ingmar bergman (14 jul 1918 - 30 jul 2007)

Kurosawa. Altman. And now, Bergman.

All mine Deities lain to dust...

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An artist whose works and words I devoured religiously since I first watched Fanny and Alexander in my secondary school days on VHS at the local library. I still remembered the exhilarating feeling of undercovering buried lost treasure when I pluck and bought Persona in LD. And such a sense of hardwon and long awaited ownership when I laid hands on The Seventh Seal, my first Bergman film in DVD.

The lyrical poignancy of marital disintegration that is resolute and irreparable in Scenes From A Marriage. A glimpse into the muted hopes and lost dreams of old age from Wild Strawberries. Ferocious resentment comes to blow with fierce devotion between mother and daughter in Autumn Sonata. Piteous pain and exquisite equanimity gleamed through a rich red tapestry seeping from Cries and Whispers. A portrait of incestuous sibling dependence and affection as a result of parental neglect in Through A Glass Darkly.

And of course, the Film that ignited my Bergman love affair - the fulsome overflowingly rich and dramatic splendour as well as austere macabre severely gripping enchantment of a grand epic battle of wills of Innocence vs Experience, Imagination vs Dogma, Art vs Religion, Laughter vs Lightning, Plenty vs Plain, Femininity vs Masculinity, Child vs Adult, Morals vs Magic that is Fanny and Alexander.

And the unifying theme that connects them all that spoke to me and sealed my attention ~ the everpresent omnipresent presence of Death.

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"When I was young, I was extremely scared of dying," he once said. "But now I think it a very, very wise arrangement. It's like a light that is extinguished. Not very much to make a fuss about."

How very wise, indeed.
Another Wise Old Man sails away.
His dreams and thoughts and lives writ
Large, worldwide, bottled in flat crystals
Of celluloid.

Adieu.