Liv & Ingmar: Uma História de Amor

World Cinema has seen its fair share of long-term director and actor pairings, from Kurosawa/Mifune to Fellini/Mastroianni to Scorsese/DeNiro. (Please don't put Scorsese/DiCaprio in the same list.) Rare has been the director/actress pairing, but there have been a few - Marlene Dietrich and Joseph Von Sternberg to go way back, or Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz to be a bit more current. Perhaps the most celebrated director/actress teaming was Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, and the new documentary "Liv & Ingmar" tells the story of this artistic and personal collaboration.

And what a story it is, as told by Ullmann herself. The film is built around an interview conducted with Ullman at the gorgeous seaside estate she shared with Bergman for five years. From their first meeting when she was 26 and he was 47, through their five year relationship (and the birth of a child) and their continuing professional collaborations, Ullmann allows us a personal glimpse into the man responsible for such classics as "The Seventh Seal" and "Cries & Whispers".

Sometimes it is not a pretty picture, and credit should go to Ullmann for giving us a "warts and all" look at their relationship. Granted, it is a one-sided presentation (Bergman died in 2007) which uses Ullmann's autobiography as its main source, but one can't help but feel Ullmann is being honest, particularly when one looks at Bergman's work. The film is even broken down into "Bergman-esque" chapters, with intertitles such as "Love", "Loneliness", "Rage", and "Pain" to highlight the subject matter.

"Cold", "aloof", and "cruel" are terms often used when discussing the work of Ingmar Bergman, particularly his male characters. His female characters were far more open and emotionally expressive, especially with their sexuality. One leaves this film feeling that a great deal of Bergman's work was autobiographical. The film is populated with clips from their films, and one gets the sense that Ullmann was often playing Ullman, while actors like Max Von Sydow took the "Bergman" role.

But there was real love in this partnership as well. Evidence of Bergman's humanity and affection come from the reading of several pieces of personal correspondence that Ullmann shared with writer/director Dheeraj Akolkar which are effectively narrated, as well as excerpts from Bergman's autobiography. Most telling is Bergman's comment to Ullmann that he considers her "his Stradivarius" - the beautiful, perfect instrument through which he communicates and makes beautiful music.

But make no mistake about it, this is Ullmann's tale to tell. It is a tale told well.

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An interesting subject to me, but I didn't much care for the way this documentary was put together. The use of extended clips from Bergman's films to attempt to represent reality, the cheesy soundtrack, the occasional reading of a snippet from Bergman's diary ... it was all distasteful. There are two sides to everything and I felt like rather than try to unearth that by interviewing others or put more structure and context around the narrative (and show it as objectively as possible), director Dheeraj Akolkar put most of his effort into finding and pulling clips from the films. It got annoying and I have to believe that Bergman would have hated the violation, both professionally and personally. Liv Ullmann is as natural and unaffected as ever, but there isn't a lot of depth to what she reveals, and it probably would have been a project better left unmade.

I think this documentary's worth watching just to see some brief behind-the-scenes footage from the set of Cries and Whispers. It's silent, and shows all the leads sitting together and bouncing up and down, probably singing, all smiling and having fun while making the most miserable and least fun film Bergman ever made.

Otherwise, this is just an okay documentary. Liv Ullmann is a good central subject and interesting to listen to, but the filmmaking around her, to dramatise her story, is a bit lacking. There are minor attempts to parallel the turmoil of their romantic/working relationship with the turmoil Bergman's films at the time dealt with, but it's pretty superficial stuff. It seems like the documentary wasn't lacking when it came to access to Bergman's filmography, so that was a bit disappointing.

Ullmann is also very forgiving of Ingmar Bergman, which surprised me, because some of the ways he behaved seemed insufferable. I guess times have changed with the leeway we give those who could be deemed tortured geniuses, particularly when they bring other people into their circle with all the wild ups and downs that entails. It's one thing to be tortured alone, and another thing altogether when there's friendly fire.

That's kind of the portrait one gets here. But I'm glad Ullmann persevered, had her career survive post-Bergman, and got to tell her story. She's honestly probably a better actress than Bergman was a filmmaker, so she was a little too good for him on two fronts (flippancy aside, he was still a very good filmmaker. I don't like Cries and Whispers though- bam, review's come full circle).

A very touching and human film about the 40 some odd year relationship between one of the greatest directors and greatest actresses of the last hundred years.

This is probably not a ideal film for those not familiar with Bergman and Ullman's work together. The film seems to assume a knowledge of that work, it's depth and importance. It's also not for film scholars looking for insight into either artist's working methods. This 85 minute film is solely about the course of a relationship that started when Ullman was 25 and Bergman 46 (and married), grew into a passionate affair, produced a child, ended up falling apart, only to be reborn in a new way – lasting until Bergman's death in 2007.

A lot of the film is an extended interview with Ullman who is candid, charming, funny and moving. We hear an actor read some of Bergman's letter's to Ullman (a slightly awkward device), but there's no question that the film is her perspective on the experience of a complex relationship between two great, vulnerable and sometimes very neurotic geniuses. There is some interesting occasional use of clips from the films that show how their off screen relationship was clearly influencing the work between them. But if you go in expecting some overview of their great collaborations you'll be disappointed. But as a human story of a love that lasted a lifetime, it's very rewarding.

Loved this film this evening at Vancouver International Film Festival, while my partner says it's okay, he wouldn't mind if he hadn't seen it. What planet are (emotionally repressed) men from? Please don't say Mars— Martians would be more moved than he was by this gem of a documentary.

A different film than I was expecting: I didn't know anything about Ullman and Bergman's personal past, and was expecting something more focused on their long (almost 50 years) of collaboration in making extraordinary films. This was only partly about their shared film history together and dwelt more on their relationship, the account rendered extraordinary by Ullman's candour and towering spirit. I would look for more films from this director, though, without another such woman of character, as comfortable before the camera as Ullman, could such touching and real stuff be served up? But the film's capture has warmth and sparkle, like that old song that asks if we want to carry moonbeams home in a jar—an apt metaphor, I think, for the trick which the most artful films pull off.

Just as Bergman has bewitched and bedevilled us with his films, one's jaw drops hearing what he was like as a lover and husband in her words—both dreadful and also Ullman's gloriously prized treasure of a human connection, delivered to us in lovely to watch and listen to footage. Bravo.