Review of Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (2015) by Foxgrove — 14 Aug 2016

A fantastic in depth and insightful documentary about the three times Academy Award winning actress that offers so much more than the usual sketchy A-Z cut and paste biography usually allotted to actors lives. This wonderful warts and all tribute eschews an over indulgence of talking heads and old movie clips in favour of home video and archival film footage. Surprisingly, In fact, clips from Bergman’s movies are kept to a minimum. Her four children provide much of the insight and speak candidly, but lovingly about their career driven mother who nearly always allotted them second place to her desire to work.

Whilst viewing one is reminded just how statuesque and radiantly beautiful Bergman was, as in a lot of her films she wasn’t presented that way at all. Her pre-occupation with Joan of Arc is touched upon, and it’s also a real treat to see actresses as different as Sigourney Weaver and Liv Ullman appear together to supply both glowing and humorous anecdotes. Poignancy is added to the whole thing by Michael Nyman’s characteristically moving and identifiable score which, whilst it may be guilty of some manipulation, is still a perfect emotional fit for the tone and images on display.

Finally, credit must go to the excellent Alicia Vikander for providing the voice of Bergman in such an impressively unobtrusive manner. A documentary of outstanding quality.