bergman season at NFT: what movies do I go to see? + C/D

Went to a three hour screening of the complete TV version of Face to Face and what is it? So much of a culmniation of everything up to that moment with a look forward to the rest of it - the failure of talk to cure the ills (Persona), those inventive and yet tough dream sequences (Wild Strawberries), the aborted at birth relationships (The Passion of Anna), his obsession with the tick-tock of time and the games with death. Shades of Amour with Jenny's grandparents (sans sadism) (and Ullmann for Huppert). Its the kind of thing that makes me want to re-watch a dozen Bergman features and take note of what he is doing just here. It felt inexaustible.

And to top it off the couple behind me were divided on it - one seemed to like it, the other hated it. That's always funny to me.

In Bergman's book Images, he reveals he thinks he utterly failed with F to F, esp re dreams/reality compared to Wild Strawberries.

IB:

Dino di Laurentiis was delighted with the film, which received rave reviews in America. Perhaps it did present something new that had never been tried before. Now when I see Face to Face, I remember an old farce with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour. It's called The Road to Morocco (David Butler, 1942). They have been shipwrecked and come floating on a raft in front of a projected New York in the background. In the final scene, Bob Hope throws himself to the ground and begins to scream and foam at the mouth. The others stare at him in astonishment and ask what in the world he is doing. He immediately calms down and says, 'This is how you have to do it if you want to win an Oscar.'

When I see Face to Face and Liv Ullmann's incredibly loyal effort on my behalf, I still can't help thinking on The Road to Morocco.

(Ullmann got the second of her two Oscar nominations for the film.)

http://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/face-face

Yeah there was an excerpt of that part from Images in the programme notes.