Liv Ullmann films at BAM
Photo: Persona (1966) by Ingmar Bergman
As the legendary Liv Ullmann comes to BAM in December as the director of “A Streetcar Named Desire”, BAMcinématek celebrates her film career in this series showcasing her most incredible performances.
Series screened from November 24. All films in Swedish with English subtitles.
Shame (1968) 103min
Tue, Nov 24 and Wed, Nov 25 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm, Directed by Ingmar Bergman, With Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow
Shame is Bergman’s take on war and its destructive force. Ullmann and Von Sydow play a married couple who find a civil war erupting brutally in their town. Contrasting the face of blood and death with the pain and torment of the couple’s disintegrating relationship, Bergman crafts a final vision of apocalypse as disturbing as anything ever put on screen.
Persona (1966) 82min
Thu, Nov 26 and Fri, Nov 27 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm, Directed by Ingmar Bergman, With Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson
“Persona is a film we return to over the years, for the beauty of its images and because we hope to understand its mysteries.” —Roger Ebert
One of Bergman’s most influential works (with an endlessly copied final shot), Persona features Liv Ullmann as an actress who simply stops performing and Andersson as the chatty nurse who cares for her. The duo slowly fall into a complex and symbiotic relationship that details one of Bergman’s favorite subjects, the inability to communicate.
Hour of the Wolf (1968) 90min , Sat, Nov 28 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm, Directed by Ingmar Bergman, With Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow, Erland Josephson
“…handled with typical virtuosity in a dazzling flow of surrealism, expressionism and full-blooded Gothic horror.” —Time Out
Sure, Bergman making a horror movie might sound strange at first, but the fantastic is never far away in his films. Bergman uses the horror framework to examine an artist literally possessed by his own demons, as Max Von Sydow leaves behind a diary full of demonic flashbacks. Truly unsettling and psychologically terrifying.
Scenes from a Marriage (1973) 168min , Sun, Nov 29 at 2, 5:30, 9pm, Directed by Ingmar Bergman, With Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson
“…one of the truest, most luminous love stories ever made.” —Roger Ebert
A huge success on Swedish television, Bergman’s exploration of the modern Swedish family is an intelligent, moving, and devastating chronicle of one couple and how their comfortable lives catapult into chaos when infidelities are revealed. Marvelously directed, the film boasts incredibly nuanced performances by Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson.
For further information visit BAM.org
