Comments on: Another Reason to Like Ingmar Bergman

By: Peter Hughes

Peter Hughes — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:01:46 +0000

#5 – I’ll go with it, ILC. Sounds a lot like The Snob and his own minions (including the sycophantic press) to me.

Regards,
Peter H.

By: ILoveCapitalism

ILoveCapitalism — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:25:26 +0000

It’s interesting:

…[Bergman] was impressed by the Nazi dictator after seeing him address a rally…
“Hitler was unbelievably charismatic. He electrified the crowd,” said the Oscar-nominated film-maker. “The Nazism I had seen seemed fun and youthful,”…
“When the doors to the concentration camps were thrown open, at first I did not want to believe my eyes.”
“When the truth came out it was a hideous shock for me. In a brutal and violent way I was suddenly ripped of my innocence.”

I could go with any number of angles on that. It’s an artist-as-political-fool story. It’s a political-fool-having-the-courage-to-admit-the-truth-eventually story. And, given that Nazism was foundationally a movement of the Left, it’s even a bit of a political-fool-is-a-leftist-and-leftists-have-a-strange-fascination-with-brutal-dictators story.

By: ILoveCapitalism

ILoveCapitalism — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:19:39 +0000

Bergman was an ardent Nazi sympathizer

Aargh, and there we have it. Thank you for the link, sierra.

By: ILoveCapitalism

ILoveCapitalism — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:14:09 +0000

GPW, cool post. There are some Bergman films that I like quite a lot. I hadn’t ever looked into his political history, though. Now I like him that little bit more. Just don’t tell me he was the kind of director who had relationships with 14-year olds. (Just kidding: in the event that he was, of course I’d rather know the truth.)

By: Julie the Jarhead

Julie the Jarhead — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:12:18 +0000

My reason to love Ingmar Bergman:

Bibi Andersson

(Who also spent a night in jail for tax evasion).

Miss Andersson is still acting — magnificently. She is also the most beautiful 70-plus year old around today.

By: sierra

sierra — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:13:26 +0000

While I don't judge artists by their politics, it's worth noting that during Hitler's ascendency and throughout WW2, Bergman was an ardent Nazi sympathizer from where he lived in neutral Sweden. While Bergman insists revelations over Nazi atrocities changed his mind at the war's conclusion, the late film critic Richard Grenier asserts that it took Bergman another ten years or so to reverse his stance, apparently harboring the belief that the Holocaust was a hoax.