Self-analysis of a filmmaker
The Ingmar Bergman Archives. Excerpt from the essay by Ingmar Bergman
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And with the sincere person’s deep-rooted inclination to lie I must answer: "I do not know, but I think so." I regret I have to dwell so long on the dilemma of the filmmaker, but I am attempting to explain why so many of us in this profession are subject to such strains, invisible and impossible to grapple with, that we become afraid and halfhearted, and are so stupefied and worn out that we submit to gray and poisonous compromise. Now I would like to say a few words about the other horn of the dilemma of the filmmaker, the most important and certainly the most difficult to master—the audience.
The filmmaker uses a medium that involves not only himself but millions of other people, and most likely he has the same desire as other artists: I want to succeed today. I want to be praised now. I want to please, delight, and fascinate people right away.
This desire is half met by the audience, who have one demand on his film: I have paid and I want to be entertained. I want to be carried away, be enthralled, forget my aches and pains,my family,my work. I want to be taken out of myself. I want to be released from my environment. The filmmaker knows this. As he has to live on the money put down by the audience he is put in a difficult situation.When he makes his film he must pay regard to public reaction all the time. The following questions keep recurring to me personally: Can I express myself more simply, more clearly, and more briefly? Does everyone understand what I am trying to say? Can everyone follow the course of events? And, most important of all, How far do I have to compromise and where does my responsibility to myself begin?
Behind all the experimenting lies the risk that the experiment is beyond the audience. Do not forget that the road away from the public may lead to sterility or to an ivory tower.
It would be desirable if the film producers, as well as the other captains of industry, would set up experimental facilities for the use of the creative artist. However, that is not done. Film producers have provided for the technician only and stupidly convince themselves that the salvation of the industry is purely by technical innovation.
Behind all the experimenting lies the risk that the experiment is beyond the audience
It is not difficult to make the cinemagoer afraid.We can scare the living daylights out of him, as most people have a potential fear under the skin. It is very difficult to make people laugh, and laugh in the right place. It is easy to make a woman imagine that she is worse than she really is and hard to coax her to believe that she is better than she really is. Yet that is what she wants every time she goes into the darkness of the cinema. How often, and by what means, do we satisfy her in this respect? I can argue in this way even while I know with absolute certainty that it is a dangerous argument. It involves a great risk, to pronounce upon public failures, to call ambition pride and to break through the limits set up by the public and the critics around oneself, limits that I do not recognize and that are not my own, for I am constantly changing. I get a tired desire to adapt myself and make myself the way people want me, but at the same time I know that this would be the end of me and involve complete self-contempt. Therefore I am still glad that I was not born menial-minded.
I have never seen it anywhere that a film director shall be happy and contented and have peace of mind.Nobody has said that one should not break barriers, tilt at windmills, fire rockets to the moon, have visions, play with dynamite, or make mincemeat of oneself.Why shouldn’t one frighten the film producers? To be frightened goes with filmmaking, so they will be paid in their own coin.
Page 1 2 3 4 5
Page 1 2 3 4 5
And with the sincere person’s deep-rooted inclination to lie I must answer: "I do not know, but I think so." I regret I have to dwell so long on the dilemma of the filmmaker, but I am attempting to explain why so many of us in this profession are subject to such strains, invisible and impossible to grapple with, that we become afraid and halfhearted, and are so stupefied and worn out that we submit to gray and poisonous compromise. Now I would like to say a few words about the other horn of the dilemma of the filmmaker, the most important and certainly the most difficult to master—the audience.
The filmmaker uses a medium that involves not only himself but millions of other people, and most likely he has the same desire as other artists: I want to succeed today. I want to be praised now. I want to please, delight, and fascinate people right away.
This desire is half met by the audience, who have one demand on his film: I have paid and I want to be entertained. I want to be carried away, be enthralled, forget my aches and pains,my family,my work. I want to be taken out of myself. I want to be released from my environment. The filmmaker knows this. As he has to live on the money put down by the audience he is put in a difficult situation.When he makes his film he must pay regard to public reaction all the time. The following questions keep recurring to me personally: Can I express myself more simply, more clearly, and more briefly? Does everyone understand what I am trying to say? Can everyone follow the course of events? And, most important of all, How far do I have to compromise and where does my responsibility to myself begin?
Behind all the experimenting lies the risk that the experiment is beyond the audience. Do not forget that the road away from the public may lead to sterility or to an ivory tower.
It would be desirable if the film producers, as well as the other captains of industry, would set up experimental facilities for the use of the creative artist. However, that is not done. Film producers have provided for the technician only and stupidly convince themselves that the salvation of the industry is purely by technical innovation.
Behind all the experimenting lies the risk that the experiment is beyond the audience
It is not difficult to make the cinemagoer afraid.We can scare the living daylights out of him, as most people have a potential fear under the skin. It is very difficult to make people laugh, and laugh in the right place. It is easy to make a woman imagine that she is worse than she really is and hard to coax her to believe that she is better than she really is. Yet that is what she wants every time she goes into the darkness of the cinema. How often, and by what means, do we satisfy her in this respect? I can argue in this way even while I know with absolute certainty that it is a dangerous argument. It involves a great risk, to pronounce upon public failures, to call ambition pride and to break through the limits set up by the public and the critics around oneself, limits that I do not recognize and that are not my own, for I am constantly changing. I get a tired desire to adapt myself and make myself the way people want me, but at the same time I know that this would be the end of me and involve complete self-contempt. Therefore I am still glad that I was not born menial-minded.
I have never seen it anywhere that a film director shall be happy and contented and have peace of mind.Nobody has said that one should not break barriers, tilt at windmills, fire rockets to the moon, have visions, play with dynamite, or make mincemeat of oneself.Why shouldn’t one frighten the film producers? To be frightened goes with filmmaking, so they will be paid in their own coin.
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