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Press Information January | February 2018

Ingmar Bergman

“Any filmmaker trying to get into the texture of human relations ends up in Bergman territory.” (, 2005)

The Museum rings in the new year with a grand, centennial anniversary: On the occasion of the 100th birthday of great Swedish director and author (1918-2007), a number of celebrations will be held worldwide. The complete retrospective of his cinematic work in Vienna will raise the curtain on this festive year. From his international breakthrough in 1956/57 with award-winning classics such as Sommarnattens leende (), Det sjunde inseglet () or Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) and his official farewell to cinema in 1982 with the great feat of Fanny och Alexander (), Bergman became an indisputed institution and the face of on the cinematic world map. No other director is considered the epitome of an advanced, philsophically demanding auteur cinema as much as Bergman. This status was confirmed in 1997, when he was awarded the “Palm of Palms” on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival.

However, his reputation of “popular genius” also gave rise to a cliché: As researcher of existential and metaphysical crises, Bergman was pigeonholed as belonging to the Scandinavian tradition together with authors such as (whom he greatly admired). Just as Alfred Hitchcock was labeled the master of suspense for his thrillers although he tried his hand at other registers, Bergman was styled the master of profound relationship despite his success in many genres, including light comedy and metaphoric historical pieces. The cliché is countered by an oeuvre whose diversity and openness always finds new ways of amazing the viewer. Proof of that arrives in Bergman’s lasting influence on directors as different as , , Olivier Assayas, Michael Haneke and . The first complete retrospective since that organized by the Film Museum in 2004 is an invitation to a journey of (re)discovery of one of the richest continents in the history of cinema.

Born a pastor’s son, Bergman grew up in a strict Lutheran environment, which strongly determined his interests and sparked the power of his imagination at an early age: “So, when reality was no longer sufficient, I began to fantasize, entertain my playmates with tremendous stories about my secret adventures.“ Already as a teenager, Bergman dove into the history of literature and began his studies in the field before turning to theater, which was to remain an important sphere of activity and the topic of his (for example, in his 1975 version of The Magic Flute Trollflöjten ) all his life. It also provided the foundation for the virtuosic work he achieved with actors. Starting from the 1950s, Bergman and his ensemble performed on ’s stages in the winter season, using the summer months for shooting. This helped many of his staple actors, such as , and , launch an international career .

Bergman came to film in the mid-1940s. He began as a scriptwriter and quickly established himself as a director, becoming a leading figure in Swedish cinema. In the first phase of his work, he combined neorealist influences with youthful rebellion: His films often featured young (working- class) couples struggling with the ossified bourgeois adult world. The immensely physical love Press Information January | February 2018 story Sommaren med Monika (, 1953) was described by Jean-Luc Godard as “the most original film by the most original of filmmakers. It is to the cinema of today what Birth of a Nation was to the classical cinema.” Later on, in his own film debut, Godard quoted the incredible in which actress stares directly into the camera: A perfect example of Bergman’s modernist impulses as a mainspring for the continuous expansion of his aesthetic and thematic spectrum. Their expression ranges from the string of comedies that culminated in Sommarnattens leende (Smiles of a Summer Night), dark such as the medieval miracle play The Seventh Seal , or the modern story of estrangement Tystnaden (The Silence, 1963), whose sexually explicit scenes provoked censorship scandals.

His unmistakable artistic voice made Bergman the role model for the New Wave . But that is far from all: From personal detail (François Truffaut: “Nobody gets as close to the human face as Bergman.”) to cosmic scope (mirrored in the inhospitable landscape of his homeland of choice, the island of Fårö, the preferred setting for his films from the on), the sometimes brutal intensity of Bergman’s film world is at odds with his reputation as a canonized, “dusty” classic. This is true of more than his dauntless radical ventures that have in fact come to be considered “classics,” such as the experimental (cinema and) self-reflexive Persona (1966) or the quasi-horror film Vargtimmen (, 1968). Bergman’s work was bursting with vitality right up to his celebrated late works for cinema and television such as Scener ur ett äktenskap (, 1974) or Fanny and Alexander , their energy invariably stemming from an uncompromising exploration of the matters of life.

The Film Museum would like to thank the Swedish Film Institute. Bergman's complete cinematic opus will be shown on film, including documentary films, short films and commercials, with the exception of Sän't händer inte här (High Tension, 1950), long since prohibited from public screenings. January 5 to February 8, 2018

Silent Film and Live Music Victor Sjöström’s The Outlaw and His Wife

The comprehensive Bergman retrospective will be accompanied by another program devoted to Swedish cinema. We will present Victor Sjöström’s silent film Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (The Outlaw and His Wife, 1918) in a new restoration by the Swedish Film Institute. Bergman admired director and actor Sjöström, paying tribute to him in Wild Strawberries . The Outlaw and His Wife illustrates the powerful imagery and psychological depth of Sjöström’s work which had a formative influence on Bergman.

The film will be shown in a longer version with the original toning restored. Swedish film composer and silent film pianist Matti Bye, who last visited the Film Museum in 2008, will accompany the film live together with Finnish composer and musician Laura Naukkarinen (alias Lau Nau ).

www.mattibye.com | www.launau.com January 26, 2018 Press Information January | February 2018

Cocksucker Blues

A rarity as a postscript to the recently successfully completed retrospective of the work of filmmaker and photographer Robert Frank. In 1972, Frank made a documentary film about the Rolling Stones’ American tour, which has been successfully suppressed by the band and its management and therefore never received a theatrical release or found its way to a wider audience. As a result, Cocksucker Blues enjoys an almost mythical status as “the most notorious music documentary of all time.” But scandal, groupie hype and open drug use aside, what makes the film significant are Frank’s laconic powers of observation in the middle of raw and seedy goings-on: the rock tour as a sequence of never-ending slack periods, full of exhaustion, boredom and irritation.

Because of its legal status, the film can only be shown four times a year. No reservations possible. Presale tickets are available from December 20. January 17, 2018

KINO ARBEIT LIEBE Homage to Elisabeth Büttner

Great Viennese film scholar Elisabet Büttner , who passed away in 2016, saw cinema as a space of collective experience and a space of possibility for the self as well as a space for emotions and insight. She appreciated film for its openness to both great and inconspicuous events, contradictions and resistances, gestures and phantoms. She was always in pursuit of the politics of images and their connections; time and time again, she stressed that films do so much more than tell stories – in fact, they have their own (hi)stories and do things their own way. Christian Dewald , Petra Löffler and Marc Ries will present KINO ARBEIT LIEBE, a book retracing Elisabeth Büttner’s ways of thinking and the manifold connection points in her work. The volume, which will be issued by Berlin publisher Vorwerk 8 at the beginning of 2018, will be presented as part of a program including films by Michael Wallin , Lisl Ponger , Peter Tscherkassky, Kurt Kren and others. January 25, 2018

Stan Brakhage: “Metaphors on Vision” Discussion and film screening

One of the characteristics of the history of avant-garde cinema is the absence of a comprehensive theory. In its stead, a range of often conflicting historiographical writings, in most cases determined by production context, working methods (found footage, handmade films, etc.) and the current “generation” of filmmakers fill the gap. However, ever since Dziga Vertov’s “WE: Variant of a Manifesto” (1922), the theoretical “superstructure” is provided by the filmmakers themselves in the form of programmatic self-declarations and treatises.

Press Information January | February 2018

One such is Stan Brakhage’s text Metaphors on Vision , published in 1963 by Jonas Mekas and considered a trailblazing self-portrait of American avant-garde. Out of print for decades, Brakhage’s composition has been reviewed by film theorist and historian P. Adams Sitney and is now available in a new edition complete with annotations published by Light Industry and Anthology Film Archives. In conversation with Michael Loebenstein, panelists Gabriele Jutz (professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Applied Arts Vienna) and Vrääth Öhner (film and media scholar) will investigate the “avant-garde practice of self-theorizing” and the lasting importance of Brakhage’s theoretical work. The panel will be followed by a screening of a new, restored film print of Brakhage’s Dog Star Man (1961-64). February 1, 2018

Lecture Peter Kubelka WHAT IS FILM – 21 Years Later: A Perspective For Hans Hurch

As national curator for the hundertjahrekino initiative , Hans Hurch enabled the acquisition of numerous film copies for the cyclical program Was ist Film (What is Film) . The Film Museum would like to posthumously thank him for making the cycle possible, also in the name of many filmmakers and those interested in film who have benefitted from the cycle as cinematic base.

In this program, Peter Kubelka will address the situation of analog film today based on examples from the cycle. An evening for Hans Hurch and a perspective on the present and future of film. January 16, 2018 A repeat performance of the previously canceled program on October 17, 2017

For more information and photos, please visit www.filmmuseum.at or contact: Alessandra Thiele, [email protected] , T +43 | 1 | 533 70 54 Ext 22

Press Information January | February 2018

Ingmar Bergman - Film List

Kris (Crisis) (1946) Det regnar på vår kärlek (It Rains on Our Love) (1946) Skepp till India land (A Ship to India) (1947) Musik i mörker (Music in the Dark) (1948) Hamnstad (Port of Call) (1948) Törst (Thirst) (1949) Fängelse (Prison) (1949) Till glädje (To Joy) (1950) Sommarlek (Summer Interlude) (1951) Kvinnors väntan (Waiting Women) (1952) Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika) (1952) Gycklarnas afton () (1953) En lektion i kärlek (A Lesson in Love) (1954) Sommarnattens leende (Smiles of a Summer Night) (1955) Kvinnodröm (Dreams) (1955) Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) (1957) Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal) (1957) Nära livet (Brink of Life) (1958) Ansiktet (The Magician) (1958) Jungfrukällan () (1960) Såsom i en spegel (Through a Glass, Darkly) (1961) Tystnaden (The Silence) (1963) Nattvardsgästerna () (1963) För att inte tala om alla dessa kvinnor () (1964) Persona (1966) Vargtimmen (Hour of the Wolf) (1968) Skammen (Shame) (1968) En passion () (1969) Fårödokument (Fårö Document) (1970) Beröringen / The Touch (1971) Viskningar och rop () (1973) Scener ur ett äktenskap (Scenes from a Marriage) (1974) Trollflöjten (The Magic Flute) (1975) Ansikte mot Ansikte (Face to Face) (1976) The Serpent's Egg / Das Schlangenei (1977) Herbstsonate / Höstsonaten () (1978) Fårödokument 1979 (Fårö Document 1979) (1979) Aus dem Leben der Marionetten (From the Life of the Marionettes) (1980) Fanny och Alexander (Fanny and Alexander) (1982) Dokument Fanny och Alexander (Document Fanny and Alexander) (1986) Bris Reklamfilmer (Bris Soap Commercials) (1951-53; short films) Karins ansikte (Karin's Face) (1986; short film) Riten (The Ritual) (1969; TV) Efter repetitionen () (1984; TV) (Sarabande) (2003; TV)

Films about Ingmar Bergman: Bilder från lekstugan (Images from the Playground) (2009, Stig Björkman) … men filmen är min älskarinna (... but Film Is My Mistress) (2010, Stig Björkman)