Liv & Ingmar (2012)

Originally Published in The Daily Nebraskan, 02/07/2014

“Liv & Ingmar,” a documentary by Dheeraj Akolkar, details the touching relationship between Liv Ullman and Ingmar Bergman, a legendary actress and master filmmaker, as the film describes them.
It’s a straightforward, elegant and true to life documentary, but just beneath the simple premise of the film is an affirmative message: that the greatest filmmakers do not simply create, but take the pain and wisdom from their own lives and sublimate it into art.

Liv Ullman tells us the story of her romance with Ingmar Bergman, as a male narrator periodically reads us Bergman’s love letters. Even at 74, Ullman radiates natural beauty and kindness, relating the five-decade long love story between her and Bergman, which began long ago on the set of “Persona.”

She tells us of a moment when Bergman had yelled “Cut!” and she had started reading a book, as she always had between takes. Liv looked up and saw Ingmar and Sven Nykvist, the cinematographer, filming her. She lets them film her as she reads, and we are shown a photo of Ingmar staring intently at Liv while this is going on. Liv senses that Ingmar is making love to her with his camera.

After “Persona” wrapped, the two of them separated from their spouses and lived with one another, though they never married. Bergman took Ullman to an island off the coast of Norway, where the two of them lived together, but not happily ever after. Slowly, their relationship turned violent, as Bergman’s domineering persona became too much for Ullman to handle. Bergman always wanted to wanted to be alone and almost never allowed guests in their home. He wouldn’t even allow her to be out after certain times. She says of this part of their relationship, “It began to feel like I was living in someone else’s dream.”

In the course of the difficulties in their relationship, Bergman continued to use Ullman as an actress, often subjecting her to cruelty on the sets of his films. On the set of “The Hour of the Wolf,” Bergman directed Ullman to move closer and closer to a house fire, until she could not get any closer. “I knew that was not him directing,” says Liv Ullman in the film. “I know that voice was Ingmar to Liv.” The two of them later separated after a five-year partnership, and eventually became good friends.

We see clips from many Bergman films throughout “Liv & Ingmar,” but the clips that resonate most are those from Bergman’s TV miniseries, “Scenes From a Marriage,” in which Liv Ullman plays the wife. Seeing these two characters, both loving and hating each other, so close and so distant, reminds us that honesty is at the heart of all great cinema. Through Ullman’s words and Bergman’s filmmaking, we understand the strange love the two of them shared. We may not be able to put it into words, but we can feel it.

“Liv & Ingmar” feels like a Bergman film that Bergman never filmed. It is a sensual, yet cold and intellectual experience. The romance and friendship between Ullman and Bergman is so dramatic, it feels like it’s being told to us from a book of fairy tales.

Visually, the film is downright sumptuous. Imagine a collage of the finest moments in all of Bergman’s works, combined with video, film and photos of Liv and Ingmar together.
The effect of all these documents and images is something like magic. The story Ullman tells is charming, fantastic and unbelievable at times.


Altogether, it’s a wonderful piece that proves, through imagery, that the greatest art imitates life.