Ingmar Bergman Understood The Collaborative Nature Of Film

Film is commonly understood to be a director’s medium, the pursuit and (hopefully) realization of one person’s vision. People understand what you mean when you refer to a Fellini film, or a Spielberg film, or a Hitchcock film. And among film directors, there are few more iconoclastic than Ingmar Bergman. In fact, Bergman is what might be considered a classic Lone Genius, in that he wrote, directed and produced most of his films.In his essay The Magic Lantern, however, Bergman lays out his view that the process of making a film was a collaborative one.“At exactly nine o’clock, the day’s filming started. It was important that our collective start was punctual. Discussions and uncertainties had to take place outside this innermost circle of concentration. From this moment on, we were a complicated but uniformly functioning machine, the aim of which was to produce living pictures . . . There is a sensual satisfaction in working in close union with strong, independent creative people; actors, assistants, electricians, production staff, props people, makeup staff, costume designers, all those personalities who populate the day and make it possible to get through. Sometimes I really feel the loss of everything and everyone concerned.”Bergman felt he was not alone in his feelings of affections for, and attachment to, the collaborative team made up of the production staff of a film. He describes in great detail the famed story of Anita Ekberg’s last day of filming Fellini’s LA DOLCE VITA. Ekberg’s final scene on the film was in a car, and when the scene wrapped she could not let go of the steering wheel. She was so overcome with emotion at the end of her relationship with the film crew that she had to be led, weeping, from the studio.Bergman’s essay is an emotional testament to the power of collaboration, and a perfect illustration of how even the most singular of visions rests on the work of many.