “Scenes from a Marriage,” co-starring one of his favorite actresses, Liv Ullman (1974), and “Fanny and Alexander,” which won a Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1983. His 50 feature films often explored existential questions. Bergman once said, “I believe in other worlds, other realities. But my prophets are Bach and Beethoven.” (New Yorker Staats-Zeitung July 9, 2005.)
He was married five times: to Else Fisher, Ellen Lundström, Gun Grut, Käbi Laretei and Ingrid von Rosen, and had nine children. He died at age 89. (D. 2007)
PHOTO: Bergman in Amsterdam in 1966; Joost Evers/Anefo photo under CC 3.0.
“You were born without purpose, you live without meaning, living is its own meaning. When you die, you are extinguished. From being you will be transformed to non-being. A god does not necessarily dwell among our capricious atoms.”
— Bergman, "The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography" (1987)
Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor
© Freedom From Religion Foundation. All rights reserved.
