This autumn, The Garden Cinema presents the essential films by the spellbinding Ingrid Bergman.
With a career spanning over five decades, Bergman combined an arthouse sensibility that made European auteurs trust her with complex roles, and a star quality that made her a beloved Hollywood icon. She effortlessly wove in and out of both systems, changing sides when she felt restless, refusing to make films she was uncomfortable with.
She was the protagonist of numerous classics on both sides of the Atlantic, and worked with some of the greatest directors of all time, such as George Cukor (Gaslight), Alfred Hitchcock (Spellbound, Notorious), Roberto Rossellini (Stromboli, Journey to Italy), and Ingmar Bergman (Autumn Sonata).
Her acting was utterly modern, at odds with the stylised and heavily gendered conventions of the time, and she was equally loved by men and women who identified with her no-frills approach to performance. Her collaborators – such as Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca) and Cary Grant – have emphasised her laser focus on the filmmaking craft and utter nonchalance about the way she would physically appear on screen, maintaining an unadorned look by 1940s standards of showbiz glamour. Legendary producer David O. Selznick (who produced Intermezzo) understood her fear of make-up artists, who might turn her into someone she wouldn’t recognise, and her awareness that her natural good looks would compete successfully with Hollywood’s ‘synthetic razzle-dazzle’.
Bergman remains one of the most decorated actresses in cinema history. She won three Academy Awards: Best Actress for Gaslight (1944) and Anastasia (1956), and Best Supporting Actress for Murder on the Orient Express (1974), making her one of the few performers to win Oscars in both leading and supporting categories.
According to the tabloids, she lived a complicated personal life – meaning, she simply lived the same way her male counterparts in the industry did. Her extramarital affair with Roberto Rossellini even led to her denunciation on the floor of the United States Senate, where, in 1950, Senator Edwin C. Johnson declared that his once favourite actress ‘had perpetrated an assault upon the institution of marriage’, calling her ‘a powerful influence for evil’. Bergman was publicly shamed and ostracised by Hollywood, and moved to Italy during a highly publicised divorce and custody battle for her daughter. Bergman and Rossellini subsequently married and together created three masterpieces: Stromboli, Journey to Italy, and Europa ’51. After a few years, Bergman made her triumphant return to Hollywood with, among other titles, Anastasia and Indiscreet.
The Garden Cinema invites you to discover, or rediscover, a brilliant artist, unconventional star, and fearless woman whose magnetism endures.
