A HOUSE FOR INGMAR BERGMAN

As he himself said, Ingmar Bergman would have carved a devil, first, for the big cathedral on the plains, and then, perhaps, an angel…! But he WOULD have worked for the cathedral…! If only the cathedral was still being built, with that fervor the Middle Ages knew…!

If art is a revenge on an unsatisfactory life, the devil Ingmar Bergman would have carved, for the big cathedral on the plains, would have represented what…?!?

A supreme dissatisfaction…? A maliciousness…? A fear…?

God apparently didn’t speak to Bergman.  At least not until Monday, July 30th, 2007. Or at least not in more explicit terms than to the child Alexander. That is, as a threat and as a mystery, mainly.

So, how would the house of disbelieving belief look like? Or, the house of believing disbelief…? How else to put the complexities of Ingmar Bergman’s movies into words…?

As a knight or not, Ingmar Bergman wanted faith AND knowledge, in the “desolate” landscape of his island… and on this “desolate” landscape a modest house still is, austere, gray, and perhaps very lonely.

Yet this great director longed for communion, for a true and organic communication, claiming that to connect with someone was the most life would have to offer

The House of Ingmar Bergman…