Ingmar Bergman

[AWA]

Woody and Ingmar became much better friends than Woody ever let on in public for years right up until Ingmar's death. Woody said that Ingmar would call him and tell him about his dreams. You'd think several decades worth of phone calls that include discussing your dreams and deepest thoughts might constitute a pretty substantial personal rapport.

And domino - it was Ingmar that requested to meet Woody, not the other way around. After Manhattan came out.

[MoonlitKnight]

One of my all-time favorites. My own Swedish roots could have something to do with that. I prefer his work from the 60s on; those films seem to cut closer to the bone.

[DignanSWE]

That's really interesting to me that nothing was ever said either way. I am not saying that he would dislike Allen's work, but I know Bergman isn't afraid to deride other directors' work. Didn't he hate Hitchcock and Welles?

Bergman considered Hitchcock to be one of the most important filmmakers of all time.

[tavernier]

An exchange from John Simon's book Ingmar Bergman Directs:

Simon: How about Hitchcock? Is he someone you learned from?
Bergman: Yes, of course.
S: Technically, I suppose. But isn’t there a great intellectual emptiness in his work?
B: Completely, but I think he’s a very good technician. And he has something in Psycho, he had some moments. Psycho is one of his most interesting pictures because he had to make the picture very fast, with very primitive means. He had little money, and the picture tells very much about him. Not very good things. He is completely infantile, and I would like to know more — no, I don’t want to know — about his behavior with, or rather against, women. But the picture is very interesting. I learned a lot from all those Americans who knew their profession.

[Tom Hagen]

Bergman's late-life views of various filmmakers -- including the infamous "Godard is a fucking bore" quote -- have been translated here and here.

[sevenarts]

Recently, there was a comprehensive discussion of Bergman's The Serpent's Egg as part of an online film club. This is definitely minor Bergman but there's so much to talk about in it.

[Tolmides]

That's really interesting to me that nothing was ever said either way. I am not saying that he would dislike Allen's work, but I know Bergman isn't afraid to deride other directors' work. Didn't he hate Hitchcock and Welles?

Bergman considered Hitchcock to be one of the most important filmmakers of all time.

If you try to access it in English you get this gem:

Alfred Hitchcock is possibly the most widely known and influential director in the history of world cinema. Born in London 1899, Hitchcock started out his career in the early 1920s. Before he left for Hollywood in the late 1930s, he had put his name on The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes(1938), just to mention a few. On the other side of the Atlantic, Hitchcock continued to make films until 1976. Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960) counts among Hitchcock's most important works from that time. As Ingmar Bergman, Hitchcock directed more than 50 feature films over more than 50 years.

And people think Christopher Marlowe was playing it deep as Shakespeare!

[StevenJ0001]

Thanks "thecinefamily"!

I will definitely try to catch at least some of those--there's nothing like Bergman in 35mm!

The last time I was at The Silent Movie Theater was during its previous incarnation. It was a great deal of fun, although I do hope the seating and especially the screen size has indeed, as I think I read on your website, improved somewhat since then. [-o<

[domino harvey]

I heartily recommend A Lesson in Love-- it's kind of like that elevator sequence in Waiting Women stretched to full length. Very fluffy but more enjoyable than, say, Sawdust and Tinsel

[Antoine Doinel]

Own your own piece of Bergman.

[mteller]

Own your own piece of Bergman.

Something's wrong with your link, I think it took me to the IKEA website.

[ellipsis7]

The auction happened yesterday - the sale prices are up on that Bukowski's site...

Chess pieces used to delay Death in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal have been sold for 1m Swedish crowns (£90,250; $143,000), officials say.

...not even a complete set apparently...

[richast2]

The iconic chess set from The Seventh Seal was sold at auction, along with a number of other items formerly owned by Bergman:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8280740.stm

[Napier]

The iconic chess set from The Seventh Seal was sold at auction, along with a number of other items formerly owned by Bergman:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8280740.stm

That would be the coolest thing to have. Me being an antique collector and avid chess player. But at $143,000, a little too rich for my blood. I wonder who purchased it?

[arsonfilms]

On a lark, I put in a bid on an item up for auction just to see if I could get it. My bid was something like $100, and the final amount for the item was close to $12,000. I felt a little silly.

[Erikht]

I don't mean to crash the Ghoul Party, but I have to buy Bergman as complete as possible in a hurry. Preferably sone 2, preferably with English and Swedish subs. Any suggestions? Would the Tartan set be good?

[Tommaso]

I've only seen those Tartans (well, most of them) which contain films not released by CC, and they all looked fine to me. If you can live without a lot of extras there's no reason not to buy them if you can get them a little cheaper than the much too high RRP. The question is only whether they are all still available, now that the old Tartan is no longer in existence.

[Erikht]

This will be released in November, but I want to buy it in this fiscal year. Will I get it in time?

[cgray]

Just in case anyone still want Tartan's 30-disc Ingmar Bergman Collection: I assume it's soon OOP. Most UK retailers (Bensons World, Choices, Sendit, 101CD, Dvd.co.uk etc.) lists it as 'no longer available to order'. A few still lists it 'in stock' though (Play for instance).

With some of films from the Tartan set starting to come out on blu-ray, I'm ready to start trying to sell my set. I'm the listing on Amazon.co.uk, but can anybody find what previous sets have sold for, if any have been sold over the last year or so? I looked on London craigslist (not sure if that is a popular website in the UK), etc., but haven't come up with anything. The last listing I saw on Amazon.co.uk (presumably sold?) was for 599 pounds, I believe.

[perkizitore]

Just in case anyone still want Tartan's 30-disc Ingmar Bergman Collection: I assume it's soon OOP. Most UK retailers (Bensons World, Choices, Sendit, 101CD, Dvd.co.uk etc.) lists it as 'no longer available to order'. A few still lists it 'in stock' though (Play for instance).

With some of films from the Tartan set starting to come out on blu-ray, I'm ready to start trying to sell my set. I'm the listing on Amazon.co.uk, but can anybody find what previous sets have sold for, if any have been sold over the last year or so? I looked on London craigslist (not sure if that is a popular website in the UK), etc., but haven't come up with anything. The last listing I saw on Amazon.co.uk (presumably sold?) was for 599 pounds, I believe.

Benson's World has closed ageeees ago. As for the set, are you selling it for 750 pounds???

[cgray]

Benson's World has closed ageeees ago. As for the set, are you selling it for 750 pounds???

My quote was just to reference the Tartan set, not anything to do with Benson's World.

I hope to sell the set at the market price. I don't think the market price for this set has anything to do with the DVD's themselves anymore (I'm aware you can get them all as individual releases for substantially cheaper), but has become something of a collectible -- certificate of authenticity, etc. As I said, the last one I saw on Amazon.co.uk was for £599, and I have seen several (last year) go for £450+. So, at some point at least, there was considerable demand.

However, I haven't seen ANY listed on Amazon.co.uk for several months... Perhaps demand has gone up as supply is exhausted, or perhaps nobody cares about it anymore. I'd rather start high and come low than vice-versa. Especially because, by my searches, I'm the only person in the world who has it for sale (yes, I admit that seems improbable -- this is the impetus for my initial post!).

If I find that a couple sets have sold in the last months for £300 or lower, I will realize that the strong collectibility of this item has passed, and lower the price accordingly. Because it's so hard to tell the value of something when you can't find a recent history of past sales, there is at least some probability that I am undervaluing the set as it is. Again: hoping this community will help me find more inputs was the point of my initial post.

[Clevinger]

On a lark, I put in a bid on an item up for auction just to see if I could get it. My bid was something like $100, and the final amount for the item was close to $12,000. I felt a little silly.

Well, it's not easy to outbid Hans Gude Gudesen, who bought the estate along with most of the items up for auction, Ingmar Bergman Face to Face

The response in Sweden was very positive, to say the least, when this information was made official, since the Ingmar Bergman Foundation and the likes did not have the financial means to step in.

[AWA]

Stephen Shore photographs Bergman's home.

The man knew his aesthetic.

[yoshimori]

This one had slipped under my radar:

Best Intentions

r2uk. 1.78:1