Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergmann made a pact. If she went first, he would bring all his famous friends with a helicopter to her funeral, to emphasize that she was something. That she was something great. How can someone with such greatness fear oblivion?
I fell in love with Liv the first time I saw her. There was a photo of her in a magazine, and she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. “Who is this lady?”, I asked my mother. “Liv Ullmann”, she said. “She´s an actress, a sad one. Only sad people see her movies”.
If that is true, then I am a tremendously sad person. 25 years later she is still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Just look at her! Not yet have I seen her sad. Even when she is sad, there is a unique light of hope in her eyes, a somehow childish – but at the same time mature – playfulness. My respect for her work on the screen, both as an actress, a writer and a director, is incomparable. It saddens me deeply that Norway has never recognized the profound artist she is. My mother´s words are not remarkable. One would think that Scandinavians adore these films, but that is as far from the truth as it can get. All though, I presume Swedes do more than the overall Norwegians. Sweden had Bergman, and they got Ullmann. For decades there were no offers from Norway to Ullmann. None. Where they scared? Did they lack the courage to fulfill their inheritance? Who knows. They would not even support her to direct “A Doll´s House” in Norway. An outrageous disgrace! As Ullmann once said: “I could have sold Norwegian movies abroad.” Then adding: “One should not say these things in Norway, but I say them anyway.” No wonder I love her.
I am certainly not a film knower, but I am most definitely a film lover. There is a special mood in some Scandinavian films that I revere. It takes some to see this kind of films. On a Sunday evening I will rather watch a Hollywood comedy or action, to let my mind rest and just enjoy the entertainment that is presented. One sort of has to be in the right state of mind to watch a Bergman-film, one has to be open for it – and prepared. Only then can you soak in the beauty and the quietness, and absorb the pace and the poetry. The pace itself is the feature, that gives the audience time to immerse with the characters. It gives a special credibility to the stories. It makes you want to freeze specific scenes as images, because they are so damn orphic. There is no fast cutting, no filters or lies. They are courageously sincere.
Art is emotions that are already there, that someone else gave life to. When life or your own mind becomes to complicated to understand, you can ride the waves of a song and merge with yourself. You can see yourself from the outside in a film, or find pieces of yourself in a poem. I have found many pieces of myself in Liv Ullmann´s eyes. Her films are the spring of my soul. I have seen only a handful of hers, and also Bergman´s, films. Those I have seen, changed parts of me. Those who are still awaiting, will assumably change new parts of me. That is the beauty in it, the kind of beauty you rarely see anymore.
For Bergman and Ullmann fans, “Faithless” is a must. If I had only one wish in life, it would be to move into this film and stay in “Bergman´s” summerhouse by the sea. Lena Endre is breathtaking, and the collaboration between two of the greatest leaves me speechless.
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