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July 14, 2018 marks exactly 100 years since the birth of Ingmar Bergman, a Swedish director who has received worldwide recognition, a master of psychological dramas, who tried to unravel the mystery of the human soul. We have collected his most striking statements.
Ingmar Bergman is the most famous Swedish director in the world and, as they said, the only man who felt and understood women so subtly. On his account – about fifty films, most of which are considered masterpieces, and several dozen thundered theatrical productions. “Silence”, “Shame”, “Through a Glass Darkly”, “The Seventh Seal”, “Autumn Sonata”, “Magic Flute”, “Scenes from a Married Life”, “Fanny and Alexander”, “Whispers and Cries” – they brought Bergman four Oscars and the Palme d’Or.
Bergman is not just a director, he is a philosopher who tries to find answers to existential questions with the help of cinema. We have selected quotes that will help you get to know Bergman’s world and yourself better.
About Me
In my youth I was a very unpleasant young man. And if now I met young Ingmar, I would say: “You are very talented, and I will try to help you, but I do not want to have anything to do with you.”
About relationships between people
Individualists can look each other straight in the eye and yet deny each other’s existence.
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In relationships with others, we pursue two goals: we instinctively strive for rapprochement and at the same time try to maintain a safe distance. Only contact with another helps us to accept the fact of our complete loneliness.
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The older I get, the more I think about my mother.
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Only thanks to each other do we feel alive, even if it often hurts.
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Overwhelmed by our own worries, we often walk in circles, unable to distinguish between good and evil.
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As my mother used to say, you need to be able to cope with everything alone.
Looking for answers to existential questions
When I was young, I was afraid of death. Now I understand that life is just a light that will go out one day, and for this there is no need to make a fuss.
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Old age is like climbing a mountain. And the higher you climb, the harder and harder it becomes to walk, but with each ledge, an increasingly tempting view opens up in front of you.
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I hope I never get old enough to become religious.
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Longing has an amazing property. It overtakes immediately, one has only to try to define it.
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When we die, we simply go out, from existence we become non-existence.
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I live in my own fantasies, from which I make short forays into reality.
About cinema and creativity
I always live by art, but never by my own life.
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While watching a movie, we completely surrender to the power of the imagination and let the movie affect our feelings.
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When working on a new painting, first I collect as much material as possible. Then I try to sink the iceberg of my ideas by allowing only a few of them to surface.
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The film is like a dream. Not a single art is able to appeal to our conscience, to the darkest and most hidden corners of our souls in the way that a film does.
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Making a movie means creating a whole universe.