New year re-views 1 - Journey To Italy

Widely misunderstood and shamefully ignored at the time of its original release in 1954 (though filmed in 1953), but now recognised as simply not one of Rossellini’s greatest films, but as one of the key works of modern cinema, JOURNEY TO ITALY is a deceptively simple piece, all of 80 minutes. There is little plot to speak of: a marriage is breaking down under the strain of a trip to Italy as we watch. But in its deliberate rejection of many aspects of ‘classic’ Hollywood narrative and its stubborn pursuit of a quite different aesthetic, its mesmerising storyline creates space for ideas and time for reflection, as we follow the wife on her travels around Naples and that Pompeii site.

Catherine and Alexander, wealthy and sophisticated, drive to Naples to dispose of a deceased uncle's villa. There's a coolness in their relationship and aspects of Naples add to the strain. She remembers a poet who loved her and died in the war; although she didn't love him, the memory underscores romance's absence from her life now. She tours the museums of Naples and Pompeii on her own, immersing herself in the Neapolitan fascination with the dead and noticing how many women are pregnant; he idles on Capri, flirting with women but drawing back from adultery. With her, he's sarcastic; with him, she's critical. They talk of divorce. Will this foreign couple find insight and direction in Italy?

This is so influential in lots of ways. Bergman's anguish and feelings of isolation summon up Monica Vitti on that island in Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA, and the couple drifting apart remind us of Mastroianni and Moreau in LA NOTTE - also Antonioni, like the sequences of Moreau drifting alone around Milan. Rossellini has an ideal location here too, overlooking the Bay of Naples, Sorrento, Capri etc. The early 50s Italian chic is to the fore too in those hotels where the couple idle their time. Sanders is terrific here, in one of his best films - as of course is Bergman.

I actually saw this initially as a kid, when most of it would have been over my head, but remember being fascinate by that Pompeii site and the statues of the volcano victims being redisovered.

These Rossellini films were hard to see for a long time, before the video age and the dvd revolution. I remember Ingrid telling us at the London BFI/NFT in the early Seventies (when I practically lived there) how important these films were in the development of Italian cinema, paving the way for Antonioni and the others, and how they were being rediscovered. She was right about that. More on VOYAGE TO ITALY at labels. It is also covered in Martin Scorsese's essential MY VOYAGE TO ITALY documentary.  It is engrossing to see again and perhaps the most modern of the other Rossellini-Bergmans: STROMBOLI, EUROPA 51, FEAR and the comic episode of SIAME DONNE, 

Next up: L'AVVENTURA, PLEIN SOLEIL, DESERT FURY, THE CHAPMAN REPORT, LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT, BLOW-UP, and some French double-bills, and more Deneuve and Aimee .... 

Dolce Vita Confidential

Christmas has come early for me with this terrific read, a new book on that Roman La Dolce Vita era, which really began in 1958 and into the early Sixties, that terrific time when Rome was the centre of the movie universe. Lets quote the blurb:

"Shawn Levy has composed an exuberant portrait of postwar Rome and the film-makers, movie stars, fashion designers, journalists and paparazzi whose supreme hunger, energy and creativity transformed it into the most stylish city in the world. He brings an infectious and free-wheeling enthusiasm to every page as he reintroduces us to the extravagant romanticism of fast cars, reckless hedonism and beautiful people behind the resurrection of the Eternal City.".

From the ashes of World War II, Rome was reborn as the epicenter of film, fashion, creative energy, tabloid media, and bold-faced libertinism that made Italian a global synonym for taste, style, and flair. A confluence of cultural contributions created a bright, burning moment in history: it was the heyday of fashion icons such as Pucci, whose use of color, line, and superb craftsmanship set the standard for womens clothing for decades, and Brioni, whose confident and classy creations for men inspired the contemporary American suit. Rome's huge movie studio, Cinecitta, also known as Hollywood-on-the Tiber, attracted a dizzying array of stars from Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and Frank Sinatra to that stunning and combustible couple, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who began their extramarital affair during the making of Cleopatra. And behind these stars trailed street photographers Tazio Secchiarioli, Pierluigi Praturlon, and Marcello Gepetti who searched, waited, and pounced on their subjects in pursuit of the most unflattering and dramatic portraits of fame.

Fashionistas, exiles, moguls, and martyrs flocked to Rome hoping for a chance to experience and indulge in the glow of old money, new stars, fast cars, wanton libidos, and brazen news photographers. The scene was captured nowhere better than in Federico Fellini s masterpiece, La Dolce Vita, starring Marcello Mastroianni and the Swedish bombshell Anita Ekberg. It was condemned for its licentiousness, when in fact Fellini was condemning the very excess, narcissism, and debauchery of Rome s bohemian scene.

Gossipy, colorful, and richly informed, Dolce Vita Confidential re-creates Rome's stunning ascent with vivid and compelling tales of its glitterati and artists, down to every last outrageous detail of the city's magnificent transformation.

Shawn Levy is new to me, but I like his vivid prose and great use of language. He captures it all here, the era of Ponti and De Laurentiis, Loren and Lollo, Fellini and Antonioni ("the anti-Fellini" as Shawn says, but he highly rates the Antonioni films), plus visiting stars like Belinda Lee, the Burtons and all that scandal. Rome is at the centre of it all, with of course all that Italian fashion - those stylish mens' suits, the new scooters and the rise of Italian food.

Eternal Rome: all roads lead to it, it wasn't built in a day, and when in Rome you do as the Romans do. 

As Levy says the Italian movie renaissance began with a destitute man and his son looking for his bicycle, and follows with a newspaperman on a Vespa scooting an errant princess through the picturesque ruins, and ends with another newspaperman, among a throng of hungover aristocrats, staring at the bloated corpse of a sea monster on a wind-swept beach. 

Along the way the producers, directors, hucksters, hanger-ons, playboys and playgirls, pararazzi and others had a whole lot of fun, and a lot of it is captured here. 

So, for lovers of Italian movies, and Italy in general, and the international high life, there is a lot to enjoy here. I am now looking forward to getting Levy's take on London in the Swinging Sixties: READY STEADY GO!  

THE Italian double bill ?

A friend and I were discussing fantasy double bills, here is my Italian choice ... two of our timeless favourites, discussed many times here, as per labels. Rossellini's 1953 classic VOYAGE TO ITALY (below) with Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA. The Rossellini really paved the way for those Antonioni classics. 

Alternatively, for great Fifties Italian cinema: Fellini's 1953 small town drama I VITELLONI twinned with Bolognini's 1959 saga of petty hoodlums and prostitutes, as scripted by Pasolini, but glamorised and how by Bolognini ... LA NOTTE BRAVA. (We are doing a post on Bolognini next ...).

Below: Jean-Claude Brialy and Tomas Milian in a rather steamy scene (for 1959) from LA NOTTE BRAVA. 

For Italian glamour and decadence, one could not beat Bertolucci's THE CONFORMIST with a Visconti: THE LEOPARD or his final masterpiece L'INNOCENTE from 1976.

I would also have to make a dramatic double bill of Wertmuller's 1975 opus SEVEN BEAUTIES, with maybe Vancini's THE LONG NIGHT OF '43 ...  and what about Visconti's SANDRA from 1975, with maybe Antonioni's LE AMICHE ....  endless possibilities. More on all these at Italian labels. French double-bills soon, perhaps. 

Ingrid Bergman in her own words

A fascinating insight into the life and times of Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) , her stardom and the toll it imposed. The film follows Bergman’s extraordinary successful Hollywood career in the 1940s, her VOYAGE TO ITALY with neo-realist director Roberto Rossellini, and her return to respectability in the 1950s, after that marriage and several films with Rossellini, after their child was born outside wedlock, causing that scandal of the time. It dives deep into the life of this beautiful and endlessly determined actress, indulging in a rich archive of Bergman’s life with photos (her father in Sweden had photographed her regularly as a child growing up) , home movies and letters on display. Her allure seeps through the entire film, revealing “a woman who was able to "subtly combine the noble and the carnal” (according to critic Roger Ebert).

The letters are read by Alicia Vikander, music by Michael Nyman, directed by Stig Bjorkman. 

As per label reports, we like Ingrid a lot here at The Projector, and I met her a few times (when I was  teenage autograph hound), and saw her on the stage twice, in London, and a few times at the BFI as well. I saw her in A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY in 1966 when I was 20, and then in 1971 in the Shaw comedy CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND'S CONVERSION, with none other than Kenneth Williams. She also attended a screeing of CASABLANCA at the old BFI, the NFT, when she was telling us about the making of the film, which was regarded as just another wartime potboiler then, and I can picture her mixing with and recognising people she knew. Another time she was sitting there and stating how the Rossellini films were finally being recognised as being so influential. They were not really available then, but are now on disk and we love VOYAGE TO ITALY from 1953. I actually saw this as a child at the time, and remember being fascinated by those chalk figures at Pompeii. Its certainly a forerunner of those Italian classics by Antonioni & Co. 

NOTORIOUS is still a key Hitchcock, and it was good to see her back in Hollywood too. She was always very pleasant to meet and chat to, and comes across perfectly here, as the film follows her from early days in Sweden, to Hollywood, Italy, France, Sweden and those final years in London, Her biography, written with Alan Burgess (author of the book that became INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS) captures her final night in the theatre (at the Theatre Royal Haymarket) and her final time in front of the camera at the end of GOLDA. Its a very affecting book.

Ingrid had a lot of humour too, as evident in CACTUS FLOWER, THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE, and oddly, GOLDA when she was seriously ill. The home movies are fascinating here, focusing on the woman as opposed to the career, though we get a lot of that too, with her children commenting, and also interviews with Sigourney Weaver (who worked with her as a young actress) and Liv Ullmann, her co-star from AUTUMN SONATA.

Time I think to dig out INTERMEZZO, ELENA ET LES HOMMES,  DR JECKYLL & MR HYDE, GOODBYE AGAIN, AUTUMN SONATA etc. About the only of her major films I have not seen are THE VISIT from 1964 and 1969's A WALK IN THE SPRING RAIN, both with Anthony Quinn. Anyone seeing this documentary will want to go back to the movies where she reigned supreme. Fascinating extras on the dvd too, and lots more on Ingrid at label.

Ingmar - a round dozen

My friend Mike in San Francisco (my oldest pal, we were penfriends when we were 17 - what people did before the internet and Facebook) and I have been ruminating on Ingmar Bergman films. Hard to believe now but when I was first in London, aged 18 in 1964, we went to a screening of Bergman's THE SILENCE, an arthouse hit then (which we followed by going to see the routine THE CHALK GARDEN). 

It seems inpossible now that teenagers would go and see a sombre black and white Swedish film with sub-titles, but back then arthouse movies were part of the general movie scene, with several crossover hits and every reasonable size city had one or two for the trendy folk to go to. (There was a more exotic or erotic arthouse cinemas for those looking for something more explicit than what the local Odeon or ABC served up..."the dirty mac brigade").  Of course there were less distractions then, just 2 television channels here in the UK, in black and white; no internet or cellphones. Mike was saying his students would not even watch an old Greta Garbo movie now. 
Of course THE SEVENTH SEAL was stunning on a first view, we had seen nothing like it, as it later became an arthouse cliche, and his lovely film of Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE is still a perfect opera film. 

Anyway to Bergman, a list of my favourites:

• THE SEVENTH SEAL
• SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT
• WILD STRAWBERRIES
• THE MAGICIAN
• THE SILENCE
• PERSONA
• CRIES AND WHISPERS
• AUTUMN SONATA
• THE MAGIC FLUTE
• FANNY & ALEXANDER

Theres also the early SUMMER WITH MONIKA, and THE VIRGIN SPRING, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, WINTER LIGHT and those unsparing Liv Ullmann dramas FACE TO FACE and SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. I have not seen the 1964 comedy NOW ABOUT THESE WOMEN, or the later THE SERPENT’S EGG.

Bergman (1918-2007) directed a total of 67 films, and died on the same day as Michelangelo Antonioni – which was quite a surprise for us in 2007, but the movies go on and continue to resonate with us. 
We were also fascinated by his troupe of actresses: Thulin, Lindblom, Ullmann, Bibi and Harriet Andersson, Eva Dahlbeck ... and Ingrid having a late career swansong with that SONATA. 
I went twice to his 1970 London theatre production of HEDDA GABLER - a very intense staging with actors in black on a red stage (rather like CRIES & WHISPERS) - with Maggie Smith (right) giving one of her best stage performances. 
I have written more on some of these at Bergman label, but must return to them and review some more over the winter months. (Above, the two Bergmans on AUTUMN SONATA). 

Orry, Ingrid, Tab documentaries .....

Documentaries on movies and movie-makers don't seem to turn up here in the UK. We first mentioned Australian director Gillian Armstrong's film on Australian gay costume designer Orry-Kelly, WOMEN HE'S UNDRESSED, here 6 months ago back in February, when that lush coffee table tome WOMEN I'VE UNDRESSED was published, based on his memoirs and costume designs for all those classic Hollywood movies of the Golden Age, from CASABLANCA to SOME LIKE IT HOT, with those dresses for Bette (as in JEZEBEL, see below), Marilyn, those LES GIRLS etc. See Books label for more on that.)

I now find the documentary opens in Los Angeles today, but I have also found and ordered an Australian dvd (Region 4 - my first, which should play ok on the multi-region blu-ray/dvd player) which should arrive in a week or so. More on that then, meanwhile here's the trailer:

Also mentioned last year was that documentary based on Ingrid Bergman's home movies, with narration by Alicia Vikander using Ingrid's text. This is now finally being issued here in English in September, and we have pre-ordered it.

But where is that Tab Hunter documentary, TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL, which Tab - now 86 - introduced here last year ago at the LGBT Film Festival at the BFI.

A Matter of Time, 1976

Finally, thanks to rare-movie-hound Jerry, a look at Vincente Minnelli's last feature, A MATTER OF TIME, from 1976. This one always eluded us here in London, though the BFI did screen it once. I can always happily sit down in front of a Minnelli musical like THE BANDWAGON or a Minnelli drama like TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN or a delicious Minnelli comedy like THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, but this last feature (like Wilder's equally problematic FEDORA) is a different story. Perhaps only Hitchcock had a happy last film in FAMILY PLOT, which delighted us that year, while Howard Hawks happily remade his films over and over ...

A simple young woman helps eccentric old countess deal with her old age and she introduces the young woman to a world of upper class society.

The shock here is getting used to Ingrid Bergman's almost Kabuki-style makeup, with that odd make-up and grey wig. Liza ramps up the gauche quality she often indulged in; it seems now only Pakula, Fosse and Scorsese were able to rein her in for those effective performances in THE STERILE CUCKOO (aka POOKIE) in 1969, CABARET and NEW YORK NEW YORK. 

The simple story is overdone, but great to see Ingrid again, with Boyer (shades of GASLIGHT) and her daughter Isabella Rossellini plays a nun, nice to see mother and daughter (briefly) here. Tina Aumount, Fernando Rey and Gabrielle Ferzetti are also involved. It kind of harks back to GIGI - that period obviously appeals to Minnelli. 

Liza plays Nina, a naive young chambermaid who starts work at a once-grand hotel in Rome, and Ingrid is the ageing countless, a long-time resident whose money is starting to run out. The countess retreats to her dreams and helps Nina to face the world .....  Unfortunately Minnelli's vision was ruined by American-International Films who financed and then re-edited it, so Minnelli disowned it. Perhaps its a miscalculated masterwork, but in the era of TAXI DRIVER and ROCKY it just did not work, but 40 years later it is an intriguing campy mess of what could have been, there's even  couple of Kander & Ebb songs. More on Ingrid, Liza and Minnelli at labels. (Below: Ingrid and Isabella).

Goodbye Again, again

GOODBYE AGAIN is a nice entry to those early '60s sudsers like IMITATION OF LIFE, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, A SUMMER PLACE, BACK STREET, ADA etc. this is a rather low-key one though in black and white, and again we zoom around Paris in the early 60s with rich spoilt Tony Perkins, and his rich bitch mother Jessie Royce Landis (a good role for Jessie here).

It is Ingrid Bergman's show though as 40ish Paula, a successful interior decorator, hired by Jessie and getting involved with her son Tony. Paula has been carrying on for 5 years with businessman Yves Montand who is certainly having his cake and eating it, often letting Paula down at the last minute when he picks up a new 'Maisie' (he calls them all Maisie...). Paula is used to this but longs for commitment. Tony is going to provide it in spades as he follows, woos, flatters and finally gets Paula, which of course in turn makes Montand jealous. There are nicely judged moments along the way as our stars eat, drink, dance and drive around Paris by day and night. Perkins' little boy act gets a bit tiresome actually - he has a nice drunk scene in a nightclub with singer Diahann Carroll.

Francoise Sagan's novel is nicely adapted here, though the end is amusing now - Paula sends Perkins away saying she is "too old" [Ingrid too old at 40!], when Montand decides to marry her - as his single life isn't quite so satisfying without her to return to. But once married he reverts to his old ways with a new Maisie, leaving Paula on her own again, rubbing night lotion into her face. A nice touch too is when she is driving and crying so she turns on the windscreen wipers as she thinks it is raining.

The older female does not fare too well in these Sagan stories: Kerr in BONJOUR TRISTESSE, Joan Fontaine in A CERTAIN SMILE or Bergman as Paula here. Litvak was good with actresses, viz his films with Davis, De Havilland, Kerr (THE JOURNEY) and Bergman previously in ANASTASIA. This is a nicely satisfying soap - Perkins after PSYCHO had a good run in Europe with some super ladies: Ingrid here, Mercouri (PHAEDRA), Orson's THE TRIAL with Moreau and Romy, with Loren again in FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT in '62 and Bardot in THE RAVISHING IDIOT.

Still Notorious after all these years ...

NOTORIOUS, Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 classic, does not look or feel like it is 70 years old.

This is surely the high-point of Hitch's 1940s output. Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman are both are their zenith, and Claude Rains is again superalative too, and lets not forget Madam Konstantin as his creepy mother, and Louis Calhern splendid as usual. 

This is a twisted romance with a vengance as Ingrid's Alicia Hubermann joins spies in Rio to spy on those Nazis - what is in those bottles in the wine cellear. Alicia is set up to meet a former friend of her father's who was smitten with her and still is now. They meet, with the connivance of agent Cary Grant who loves Alicia but does not trust or love her enough to keep her from marrying Rains, to enable her to spy on him and his colleagues ..... the moment Rains discovers the truth and goes to his mother to help him is marvellous cinema as is the moment when Alicia realises she is being poisoned by them. Cary thinks she is drunk when she is unwell at their last meeting - before, finally, he goes to the house to rescue her, leaving Claude and his mother at the mercy of those Germans ..... Its a simple plot but marvellously executed, script by Ben Hecht, like that great zoom shot of the camera on a boom descending to the close-up of the key in Alicia's fist. I like that balcony scene too and the great long kissing sequence between the lovers, and their early meeting when Grant first meets Alicia who is drinking heavily, before she redeems herself for her father's crimes, by flying down to Rio with those American agents ..... We almost sympathise with the villain who it seems loves Alicia more than Grant does. 

Its a certified Hitchcock classic and the best of his 3 with Bergman in the 1940s. SPELLBOUND has its moments but is not quite as good, and I am one of the few who quite like a lot of UNDER CAPRICORN in 1949, not least for Jack Cardiff's photography, and I now like the 1950 STAGE FRIGHT a lot, even if minor Hitchcock - great cast of British players and Marlene plus that fake flashback ... before his great run of 1950s movies. 

Some choice Oscar moments

Remember when the Academy Awards shows were exciting back in the 1970s as we saw the great stars presenting or collecting prizes. Before multi-channel 24 hour TV, these were treats indeed. Here are a few:

Susan Hayward's last public appearance in 1974 on the arm of old co-star Charlton Heston who was propping her up. Hayward was already fatally ill, she would die the next year, but here she is bewigged, medicated and determined to complete her last public outing in style. Watch the surprise on Ellen Burstyn's face as Glenda Jackson - not even there - wins a second Best Actress award for a comedy which I had no interest in seeing ...

I knew James Stewart and Kim Novak had teamed again sometime in the '80s to present an award. Here it is in 1989 .

Ingrid Bergman is choice as usual as she wins Best Supporting Actress for her cameo role in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, also 1974 - and she had wanted Valentina Cortesa to win, to the chagrin of her fellow co-nominess ...

Faye Dunaway arrives to collect her Best Actress Oscar in 1976. Some wag wrote that the goddess looked like she had been doing drugs and having sex in her limousine before arriving all tousled on stage ...

Deborah Kerr receiving her Honorary Oscar, introduced by Glenn Close, in 1994.

Ingrid, Gary, Flora - still of the day

Its SARATOGA TRUNK of course, filmed in 1943 but not released until 1945 when Ingrid Bergman was at the height of her 1940s popularity. She and Gary Cooper reteamed here have a lot of fun with this one, and Dame Flora Robson plays her Creole maid in blackface. Its still a delirious treat now. 

Coming up: some treats from Jerry, and a new consignment of rare dvds from raredvdsforsale:

Pola Negri and Basil Rathbone in the 1932 A WOMAN COMMANDS; Evelyn Brent as THE PAGAN LADY, 1931; Vadim's 1960 lesbian vampires BLOOD AND ROSES  - not seen that since I was a kid and remember how impressed I was; The Montands and Mylene Demongeot in the 1957 WITCHES OF SALEM; the 1949 FABIOLA - the peplum of peplums in a perfect print, with Henri Vidal; and that holy grail of lost movies: a marvellous looking Jean Seberg in BIRDS IN PERU in 1968, Tashlin's 1961 comedy BACHELOR FLAT: Terry-Thomas coping with American college, and a two part documentary on and by Dirk Bogarde. Oh , and Faye Dunaway as THE COUNTRY GIRL - yes, that Country Girl, sometime in the 80s. Plus Pier Angeli in PORT AFRIQUE, Ava Gardner's 1970 oddity TAM-LIN, and another copy of one of our favourites here: Rene Clement's THE SEA WALL (THIS ANGRY AGE) from 1957 -  the French TV version introduced by Alain Delon; plus that recent French wartime drama SUITE FRANCAISE, and the Hardy Boy and Cherlize in that new MAD MAX. Lots to talk about then ....

Ingrid and Tab: 2 new documentaries ....

INGRID BERGMAN IN HER OWN WORDS and TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL - whats not to love, if they don't get much exposure in cinemas, they should be on dvd before too long ... The Tab doc was shown at the BFI earlier this year as part of their gay FLARE festival (Tab label) .... hopefully there will be more screenings.

Ingrid Bergman's centenary

Its Ingid Bergman's centenary - she was born on 29 August 1915, and died on the same date in 1982 (that year Grace Kelly and Romy Schneider also died). We like Ingrid a lot here at the Projector, she is one of our essential actresses, and we were lucky in London to get to see her several times.  I saw her in two plays (A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY in 1966, and CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND'S CONVERSION in 1971 which also featured Kenneth Williams), we got to meet her twice at stage doors (during my early 20s autograph-hunting years) where she was very pleasant, and also at the BFI National Film Theatre some years later where she attended a screening of CASABLANCA and was very friendly with people near me, and she told us all about how confusing making the film was, as they did not have a proper ending. 

We forget though that Ingrid, like Sophia Loren in early 50s Italy, was already making films before Hollywood came calling. Selznick re-made her INTERMEZZO in 1939, and George Cukor re-made her 1938 A WOMAN'S FACE, very effectively with Joan Crawford. I have not seen Ingrid's version but this clip shows how expressive she is here 4 years before CASABLANCA.

We have seen most of Ingrid's films over the years, some several times - but not seen THE VISIT in 1964 and the supposedly awful A WALK IN THE SPRING RAIN in 1969, that that Minnelli A MATTER OF TIME in 1976. So what are our favourite Ingrids? 

CASABLANCA of course, she is also marvellous as the prostitute in DR JECKYLL & MR HYDE, plus SARATOGA TRUNK (her second with Coop), the two Hitchcocks SPELLBOUND and especially NOTORIOUS. The 1949 UNDER CAPRICORN is a bit of a slog but Jack Cardiff makes her look marvellous in it. Ingrid was too popular in the mid-40s (after FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS and her first Oscar for GASLIGHT): her delightful nun in BELLS OF ST MARY'S was also a monster smash (a popular joke at the time went: "hey, today I saw a picture without Ingrid Bergman in it") - so when the Rossellini scandal broke it was major news. 

Her Rossellini era has been re-evaluated now - nobody got to see them much at the time - but JOURNEY TO ITALY is a key movie now, anticipating the Antonioni era of fashionable alienation, and figures in landscapes. STROMBOLI , EUROPA 51 and her comic segment in SIAME DONNE are all fascinating now too. 

I do not care for ANASTASIA which brought her back to the Hollywood fold, but THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS, where she is really all wrong for the role, is a well-crafted tear-jerker, and INDISCREET, back with Cary, is still a treat. Her droll sense of humour is to the fore too her her segment of THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE, and she walks away with CACTUS FLOWER in 1969 where her starchy dental nurse undergoes such a makeover. Another one we like a lot is the 1961 GOODBYE AGAIN, from Sagan, where she and Tony Perkins are marvellous driving around Paris, and its bittersweet mix is just right. She also did a HEDDA GABLER for the BBC in 1965 (now on dvd), with Redgrave, Richardson and Trevor Howard. 

Ingrid finished off with Ingmar Bergman's AUTUMN SONATA in 1977, a key movie for me, as per other comments here - she and Liv Ullmann provide a masterclass in acting with that scene at the piano .... and her last role, when already ill, was as Golda Meir in a superior telefilm GOLDA - Ingrid as Golda seems an odd choice but it works. Her autobiography is very revealing on its making (as it is on her life and romances) - she knew it was her last time in front of the cameras for that final scene, just like she wrote about her last night in the theatre (at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket). Her very funny turn as the missionary in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS is a joy too. I now have another Ingrid to watch: her ELENA ET LES HOMMES for Renoir in 1955. It should be a treat.  
More Ingrid at label - including with her pal Dirk Bogarde, and that 2015 Cannes Festival Poster.

Ingrid at Cannes ...

After the Awards Season, the Film Festival circuit gets underway... I like the new Cannes Film Festival poster for this year, following their previous years' tributes to Monica Vitti in L'AVVENTURA, Faye Dunaway in PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD, Marilyn Monroe, and Marcello Mastroianni in FELLINI 8½ last year (see them at the labels on them), its Ingrid Bergman this year, a radiant shot from her Rossellini years, which seems entirely appropriate. 

Lets hope the festival throws up some more unmissables like AMOUR or BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR or UNCLE BOONMEE ... 
Gaspar Noe's LOVE may be this year's sensation ....?  Todd Haynes's CAROL finally sees the light of day, from Patricia Highsmith, featuring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara,, and Catherine Denueve, busier than ever, features in the opening film, a gritty drama LA TETE HAUTE (STANDING TALL) by Emmanuelle Bercot - a change from last year's farce GRACE OF MONACO then! ("Deneuve adds punch to delinquent drama" says today's "Times").,Last year's Olivier Assayas's CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA with Juliette Binoche, should be a must-see too, it is finally just opening here in UK this week!. A good year for actresses at Cannes then .. there is also that new MACBETH with Fassbender and Cotillard,and that new Tom Hardy MAD MAX reboot which is getting rave notices; and we will be interested in Sorrentino's latest (after THE GREAT BEAUTY), YOUTH (even if it does feature Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel).