When Margarethe von Trotta left stuffy Germany and went to Paris in the 1960s, she encountered a young, exciting flm scene that formed out the film magazine “Cahiers du cinéma;“ the Nouvelle Vague. One of the young film lovers idols was Swedish director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) and when her new friends dragged von Trotta to the cinema to see THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957), it brought about the initial spark of becoming a director herself. Von Trotta‘s research in honor of Ingmar Bergman‘s 100th brthday orients itself on her personal connection. She begins and ends in Farö where Bergman filmed THE SEVENTH SEAL, goes to France, where von Trotta first saw his work, and Munich, where Bergman lived for a time and also visited von Trotta and Schlöndorf. Von Trotta talks to actresses and directors and visits Bergman‘s archivist. Some of the conversations are quite trivial: “I knew I would be his instrument,“ others reveal interesting information, like how Bergman organized hs theater rehearsals, it had to be dark and the ideal temperature was 12°, or how he acted with his chldren. Von Trotta deliberately chooses a very selective, personal approach. The encounters and conversations are like fragments of a mosaic and don‘t quite serve as an introduction for people who want to become familiar with Ingmar Bergman. Unfortunately we don‘t get to know much about what moved von Trotta and so many others about Bergman‘s work. She and all the other participants are very polite, very controlled, almost reverential. Maybe Ruben Östlund (THE SQUARE) is right and it‘s a bit too early for a retrospective. But it‘s a start.

Hendrike Bake

Translation: Elinor Lewy