Popular reviews

• 

  Review by 🐱Andrew Chrzanowski🐱 ★★★ 5

  ☆"I've always had a certain advantage being Ingmar Bergman."☆

  My Journey into the Films of Ingmar Bergman -- Part 17 of 62

  Another weekend morning, another Ingmar Bergman documentary, this time from filmmaker Jörn Donner, originally aired on Swedish TV over 20 years ago, called Ingmar Bergman - om liv och arbete ["Ingmar Bergman - on Life and Work"]. This one comes as an extra on the disc for his 1957 film Wild Strawberries.

  Much like the previous documentary I watched on the director, Marie Nyreröd's Bergman Island, it's centered around a conversation between subject and interviewer. However the feeling of this film is a little different than Nyreröd's, since she works as a journalist and her questions -- excellent…

• 

  Review by Pate Duncan ★★★ 1

  “Generally speaking, chatter is an abomination.”

  Watched during my lunch break. It’s just him talking in an interview interspersed with a few clips from his films or photos from his childhood. An absolute paragon of aspirational discipline and order and the man also had a complete inventory of every cruel or unruly act he’s ever committed. The greatest artist in all of cinema I think, partially because he conceived of himself as a craftsman; the craft he made was a utilitarian, Apollonian organization of human emotion and trauma. It’s like watching someone carve a very functional, sturdy, unvarnished table out of dismembered body parts: cold, brutal, violent, and necessary.

• 

  Review by Chodie_Foster ★★★

  Featured on Criterion's release of Wild Strawberries is this conversation with Bergman from Swedish television. Shot entirely on a soundstage with some interspersed film clips, it's very informative but the exchanges can be a bit dry. I found his musings on grief to be of most interest, as he was 80 years old at the time and had experienced his fair share. I'd recommend his autobiography, The Magic Lantern, to anyone who finds interest in learning more about the great director.

• 

  Review by Chazzbot ★★★

  Included as a bonus feature on the Criterion edition of "Wild Strawberries," this film provides a rather detailed and, at times, intensely personal look at Bergman's career. For the most part, this is just two dudes talking to one another with a few illustrative clips thrown in, but the conversation is highly engaging, and the interviewer, Jorn Donner, does not shy away from hard questions, but also comes across as one who has followed Bergman's career closely. Perhaps not surprisingly, death is a frequent topic here, and you can see Bergman at times struggling to control his responses. The conversation also tends to focus on Bergman as a writer, more than as a filmmaker, but there are many insights into…

• 

  Review by Jokoro ★★★★★

  Peut-être le plus grand réalisateur de l'histoire du cinéma parlant de sa vie et son art pendant 1h30. Pas besoin de plus. A voir absolument.

• 

  Review by Hayden Welch

  Bergman on Bergman.

• 

  Review by Carson Hearne ★★★★½

  It's not a fantastic doc but everything that comes out of Bergman's mouth is pure poetry

• 

  Review by Josiah Tate Burns ★★★

  Dry but extremely insightful. Anecdotes often relate on set events with occurrences from Bergman's childhood. As always, a strong undercurrent of God.

• 

  Review by Criterion Select

  Included as a supplement on the Criterion bluray of "Wild Strawberries." Heartbreaking stuff how much film, plays and his art controlled his life. At one point remarking that he doesn't remember when his children were born. That he can only place things in his life when compared to when he made his different art works. Also heartbreaking is his struggles with writing and health issues and his family dynamics that are presented more clearly than other places. Someday I want to take a trip to Faro island in Sweden, if that is a place even open to the public to experience the area.

• 

  Review by DaveTheWave

  Supplemente on Wild Strawberries on the Criterion Ingmar Bergman Collection

  This is a conversation about Bergman and is life and thrown in there are some key facts about Bergman's life. I think I'd find this interview normally boring but since I am so deeply into Bergman's work it is great to hear him speak and take some bits into the next movies of his I will watch. A good entry point for Bergman this is certainly not and I wish I would have seen Fanny and Alexander already because it is talked about quite a bit.

  It is always hard to rate extras like this one. While on one hand the conversation was slow and meandered quite a bit it was still interesting to get a more insights into to the mind of Ingmar Bergman. But in this case I will refrain from a rating because I really can not decide.

• 

  Review by alex ★★★

  It was pretty cool to hear about his writing process especially considering how wildly prolific he was. It did meander a bit, though.

• 

  Review by boodee ★★★★

  It's only a ~90 minutes interview, but it still makes me want to watch seventh seal again, as well as several other Bergman films for the first time, that are not included on the bd box i'm finally going through right now.