Ingmar Bergman RIP

From the NYT:

Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, an iconoclastic filmmaker widely regarded as one of the great masters of modern cinema, died Monday, the president of his foundation said. He was 89.

I think he was more a maker than a smasher of icons . Bergman images pervade modern cinema and popular culture. The photo is Death from The Seventh Seal -- how many fearful images have been made more fearful through the use of stark chiaroscuro and suggestive shadow since this first hit the screen?

Comments

[CraigC]

He wasn't exactly the first to use chiaroscuro, as I'm sure you know. The renaissance painters really made it popular, and in film, it and the use of shadow had been done plenty in film noir. Frankly, I find Bergman boring and pretentious.

[gail]

There's a certain look to a Bergman image though -- combination of chiaroscuro, greys, and shadows that is very characteristic of him. I love his visual images, not so much his stories.

[gail]

The way the right side of the hood makes it look like part of the face was cut away, for instance. That's classic Bergman.

[CraigC]

I agree, his images really jump out at you.

[gail]

Especially in the black and white films. I don't feel he was ever able to capture it in color.

[CraigC]

All I was saying is that the concepts weren't original. I know you weren't implying that, and you're right, he took them and amplified them into striking images. And the films themselves are stultifyingly boring. I was probably spurred to say something negative just because I've always been annoyed that he was such a darling of the critics. He's the poster child for artists who are adopted by the coffee-house set so they can feel superior to the riff-raff.

[gail]

Woody Allen's pseudo-Bergman stuff drove me nuts.

[Jakira Kurosawa]

You do know that Bergman just copied that Knight & Death playing chess stuff from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey dont you? I think that on whole Twister is a far better metaphor for life than Chess.. but that's just me...