HS interview Fårö is a pilgrimage site for Ingmar Bergman fans, which inspired a new film: The director is glad he didn’t have time to meet his idol accused of tyranny

Cannes

Bergman Iceland. Ingmar Bergman -Shin.

That “title island” of the iconic film director is Fårö in southern Sweden. It was the home of Bergman (1918–2007), where he also shot many of his films.

The island has since become a lover of Bergman cinephil place of pilgrimage. There you know how to make the most of the film’s reputation. On the island, for example, there are “Bergman safaris”, excursions to movie locations.

Now the island has also become the venue for a fiction film, specifically Bergman Island. The film is in French Mia Hansen-Løven Bergman Islandin Finnish Scenes from an island. The Finnish name is, of course, a reference to Bergman Scenes from a marriage to the classic.

Hansen-Løven the film is about a couple of filmmakers, Chris (Vicky Krieps) and Tony (Tim Roth), who have retired to the island to promote their own scripts. The idea is that the Bergman feel would help in the creation process.

Tony is a better known and more routine artist than Chris, who is also on the island showing his previous films to the public. The main protagonist of the story, Chris, again suffers from the bad pain of creation. However, Fårö’s vibe helps Chris more than he might think, and not just in the idea of ​​the film.

Teasingly inventive, unobtrusively pleasant and gentle humorous Scenes from an island got its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last July. HS interviewed screenwriter-director Hansen-Løve at the festival.

The themes of Hansen-Løven’s (b. 1981) films usually revolve around family and interpersonal relationships and their pain points. His most famous works include Eden (2014), a rhythmic description of Daft Punk’s music about a young man immersed in DJ and club culture and seen in theaters in Finland, Isabelle Huppertin starred divorce drama After this (2016), who was awarded second prize with the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Scenes on an island Chris, the protagonist of the film, is a screenwriter whose film Fårö is a relationship story about Fårö. Hansen-Løve also conceived and wrote this film for Fårö on Fårö … A bit complicated, at least as explained, but one thing seems immediately obvious. Scenes from an island is Hansen-Løve an exceptionally personal work?

“Extremely personal. But such are all my movies. I don’t really consider this an autobiography, ”Hansen-Løve revolves around in an interview.

“One big difference is that where Chris came up with his story with her husband, I went to Fåro myself and wrote the film alone.”

Since there are no more specific comments about personality, let’s move on to Ingmar Bergman. The legend of the director is present in an exciting way in the story. Not – fortunately – in the Hollywood style, for example, as a ghost distributing instructions, but as a kind of emotion, a state of mind.

What originally pulled Hansen-Løven to visit Fåro?

“I always try to find meanings for different things. There was also some kind of exploration trip involved, I just didn’t know which one. And I couldn’t guess in advance what would happen on the island; what to expect when traveling there. It just felt right, ”he describes.

The “Bergman feeling” described above, which the film skillfully conveys to the viewer, he says he himself has achieved:

“For me, Fårö was a place where I got into a kind of meditative state. Spending the summer on the island made me find a new kind of peace and quiet within myself. ”

Bergman fan Hansen-Løve was, of course, before Fårö’s visit. He says that in one interview he only has time to scratch the surface of what the Swedish director means to him.

“It would involve all his films, some certain films that are particularly important to me, now also Fårö.”

“In a nutshell: Bergman is a great artist I found when I was 20 and whose films I’ve grown with since then,” he says.

On a stand elevated artist greats, especially male ones, have begun to be viewed more critically in the #meto era. Such “male geniuses” have previously been seen as sexually exploited and similarly exploited through the fingers, and their status has not been affected.

Bergman has also been a part of this debate in recent years. For example, he has been made a critical documentary Bergman: A Year in Lifewhich premiered in 2018. Jane Magnusson The film, directed by Bergman, describes, among other things, the tyrannical use of Bergman and the systematic seduction of young female actors.

In other words, Bergman was also a bit of an asshole, as another interviewee sums up.

“I know it. I think of it like my movie Chris, who just says he hopes the artists he admires are also good people. Personally, I often don’t even want to meet the artists I admire because I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed with them as people. Maybe that’s why it’s good that I never had time to meet Bergmania, ”says Hansen-Løve.

And although not even if the wish of the artist as a good person comes true, one can still love their art, he states.

“Bergman was also honest about his own gloomy side, he didn’t hide it from himself. That’s one of the things I value most about Bergman: how perfectly honestly he portrayed people in his films in general, including women. ”

Should these artist figures, who have been worshiped for decades, still start to be released? Haven’t they already gotten their attention, could they focus on new talent from now on?

“I think we can still do both. We can love old masters – even if they are men – and still be curious and open to new, more diverse artists, ”says Hansen-Løve.

Scenes from an island is a description of creation and art in general, but clearly also a confession of love for cinematography. Specifically for screen film, cinema. Hansen-Løve is a traditional cynic who sees theater as his own thing, separate from streaming services and a protected wealth.

“I wrote this film in 2015 before the popularity and power of streaming services exploded to what they are now. The position of traditional film is beginning to become fragile alongside them. We have to fight for it, ”he says.

However, according to him, the main theme of Hansen-Løve’s film is not making art, the magic of the film or Bergman, but the broadest and most universal subject: love. Or, in fact, all of the above are inextricably linked.

“While love makes a person more fragile, it also takes life forward. And gives strength – for making movies, for example. This story is basically about understanding it. For all things related to love, including suffering, are also part of the process of creation. ”

What about who is the one who understands that movie? Chris’ character or Hansen-Løve himself? May it be left to our others to interpret.