The Bergman gap

Probably because it was such a personal project, son profiling his dad, I was disappointed that this film about Sven Nykvist did not delve into several issues that have long interested me.

The documentary was misleading, perhaps intentionally, about the genesis of Nykvist's legendary career relationship with Ingmar Bergman. Gunnar Fischer, who died earlier this month, was Bergman's cinematographer for 12 films, overshadowed by Nykvist but responsible for classic work. I have always been interested in Bergman's transition from one lighting cameraman to the other.

Nykvist worked memorably with Bergman on SAWDUST AND TINSEL alongside veteran cameraman Hilding Bladh (who also later shot Bergman's DREAMS) in 1953, but it wasn't until THE VIRGIN SPRING some six or seven years later that Bergman shifted permanently from Fischer to Nykvist. The brilliant results speak for themselves, but clearly there is an untold story here that should have been dealt with in the documentary, given that Bergman is interviewed.

Another extremely odd omission is that while Conrad Rooks' 1972 movie SIDDHARTHA is duly listed in the complete roster of Nykvist credits, the fact that he shot this film is never discussed, nor are any clips or even stills shown, despite the documentary's emphasis on the Hesse book being Nykvist's favorite. We listen to endless excerpts of Hesse's prose (as translated into Swedish) in the voiceover to moodily suggest aspects of Nykvist's life-quest and his relationship to his dad, but the actual film he made from this material never pops up.

"Three quarters of what is said here can be completely discounted as the raving of imbeciles" - Donald Wolfit in Blood of the Vampire (1958)