Ingmar Bergman Dies at 89, Marks the End of Art House Film Era

Authored by Jay Baage on July 30, 2007 - 6:46am.

Stockholm, Sweden. Swedish Film Director Ingmar Bergman passed away on the small island of Faro where he lived on the Baltic coast of Sweden. Many know of him and can recognize his work. However, few people of my generation (even in Sweden) have seen any of his films. Among young people, they are considered depressing and difficult, which is a testament to how synonymous filmmaking and Hollywood have become. Bergman’s great masterpiece The Seventh Seal - much discussed, much adored, much spoofed (pictured below), is a great example of what I mean. It was art, not entertainment.

Today, even Directors such as Woody Allen, a great admirer, stopped years ago with making art house films of Bergmanian seriousness, and now prefers light comedy.

Yes, Bergman was, at the end, quite alone in his approach to filmmaking. In an age of digital video, handheld camerawork, reality TV-influenced postmodern media, his detailed, highly stylized “artsy” approach had become “out”.

While Bergman was in very much in touch with the mood of many Swedes in the post-war era, his self-chosen isolation on Faro island is also a testament to his unwillingness to change his approach to filmmaking and become more too “commercial”.

I think that Ingmar Bergman should be remembered as a healthy antidote to the Hollywood studio system, in which it is useful to remember that studios were out to make money first and art second.

While I by no means claim that making money and making art can’t go hand-in-hand, it is important to remember what the art house era was all about – the art of filmmaking. When the art comes second, great work and talent is sometimes lost.

A great example of this would be Orson Welles. With the 1940 release of Citizen Kane (a movie that is now heralded as one of the greatest of all time) Welles' directing career was basically ruined by its limited finacial success, only being given limited control over his movies that followed.

Another example is Jack Smith, an American filmmaker, actor, and pioneer of underground cinema. He had some success with his first controversial movie, Flaming Creatures, when it came out in 1961, but then refused to sell out and involve himself in the Hollywood system (Filmmaker Mary Jordan has made a beautiful film about his life that I highly recommend).

However, while Bergman kept to his art house style of filmmaking until the end, he could appreciate other kinds of filmmaking and that times change. He even sensationally endorsed the work of Lukas Moodysson, the young Swedish director of Fucking Amal, Lilya 4-Ever and Hole In My Heart, although Moodysson’s work is completely different from Bergman's.

Ingmar Bergman died at the age of 89. His work will live on, especially in this new long-tail digital world.