Title of film : Through a Glass Darkly
Director Name : Ingmar Bergman
Cast & crew :
Producer : Allan Ekelund
Editor : Ulla Ryghe
Cast :
Synopsis : The first draft of what was to become Through a Glass Darkly is in the form of a note on the last page of the script for Bergman's preceding film, The Virgin Spring. It begins with the words: 'THE WALLPAPER. She who is small and gets a story about the room with the mysterious wallpaper. Then one day she experiences it.' Karin is played by Harriet Andersson. If her role in Summer with Monika was her big breakthrough, the aforementioned complex character constituted her second big break. Gunnar Björnstrand plays her father, a writer who uses her psychosis in his novels. Of the four actors in this chamber piece, Lars Passgård was definitely the beginner of the bunch. At the age of 18, he was confronted with the challenges of relating to a dead mother, a distant, suicidal father and an insane big sister, who also molests him. Through a Glass Darkly is often referred to as the first part of the 'God and Man trilogy' of which Winter Light and The Silence make up the second and third, respectively. The film was Bergman's second complete collaboration with Sven Nykvist and the first of his films to be shot on Fårö. It was, in fact, Nykvist who recommended the island to Bergman. Harriet Andersson would later comment on shooting the film: 'Back in those days, exterior shots were allowed to take their time, and it shows. There are some insanely long tracking shots that called for extensive rail work. Nowadays they run around with theses tiny cameras, no wonder that they don't need any rails.'
Director Bio : Ernst Ingmar Bergman, born on the 14th of July, 1918 in Uppsala, died on the 30th of July, 2007 on Fårö, was a Swedish film and theatre director, writer, theatre manager, dramatist and author. Ingmar Bergman wrote or directed more than 60 films and 170 theatrical productions, and authored over a hundred books and articles. Among his best-known works are the films The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and Persona, as well as his autobiography The Magic Lantern. Throughout Bergman’s many works, one finds variations on a central theme: dysfunctional families, blood-sucking failed artists and an absent Almighty all become manifestations of our collective inability to communicate with each other. Shakespeare, Molière, Ibsen, and Strindberg were all enormously important influences on Bergman, not only in his theatrical work, but indeed the entirety of his artistic career. Bergman’s films are set almost exclusively in Sweden, and starting with 1961’s Through a Glass Darkly, they were filmed primarily on the small island of Fårö, northeast of Gotland. The international reception of Bergman’s films reflects a not inconsiderable fascination with a Scandinavian exoticism: inscrutable language, primeval nature and flaxen-haired women. The depiction of nudity and a “natural” sexuality in Bergman’s films contributed to their success. Looking over Bergman’s career, another hallmark of both his work for stage and film is the recurrent company of loyal collaborators. Some notable examples from this ensemble include the cinematographer Sven Nykvist, the actors Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson, and the costume designer Mago. The relationship between the life and works of the artist (despite the tendency of biographical analyses to fall victim to the cult of genius) is in the case of Ingmar Bergman as inextricably tangled as it is compelling. In countless interviews and artistic representations, and especially in The Magic Lantern, Bergman repeatedly referred to his childhood and its importance for his artistic vision. A number of his relatives were also creative colleagues.
Filmography :
