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Director Ingmar Bergman occupies a central place in the history of modern cinema. Credited with igniting a cinematic revolution, his ability to produce work which resonated with audiences globally has brought scholarly attention to the impact of Bergman’s Swedish background on his oeuvre. Ingmar Bergman Out of Focus revises this question of Bergman’s “familiarity” to produce a more expansive understanding of Bergman’s cultural heritage. Considering the impact of Bergman’s films on film festival organizers, critics, academics, and audiences all over the world, this volume illuminates how Bergman’s film aesthetics simultaneously shaped modern culture and were themselves reshaped by the debates and concerns that preoccupied his viewers.
“This is a timely, original, and rich piece of work, adding to the vast Bergman studies a novel approach that has to a large extent been missing – the reception of his work outside of the Euro-centric focus.” • Louise Wallenberg, Stockholm University
“This volume is a welcome and vital contribution to the fields of Bergman Studies and Cinema Reception Studies. It challenges the long-standing misconception that Ingmar Bergman’s films have occupied a narrow cultural space dominated by white, urban, middle-brow audiences in the United States and Western Europe. Moreover, this anthology is essential reading for those intrigued by overlooked histories of transnationality, or who delight in the discovery of new dimensions in well-trodden topics. The essays are not only of a consistently high scholarly caliber but are also compellingly engaging, making the collection indispensable.” • Daniel Humphrey, Author of Queer Bergman: Sexuality, Gender, and the European Art Cinema.
Jono Van Belle is an Assistant Professor in Media and Communications Studies at Örebro University in Sweden. She gained her doctorate in Communication and Cinema Studies jointly at Ghent University and Stockholm University in 2019. Focusing especially on Ingmar Bergman, cinema memory, audience reception, gender studies, and media policy, she has worked on the reception of Ingmar Bergman in Sweden and Belgium and, together with Åsa Jernudd, on cinemagoing in Sweden during the 1950s and 1960s.
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Jan Holmberg (CEO of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation)
Introduction
Fernando Ramos Arenas, Jono Van Belle, and María Paz Peirano
Chapter 1. Off the Beaten Track: Birgitta Steene’s Pioneering Reception Research on Ingmar Bergman
Jono van Belle
Chapter. Reception of Ingmar Bergman and the Concept of ‘Art Cinema’ in Chile and Argentina (1950s–1960s)
Alejandro Kelly-Hopfenblatt & María Paz Peirano
Chapter 3. Did Uruguay Discover Bergman? The Early reception of Swedish Cinema and the Trails of a Shared Modern Feeling
Mariana Amieva
Chapter 4. The Making and Unmaking of Ingmar Bergman, Religious Filmmaker. Arthouse and Catholicism in Spain (1960–63)
Fernando Ramos Arenas
Chapter 5. The Castaway of the Post-Thaw Tide: The 1959/1960 ‘Bergman Season’ in the People’s Republic of Poland
Konrad Klejsa
Chapter 6. Discussed, Demonised, Disputed: The Film Critic as Gatekeeper on the Path towards Bergman’s Canonisation in Italy
Giulio Tosi
Chapter 7. We Live in the Same World: Fan Mail to Ingmar Bergman
Eirik Frisvold Hanssen
Chapter 8. Accessing Ingmar Bergman in Twenty-First Century India: Film Festivals, Societies and Filmmakers as Reception Pathways
Ashvin Immanuel Devasundaram
Conclusion
Fernando Ramos Arenas, Jono Van Belle, and María Paz Peirano
List of Film Titles
Index