I'LL BE BETTER - FÅRÖ, SWEDEN - DAY 21
Ingmar Bergman in Fårö. I woke up feeling like shit actually, and tried to take it slow. Something (as usual), is going on with my stomach but I don’t know what. My only guess is burnout from road tripping / camping / hiking for two weeks in Scotland and then entertaining family on week three. When you’re traveling and / or with company and feeling sick, it’s like a fun game you just don’t want to play anymore. I put on a good face for the family and drive the Volvo with the Swedes, while the Cortina is filled with Norwegians.
We take the ferry and Fårö is COLD and WINDY. If summer has arrived in Gotland, it’s still trying to catch up here.
We first drive to the church where Ingmar Bergman is buried. Walking up to it Roger says, “Christian Monkeys”. I guess the atheist or agnostic mentality extends to the Norwegian side of the family haha! And I guess that makes me a monkey lol.
Ingmar’s grave was oddly alone, but Anita made a good point that, "When you’re that famous who can you really trust"? At least he was buried with his tenth? wife. Half jokingly, but in a defiant stance, and determined in a voice that didn’t quiver, I point to his grave and say “I’LL BE BETTER THAN YOU”! It was cool to see this, and to pay my “respects”.
Fårö itself is a very inspiring place for story telling, and I understand why Ingmar built his dream home here. It feels like the windiest place on earth. There are old straw roofed houses and stone wall fences everywhere, (this must be what Neil Gaiman wrote about in "NORSE MYTHOLOGIES").
We drive on, and the boys and I climb the Raoker stones. We play musical cars and this time I ride in the back of Tina listening to renditions of “Lone River”, “Fly Me To The Moon”, and “It’s a heartache nothing but a heartache”.... Roger and I talk about how much he can lift- 300lbs bench press and over 600lbs leg press. That means he can very likely pick up Tina on his back and lift her. Holy crap, he really is Thor.
We stop at Kutins Crepery, a well-known crepe restaurant on the island. It’s decorated with rusting cars and fridges from the 50s-80s. It’s a totally unique place and for that, I order a crepe with berries unique to Gotland with saffran ice cream. We sit beside a field of red poppies and I have a shooting spree.
On our way back with thirty minutes to spare, we come to the Bergman Center. It’s new and rather small, so thirty minutes is all you need. I get in with a student fare, and tour the facility. Most of it is behind the scenes images and descriptions. Everything is in Swedish so I merely skim the text- I didn’t have time to think that hard and decipher everything. I did manage to learn that Fårö is “the island to which one journeys”. I also went into a room entirely dedicated to his film, “The Seventh Seal”.
...I have a confession to make, as I’m writing this, this is the only film I’ve seen of his. I haven’t seen any Godard, or Wong Kar Wai films either. It’s my intention to catch up with this homework, but chalk it up to not going to a real film school, or simply not able to find things on the Internet, (as accessible as finding things in the Internet claims to be), I simply haven’t seen their films. It’s not an act of defiance, it just never happened.
That being said, this is the only film I’ve seen of his, and therefore, my favorite. I liked watching it when I was 15 in film study class and could appreciate his very literal metaphor about playing a game with Death in the form of chess, and trying to cheat Death. I was only reminded of how heavy the film was with a projector playing the film nearby.
I leave the room to finish the tour. I pass by articles with headlines discussing his abhorred behavior. He was an unusual man with a grand ego, unacceptably aggressive behavior, and a wicked short temper. Many men in the film industry who have come to be revered a geniuses seem to hold these same traits in order to be “An ARTIST”. Women, of course, are held to a different standard, and can never show this emotion because it just means we can’t handle the pressure, or we’re simply on our period. What’s more, is that we’re entering a new day and age where this behavior is publicly and privately unacceptable. A tantrum will be met with intelligence and poise in its opposition, often showcased through social media. I hope I never lose my shit on set unless it’s for a VERY good reason. I truly believe that a true master of their craft means being so good at what you do, nothing will be able to ruffle your feathers because you will know how to handle people, fix problems, and find creative solutions through proper communication. I’m really sick of men and their “mantrums”, being put on a pedestal for their man child behavior and being rewarded with the Genius title. They may have made a great film but their shitty personality wasn’t what produced a good form of art or a good story.
Okay, rant over.
I finish the tour on a virtual reality experience of Bergman’s dream house and then sign my name in a book that proves I’ve been there. The facility closes and I find my family waiting for me outside the doors. I thank everyone for letting me have this day to dedicate to film stuff just for me. I really appreciate it, and am grateful everyone was on board to drive all over this island to take some photos and appreciate where, Universally, one of the greatest filmmakers lived.
-em
P.S. I FINALLY found something for Julia and Tove’s baby!
*Since posting this, I have watched "Persona" by Ingmar Bergman. Some very concerned friends, and film colleagues made sure to help me catch up on some crucial pieces of cinema / cinematic history.
