Obituary – Bergman and Antonioni
This has probably been one of the most terrible starts to a week. The world has lost two great filmmakers – Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, each of whom influenced the world cinema in their own unique ways. As one of the critics truly said – ” the last links to the golden era of European art films are no more”. To top it all Sanjay Dutt has been put behind bars for six years.
The moment I heard of Bergman’s death, my thoughts wandered away to his first movie that I ever saw. I was 15 and had pleaded my 5 year elder cousin to take me along to a friend’s party. Among the haze of marijuana, music and who-was-banging-whom-talks there was a 21 inch television in the corner playing a VHS tape. The film wasn’t even in English, was subtitled and mostly set in one place. I wasn’t allowed to have a sip of beer and was being made to watch a boring-as-hell film. What kind of a party was this? After my consistent pestering my brother had to drop me back in the middle of the party. Years later I had a magnificent opportunity to watch ‘Wild Strawberries’ again, this time on big screen at the Swedish embassy and it has been among one of the most impactful films for me. Over the years I have managed to see all of the Bergman’s movies including some rare made-for-TV stuff.
Bergman had a strict upbringing and a tough childhood, movies being his only escape. Like so many of other legendary filmmakers one of his first jobs was as an assistant projectionist at the local cinema hall. He would later do his cellegiate studies in films, specialising in acting and directing and go on to become one of the most revered filmmakers from Sweden. Though he made his first film in 1946, it wasn’t years later in 1955 that he was first noticed for “Smiles of a Summer Night”. From then on he crafted masterpieces after masterpieces – Wild Strawberries, Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, Persona, Scenes from a Marriage and lately Saraband. But the world would perhaps best remember him for his seminal autobiographical work “Fanny and Alexander”.
Compared to Ingmar Bergman, my first initiation to Michelangelo Antonioni was years later. It was again at a friend’s place that I first saw any of his works – his first English language film Blow-Up, Antonioni’s biggest international hit. Though he started working in the film industry fairly early, it wasn’t until he was 38 that he directed his first feature and a deacde later when he was 48 that he received critical acclaim with “L’Avventura”.The film though, when initially screened at Cannes was pooh-poohed for the barest of plots.
Though Antonioni is no more, he continues to be with us through a plethora of brilliant work including The Night, The Eclipse, Red Desert, Zabriskie Point, The Passenger and Beyond the Clouds. Infact it’s this last film that remains a testimony to his immense abilities and determination. Comprising of an international cast, Antonioni was considered too weak to finish off the film. As a result, the producers had Wim Wenders accompanying the master. However as it would later turn out all Wenders could do was stand and admire in awe as Antonioni wound up the film.
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“I make films for an ideal spectator who is this very director. I could never do something against my tastes to meet the public. Frankly, I can’t do it, even if so many directors do so. And then, what public? Italian? American? Japanese? French? British? Australian? They’re all different from each other.” – Michelangelo Antonioni, 1980
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
And on top of this, we also lost here one of our finest actors, Michel Serrault. Let’s hope those deaths will be the last for a long long time.
within 24 hours of bergman’s exit, michelangelo antonioni joins him. deathly drama this …!
there will be quite a party, wherever they are. the two of them. AND fellini, tarkovsky, chaplin and ray.
hmm.
also, some of u may enjoy this bergman obit in NY TIMES
What a misery! Couldn’t expect this in just a san of 24 hours. Now who’s left?
Scorsese – Let’s wish for his long life. We need to get more Departed’s!
I meant “span”.
L’Avventura will be always in my heart.
Oph