oscar jubis
07-30-2007, 08:56 AM
World Mourns Famed Film Director Ingmar Bergman
(The Associated Press)
STOCKHOLM, Sweden: International film makers and cultural leaders on Monday remembered the veteran Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, who influenced modern cinema makers with his prolific production spanning five decades and including more than 50 movies.
Bergman died Monday at age 89 at his home on a Swedish island.
"It's an unbelievable loss for Sweden, but even more so internationally," Astrid Soderbergh Widding, president of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, told The Associated Press. "In Sweden, I think it's difficult to understand just how much he meant abroad."
For many, it was Bergman who proved film was art.
"Bergman's work left no doubt that film and its expressions are at least as strong as any of the old arts: music or painting," said Alexander Horwath, director of the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna.
Today in Europe
Bulwark of strength for a Bulgarian nurseWine-loving Italy confronts drunken drivingMember of Russian opposition group forced into psychiatric clinicCannes film Cannes Film Festival director Gilles Jacob called Bergman the "last of the greats, because he proved that cinema can be as profound as literature."
"He was a director of the human condition, of the misery of man, of feminine mystery," Jacob told RTL radio on Monday.
French Culture Minister Christine Albanel, also speaking on RTL radio, described Bergman as "a monumental figure of this century's cinema."
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Bergman's work was "immortal."
Nick James, editor of Sight & Sound, the magazine of the British Film Institute, said Bergman was "one of the great masters and one of the great humanists of cinema."
"There are very few people of that kind of stature today. He proved that cinema could be an art form," James said.
Once described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist ... since the invention of the motion picture camera," he was also attracted to the stage from the mid-1940s and worked at several Swedish playhouses, including heading the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm 1963-1966.
Stig Bjorkman, a former director and a journalist who interviewed Bergman in 1970 for a book and a film portrait of the great director, said his death was "an incredible loss of one of our most prominent talents."
"He wasn't just an outstanding movie maker, he was also a brilliant theater man," Bjorkman said.
Among the fellow directors offering tributes was Britain's Richard Attenborough, who said, "The world has lost one of its very greatest filmmakers. He taught us all so much throughout his life."
In Denmark, where Bergman was a popular stage director in the 1970s, he inspired local film makers, including Lars von Trier and Bille August.
"It is a great loss. I am in shock," said Academy Award-winning director August, who in cinema circles in the 1990s was considered by many as Scandinavia's heir to Bergman. "That is nonsense. There can only be one Ingmar Bergman."
"There were (Japanese film director Akira) Kurosawa, (Italy's Federico) Fellini and then Bergman. Now he is also gone," August added.
Von Trier, the reclusive Danish film maker said he felt very strong family ties with Bergman.
"I am therefore proud to say that he treated me exactly like his other children: With no interest whatsoever," von Trier said.
(The Associated Press)
STOCKHOLM, Sweden: International film makers and cultural leaders on Monday remembered the veteran Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, who influenced modern cinema makers with his prolific production spanning five decades and including more than 50 movies.
Bergman died Monday at age 89 at his home on a Swedish island.
"It's an unbelievable loss for Sweden, but even more so internationally," Astrid Soderbergh Widding, president of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, told The Associated Press. "In Sweden, I think it's difficult to understand just how much he meant abroad."
For many, it was Bergman who proved film was art.
"Bergman's work left no doubt that film and its expressions are at least as strong as any of the old arts: music or painting," said Alexander Horwath, director of the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna.
Today in Europe
Bulwark of strength for a Bulgarian nurseWine-loving Italy confronts drunken drivingMember of Russian opposition group forced into psychiatric clinicCannes film Cannes Film Festival director Gilles Jacob called Bergman the "last of the greats, because he proved that cinema can be as profound as literature."
"He was a director of the human condition, of the misery of man, of feminine mystery," Jacob told RTL radio on Monday.
French Culture Minister Christine Albanel, also speaking on RTL radio, described Bergman as "a monumental figure of this century's cinema."
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Bergman's work was "immortal."
Nick James, editor of Sight & Sound, the magazine of the British Film Institute, said Bergman was "one of the great masters and one of the great humanists of cinema."
"There are very few people of that kind of stature today. He proved that cinema could be an art form," James said.
Once described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist ... since the invention of the motion picture camera," he was also attracted to the stage from the mid-1940s and worked at several Swedish playhouses, including heading the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm 1963-1966.
Stig Bjorkman, a former director and a journalist who interviewed Bergman in 1970 for a book and a film portrait of the great director, said his death was "an incredible loss of one of our most prominent talents."
"He wasn't just an outstanding movie maker, he was also a brilliant theater man," Bjorkman said.
Among the fellow directors offering tributes was Britain's Richard Attenborough, who said, "The world has lost one of its very greatest filmmakers. He taught us all so much throughout his life."
In Denmark, where Bergman was a popular stage director in the 1970s, he inspired local film makers, including Lars von Trier and Bille August.
"It is a great loss. I am in shock," said Academy Award-winning director August, who in cinema circles in the 1990s was considered by many as Scandinavia's heir to Bergman. "That is nonsense. There can only be one Ingmar Bergman."
"There were (Japanese film director Akira) Kurosawa, (Italy's Federico) Fellini and then Bergman. Now he is also gone," August added.
Von Trier, the reclusive Danish film maker said he felt very strong family ties with Bergman.
"I am therefore proud to say that he treated me exactly like his other children: With no interest whatsoever," von Trier said.