Ingrid Bergman

It would be a tough call if you ask me which is your favorite film of all time or which is

your favorite book of all time or which is your favorite actor of all time. But if you ask

me which your favorite actress of all time .. ? Then I have a unanimous answer. It surely has to be “Ingrid Bergman” a beautiful actress from Sweden.

Just in case if you are wondering “Well. Who the hell is Ingrid Bergman..?”. For your

knowledge she is the actress who played the famous role of “ Ilsa Iund ” opposite to

Humphrey Bogart’s “Rick Blane” in the famous “Casablanca”, one of my all time favorite movies.

Even though Bergman was introduced to international level through Hollywood movies,

she is basically a Swedish actress. She made her acting debut in a Swedish film titled

Munkbrogreven in the year 1934. She played a small role in the film but it wasn’t until 1939 when she made her English speaking debut in “Intermezzo a love story” she got introduced to American audience. More than the movie itself, it was Bergman’s beauty that became the talking point in Hollywood those days.

It was an astonishing display of sheer beauty on silver screen, something which the

American public was never used to in Hollywood movies during those days and just like

Marilyn Monroe who became a Sex symbol, Bergman also was renowned for her saintly

natural beauty, which I would like to denote as “Divine Beauty”.

*But for an actress more than just beauty it’s the acting talent that really counts at the

end of the day**. Looking through Bergman’s career it’s commendable that she never fell

in for what they call The Brad Pitt effect. If you know enough of Hollywood of the 90’s,

you might be aware that Brad Pitt was never considered a serious actor until he started

acting in some of the thrillers directed by David Fincher in the late 90’s. Until then good

looks always got in his way *(The fact that he got his first Oscar nomination for the role

he played in Benjamin button that’s what one can make out)*.

Bergman was one of a kind actress who had excellent control over her performance.

In fact this was the quintessential characteristics of all the great actors of any time –

they all possess tremendous control over their performance. If you look at some of the

greatest actors of Hollywood naming – Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Cary Grant,

Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Robert Mitchum.. etc… etc..

What stood out for me was the fact that they all had tremendous control over their

performances..!! They never hammed through and made acting look ridiculously easy

and Bergman was no exception.

Bergman was able to make an immediate impact in America in 1940’s, creating

blockbuster after blockbuster and ending up getting casted in the movies Alfred

Hitchcock.

1940’s is still considered as the Golden age of Hollywood cinema and Bergman was the

most popular actress going around. Despite playing a terrific part in Casablanca it was in

1943 that she got her first Academy Award nomination for the movie For whom the Bell

Tolls. The movie was based on the works of Ernest Hemingway, the **famous Nobel prize

winning American Author** and believe it or not it was Hemingway himself that casted

Bergman for the role. According to Ernest “It was a part only Bergman would have

played”.

Although she didn’t win the award she could do the following year with a superb

measured performance in George Cukor’s Gaslight co-starring Charles Boyer. In 1944

she became the first ever actress to win three consecutive Oscar nominations for her

role in The Bells of Saint Mary’s. But in 1945 came Bergman's biggest turning point..!!

1945 onwards, Bergman starred in 3 Hitchcock movies namely **Under Capricon,

Spellbound** and my favorite Notorious. For impressing Hitchcock, Bergman took up coaching class under Michael Chekhov during the 1940s. Coincidentally, it was for his role

alongside Bergman in Spellbound that Chekhov received his only Academy Award nomination.

All in all, Bergman got 3 Oscars (Gaslight, Anastasia and Murder on the orient express)

and is second only to Audrey Hepburn when it comes to all time records. She got

nominated 4 times and has won various other awards including Bafta and the Golden

Globe. In fact she would have made a bigger career in Hollywood if she hadn’t got

involved in a sex scandal with the Italian director Roberto Rossellini in 1950. Apparently

back in the day both Roberto and Ingrid got involved in a sexual relationship

during the filming of the director's 1950 classic Stromboli. The affair not only forced her to

move away from Hollywood for 7 years but also had an impact in the actor’s personal

life as well. A week after young Roberto was born, Ingrid divorced her ex-husband Dr.

Lindström. On **18 June 1952 she gave birth to the twin daughters Isotta Ingrid Rossellini

and Isabella Rossellini, who also went on toemerge a top actress and fashion model

early 80’s**. From 1950 onwards, Bergman moved away from Hollywood to Italian cinema, where she went on to make a couple of Italian noir’s with her husband/director Roberto Rossellini.

Bergman came back and made an immediate impact winning an Oscar for her role

in Anastasia in 1956. Soon after she divorced Roberto and married Lars Schmidt, a

theatrical entrepreneur from her native country, Sweden. Ingrid went on to act for

3 more decades in Hollywood and again **came back to Sweden in 1973 starring in Ingmar

Bergman’s Autumn Sonata**, a role for which she got an academy nomination for best

supporting actress. Subsequently in **1973 she was honored President of the jury by

Canne film festival. It was a period in which the **star system was not followed (Means nobody was considered a star) but still Berman remained a shining star of Hollywood as long as she remained an actress.

Perhaps, this may be her biggest achievement yet -- To win the audiences heart's with her sheer beauty and pure unadulterated brilliance on screen..! This is the story of Ingrid Bergman – One of the great actresses of all time and without doubt The most beautiful face to grace the silver screen..!! ~ Enjoy ~

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There are only seven people in show biz who can get studios to produce anything and only one is a woman and thats ingrid bergman, so said the debonair CARYGRANT on his second pairing with  ingrid in1960.

A N ordinary girl  was born in 1925 to a poor photographer in stockholm in sweden, she was orphaned at 3 and then brought up by an aunt till she did her first movie in 1935 with  moltafer at the age of 10 as a schoolgirl standing in a chorus line, but it was INTERMEZZO   with the same director which brought   her to limelight and be noticed by the hollywood mogul david selznick in 1940,

it was selznick who remade it for hollywood to give us a legendary and a beautiful actress  with dignity and talent, but a strength to defy the mc carthy era, a dark chapter in the history of america .

she made joan of arc and inn of sixth happiness to become americas darling, her astonishing talent matched her magical beauty but it was CASABLANCA in 1942 which made her a world star, yet she won her first oscar nomination in 1943 with ERNEST HEMINGWAYS adaptation of FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS where as the abused spanish revolutionary she is magical as maria opposite **gary cooper .

but   oscars eluded her until 1943 when it was as the slowly poisoned hosewife in george cukors GASLIGHTwhere she won her FIRST OSCAR, but the best was yet to come, in an extraordinary twist she and LANA TURNER got cast together in DRJEKYLL AND MR.HYDE, but ingrid played the pros*itute while lana against her image was cast as the leading lady setting the box office on fire .

she was cast in three movies by the great alfred hitchcock and all weave a magic spell but its NOTORIOUS with cary grant which is one of the all time greats as she plays the spy sent by cia to argentina with cary grant to supervise her where the meaning of screen chemistry is revealed in the true sense as they emote and kiss and hate each other in this eternal movie butSPELLBOUND with GREGORY PECK as a psychiatric patient  is a great  psychological drama where she is a doctor and is equally spellbinding as in  the UNDER THE CAPRICORN,

the nightmare sequences in spellbound were designed by salvador dali the great surrealist ic painter who designed at least a hundred sketches by post for hitchcock which are in getty museum now and he only agreed to do them when told it was a bergman movie, a genius meets another genius and the results are immortalised on screen forever .

Her second oscar came for playing the legendary ANASTASIA , the amnesic and lost  daughter of the last tsar nicholas of russia and she looks every inch  like a princess bur acts like a queen of hearts as she was at that  time the biggest star in america  ,  but her first marriage to a dentist  broke up and she fell in love with the italian filmmakerrossellini as the american media started a witch hunt with the colorado senator calling heran evil influence, she immigrated to italy where she made STROMBOLI with her husband rossellini in the same year as she created her twin daughters, one of whom isisabella rossellini [blue velvet ], then followed 3 other movies in italy before her marriage broke up and she returned to hollywood and was warmly embraced by her fans and the studios

she went back to america to make INDISCREET , again withcary grant, a very sophisticated and discreet comedy, but my favourite from the sixties is YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE, where she drivesOMAR SHARIF OUT OF TITOS yugosylavia, as well as SARATOGA TRUNKS, a delightful american periof comedy about the deep south, she also worked on BROADWAY and made a movie for television as well before winning her third oscar in agatha christies MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, but it is  the fellow swede genius filmmaker  ingmar bergman s AUTUMN SONATA, her last movie where she sang her swan song as a beautiful ageing mother in a masterpiece on female mystique and human psychology that has never been interpreted  in that manner before or ever  after .

she had discovered by this time she was dying of breast cancer but she still made her last appearance as golda meir in a tele movie, the israeli leaders biopic which won her an emmy award .

her movies and characters portray her inner strength and purity of character as despite her three failed  marriages she claimed,

*                 ive gone from being a saint to a wh . and then a saint again

only an extraordinary human being can say that about  themselves, but she is a very special woman indeed from elsaof casablanca who has her cigarette lit memorably by bogart and for whom sam plays it again and again to the mariain for **whom the bell tolls who is torn away from her dying yankee lover as she alone brought a dignity to american cinema that no one has ever done before or after, whether with cary grant or with omar sharif she dazzled the silver screen like no one can from her black and white classics to her tecnicolor epics .she has a frail beauty but very strong face with extremely expressive eyes which are hypnotic for me as I could watch her endlessly in casablanca and notorious, but her appeal doesnt end here as her wit and intelligence are remarkable as evident from her above quote .

its a classic rag to riches story in real life as portrayed in anastasia of an ordinary swedish girl, a morality as defiant as in notorious yet a courage as noble as in yellow rolls royce, she symbolises all the virtues a mortal like me can desire in a woman but its autumn sonata by ingmar bergman where you are lost for words,

an eternal epitaph for a great actress and woman

they dont make them like her  anymore

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