29 April, 2010 16:36

Highlights from the programme for Bergman Week

The Fårö Bergman Center Foundation invites you to this year’s Bergman Week, featuring screenings in Bergman’s own cinema and a guest list that includes Ariane Mnouchkine, Gösta Ekman, Anna Asp and Johan Kling!

As we’ve previouslty announced, playwright Jon Fosse will be the first guest to give the annual “Bergman Lecture”. Liv Ullmann will also visit Bergman Week, to give a Masterclass and introduce a screening of Faithless as well as the Swedish première of Stig Björkman’s …but Film is my Mistress, a documentary where she is the guide and narrator. During Bergman Week, exclusive film screeenings  – introduced by Lena, Ingmar och Daniel Bergman – will also be held in Bergman’s private cinema in Dämba.

During this year’s Bergman Week we also welcome French stage icon Ariane Mnouchkine, whose film Molière was a Bergman favourite. (An interview with Mnouchkine in Swedish can be found in the current edition of Teatertidningen). For almost femtio years, theatre troupe Théâtre du Soleil has has resided in an old munitions factory complex on the outskirts of Paris and their innovative productions have influenced generations of European dramatists and thespians.

In his youth, Gösta Ekman worked as Bergman’s assistant director for two years. Klas Gustafsson’s interview with him for an upcoming book has given him cause to reflect on this both rewarding and problematic relationship. We also show a gem produced for Swedish Television, the critically lauded and much appreciated A Madman’s Manifesto – which has nevertheless languished in SVT’s archives since the première in 1976. Gösta Ekman’s and Bibi Andersson’s interpretations were deemed their best work ever, as August Strindberg and Siri von Essen respectively.

Set designer Anna Asp was one of the skilled artisans that Bergman picked for his circle of co-workers.”You go ahead and build it – and we’ll shoot it!”, Bergman instructed her, secure in his conviction that she would find the right look and design, for films as different as After the Rehearsal and Fanny and Alexander. During this Bergman Week, she will give a lecture featuring stills and scenes from mainly Fanny and Alexander, the film that won her an Academy Award.

By his own count, director Johan Kling watched Smiles of a Summer Night some fifty times before writing the screenplay for his new film Trust Me. He thus follows Darling with a film that is both strongly influenced by, and a homage to, Bergman’s comedy. The story in Trust Me is, however, firmly grounded in the 21st century – the tale of a few women who manage a theatre and about the men in their midst. Acohol, cleptomania, sex and other timeless vices also play a vital role.

The guest list also includes Lena Endre, Yvonne Lombard, Pia Johansson, Leif Zern and Leif Furhammar.