Retrospective of Ingmar Bergman Films on 11th Feb 2007

Konangal will be presenting it's first retrospective of films by masters on 11th February. The master chosen for our first retrospective is Ingmar Bergman and his three all time classics Seventh Seal, The Hour Of The Wolf and Cries and Whispers will be screened during this retrospective.

Ingmar Bergman

' Making films is my justification for existing. If I start playing fast and loose with ethics, I'll lose my inherent value as a human being, everything that gives me the feeling I've a right to make films. And this is why I must never forget that each film may be my last. '
Bergman on Bergman (1968)

The Swedish master has directed nearly 62 films and TV serials. He retired from film making in 1984 and drama and Tv seriels in 2003 at the age of 83 .

'I came out of that movie house reeling like a drunkard, drugged speechless, with the film rushing through my bloodstream, pumping and thudding. '

Gunnel Lindblom, star of The Silence, describing
her first experience of a Bergman film in 1949

Ingmar Bergman's mature cinema provokes the viewer into an intimate engagement in which a range of uncomfortable feelings are opened up, shared and laid bare. And this often occurs, quite literally, face-to-face. The detail of this fine-focus dissection forces us to confront both the inscrutable materiality of the face, and its role as the communicative nerve centre of the individual subject's investments. The camera moves in uncomfortably, almost seeking to go inside – until a giant abstracted face fills the frame, stopping the zoom dead. The viewer is confronted with a close yet also alienating proximity to such a large expanse of human exterior, while we watch our enormous diegetic companion ask of itself 'what' it is, as it faces a very personal void. A dual gaze of inquiry takes place here, whereby the onscreen subject's gaze of self-conscious crisis meets the viewer's implicated looking upon – and participation in – that image. Both face and viewer seem to feel the intermixing and breaking down of diegetic and meta-diegetic space, and intensities of looking. This is sparked and enforced by Bergman's tight use of a 1.33:1 frame which often excludes any clear glimpses of the world beyond a face which finds no up, down, left or right in which to direct its gaze. - Excerpts from article on Ingmar Bergman by Senses Of Cinema -www.sensesofcinema.com



Cries and Whispers (1972): Ingmar Bergman's dream play is set in a manor house at the turn of the century where a spinster in her late 30s (Harriet Andersson) is dying. Her two sisters (Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann) have come to attend her, and they watch and wait, along with a peasant servant (Kari Sylwan). The movie is built out of a series of emotionally charged images that express inner stress, and Bergman handles them with the fluidity of a master. Superbly photographed by Sven Nykvist in a style suggesting Edvard Munch, and with blood-red backgrounds, the film is smooth and hypnotic; it has oracular power and the pull of a dream. Run time - 106 minutes. Language - Swedish . Subtitles - English


The Hour Of The Wolf ( 1968 ) : A brilliant Gothic fantasy about an artist who has disappeared, leaving only a diary; and through that diary we move into flashback to observe a classic case history of the Bergman hero haunted by darkness, demons and the creatures of his imagination until he is destroyed by them. The tentacular growth of this obsession is handled with typical virtuosity in a dazzling flow of surrealism and full-blooded Gothic horror
Run time - 90 minutes. Language - Swedish . Subtitles - English


The Seventh Seal (1957) : Ingmar Bergman's medieval morality play about man in search of the meaning of life is set in 14th-century Sweden. But it's a magically powerful film. The story seems to be playing itself out in a medieval present. A knight (Max von Sydow), tormented and doubting, returns from 10 wasted years in the Crusades, and Death (Bengt Ekerot) comes to claim him. Hoping to gain some revelation or obtain some knowledge before he dies, the knight challenges Death to a game of chess. Run time - 96 minutes. Language - Swedish . Subtitles - English

Retrospective screenings will be at
KASTHURI SREENIVASAN CULTURE CENTRE, AVANASHI ROAD, (NEAR ARVIND EYE HOSPITAL) COIMBATORE -641014; PHONE: 2574110.
Timings : Morning 9.30 AM to Evening 6.30 PM with one hour lunch break.
We request all to be in your seats in the auditorium by 9.30 am. The program will start at 9. 45 am . For More details please call 94430 39630 .