(Sweden, 114 min.)
Dir. Stig Björkman, Writ. Stig Björkman, Dominika
Daubenbüchel, Stina Gardell
Featuring: Alicia Vikander, Isabella Rossellini, Pia
Lindström
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Canadian Film Institute. |
Meatballs, make-it-yourself furniture, dragon tattoos, and
Ace of Base are some of Sweden’s greatest cultural exports, but nothing from
the great Scandinavian country rivals the legacy of actress Ingrid Bergman. The
iconic star of films such as Casablanca,
Anastasia, and Autumn Sonata is best remembered as a classically composed actor
with a magnetic aura and an adaptable charm. Her charisma and grace resonate
strongly in romances like Casablanca,
thrillers like Notorious, and poetic
neo-realist dramas like Voyage to Italy.
She loved movies, and the movies loved her, as Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words recalls with a loving and candid
portrait of the late star.
Hollywood history remembers Bergman’s personal life just as
well as it recalls her movies with its well-documented account of the actress’s
scandalous affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini and her subsequent
exile from Hollywood for several years. As an actress whose life reads like a
legendary open book, one might think that everything there is to know about
Ingrid Bergman is already public record. Her personal records might not tell a
different story, but they let Bergman write her own history in her own words.
Stig Björkman’s lovely documentary Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words draws upon the diaries of the
iconic Swedish actress to offer a deeply humane portrait of one of the cinema’s
greatest stars. The film presents Bergman’s personal reflections, narrated by
Swedish actress Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl, Ex Machina), along
with an impressive collage of home movies shot by the Casablanca star herself. Ingrid
Bergman: In Her Own Words is an intimate glimpse into one woman’s pure and
unadulterated love for the camera.
The film swiftly chronicles Bergman’s early years and
ambitions to become a star as Vikander offers captivating readings of the
actress’s recorded thoughts. In Her Own
Words suggests that Bergman had a relatively easy rise in Sweden and was a
natural fit for the camera thanks to an early bit part in which she stood out as
an extra from a queue of fellow actors. Her early screen test for David O. Selznick
conveys her magnetic screen presence and the glamorous innocence that defined her
star persona for much of her career. The film briefly chronicles the actress’s
first decade in Hollywood with fleeting mentions of Casablanca, Notorious, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and other
landmarks in which the Dream Factory helped the Swedish star realise her
greatest goals.
Cut to the Rossellini years, however, and In Her Own Words digs deep into
Hollywood scandal. The film invites Pia Lindström, Bergman’s eldest daughter
who she had in her first marriage to Petter Lindström, to speak about her
experience growing up within the centre of this high profile family drama. Lindström
speaks fairly and frankly about her mother, as do Bergman’s three children from
her marriage to Roberto Rossellini—Ingrid, Roberto, and famed actress
Isabella—and all four offspring recount an ambitious, caring, and driven women
whose main flaw was simply that she adored acting too much.
Isabella Rossellini (Joy), who sounds identical to Bergman in the
actress’s later years, offers the best and fullest accounts of her mother as
she unpacks Bergman’s career, and perhaps her own experience in the business
gives her more insight into the pressures of Hollywood, while Pia offers some
intriguing psychoanalytic hypotheses to explain her mother’s allure for the
camera. Bergman’s children all convey the observation that their mother
prioritized acting over parenting, but they make these remarks without
judgement and simply wish that she had been more present in their lives. They
Rossellini kids, however, all provide stories that suggest that Bergman made
more of an effort to balance work and family than their father did, all the
while redeeming herself in Hollywood’s eye.
The tapestry of home movies, archival footage, and diary
entries plays off these personal accounts from Bergman’s family members, as do
some from peers such as Liv Ullman and Sigourney Weaver, while a loving score
by Michael Nyman brings the class and elegance of Bergman’s presence to the
screen. Interviews with Bergman on talk shows and lifestyle programmes add to
the insight that echoes in her diary entries, as Vikander’s youthful narration
eventually fades to let the maturity of Bergman’s own voice complete the story.
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words
wonderfully humanizes an icon who already seems so down-to-earth in her
performances. It’s a warm, frank, and affectionate portrait.
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words screens at the Canadian Film Institute’s
Bright Nights: The Baltic-Nordic Film Festival on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 7:00 PM
at the River Building Theatre, Carleton University.
Please visit www.cfi-icf.ca for more information.
