Ingmar Bergman's Evening. Premiere of the book “Untwisted, unstaged, unpublished by Ingmar Bergman” and screening of the film “Where Wild Strawberries Grow” (1957, 91′) SCREENING FROM 35 MM TAPE

The National Publishing Institute and the Museum of Cinematography in Łódź invite you to the premiere of Ingmar Bergman's book “Unfilmed, unstaged, unpublished” and the screening of the film “Where Strawberries Grow” from 35 mm tape.

Tadeusz Szczepański, translator of the publication, and Paweł Orzeł, editor of the book, will talk about the book, film and the work of one of the most outstanding directors of the 20th century. The conversation will be conducted by film expert Olga Wesolowska.

The volume “Untwisted, Unstaged, Unpublished” collects unpublished and previously inaccessible texts by Ingmar Bergman — film scripts, plays and projects that, for various reasons, have not been realized, published or exhibited. The book included, among other things, the debut dramatic play of 1942, described by the author himself as a shameless plagiarism of Strindberg, as well as texts by a mature Bergman, which the director, for various reasons, did not decide to publish or screen. Among the most interesting materials were the project of the 1969 Hollywood film “Sixty Four Minutes with Rebecca” and the 1975 television show dedicated to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

“Where Strawberries Grow” is a study of transience realized by just 37-year-old Bergman and another personal work in the director's filmography. I made a character that resembled my father in appearance, but who was me through and through. I myself (...), alienated, closed in on myself, detached from others, self-confident, not only quite unhappy, but really unhappy. Full of success. And gifted. And solid. And disciplined.

For his alter ego Bergman chose 80-year-old Professor Borg, who goes with his daughter-in-law from Stockholm to Lund for the celebration of his own scientific jubilee. The journey becomes for him a wander through the areas of memory, a reflection on life and relationships with people. The hero recalls in his memoirs his first unfulfilled love, unsuccessful marriage, difficult fatherhood. The nearness of death makes Borg realize that with arrogance, coldness and indifference he has fenced off himself with a wall from others, condemned himself to desperate loneliness. Now he will try to slowly tear down this wall (which is only subtly signaled, but still represents a unique ray of optimism in the director's work).

In “Where Strawberries Grow” Bergman undertook to play with the conventions of cinema. The dream sequences are stylized in different currents of silent cinema (from expressionism, through surrealism, to vaudeville impressionism). The author also invited the legendary director, mentor and creator of the famous Swedish school, Victor Sjöström, who played the character of Professor Borg and, as Bergman himself says, mastered (...) the text — he remade it his own way, he put his own experiences into it: anguish, misanthropy, alienation, brutality, sadness, fear, loneliness, coldness, warmth, roughness and chandra.