With the incredibly disheartening news that FilmStruck was going to be discontinued, I wasn’t sure what the status would be for the two remaining video-essays I wrote and narrated on Ingmar Bergman’s actors. The first one, on Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson, launched in August. They were going to stagger the releases of the final two video-essays – all a part of Criterion’s year-long celebration of Ingmar Bergman’s centenary. FilmStruck is closing up shop end of November (and don’t even get me started on what a loss it is. There are other streaming services, but none so comprehensive. ALSO, as Jason Bailey points out in his excellent piece, many of the films on FilmStruck are not available – not only to be streamed, but ANYwhere. They aren’t on DVD. You literally cannot see them. If you care about this, and want to at least register your dismay, there is a petition to save FilmStruck. Who knows if it will do any good, but I think registering complaints publicly is a meaningful act, regardless.)
So along with the loss to the film fan community as a whole, I also wondered: “Oh no … what about the other two video-essays I did?” It wasn’t just about ME, it was that I felt very strongly about the work I did, and that these other two actresses deserve their moment in the sun, and it was an honor to highlight them individually (a lot of times they get all lumped together).
The good news is that all the video-essays will essentially move over to the Criterion site, where they will live, and all is well (on that front, at any rate).
In the meantime, my video-essay on the great Ingrid Thulin just launched, on FilmStruck (click on Criterion Channel, and then scroll down to the section titled “10 Minutes or Less.”)
Now it was interesting: I did a Bergman binge in preparation for all of these essays. I watched everything I could get my hands on, and also did loads of research. In terms of internet research, Ingrid Thulin was the most challenging. In Googling her, I mainly came up with obituaries, where her career was summarized. It was all surprisingly shallow (especially considering the towering stature of her work. She’s practically untouchable.) She did not go on to have the international career that, say, Liv Ullmann had – her English wasn’t all that good – and so despite the fact that she did 10 movies with Bergman, she just didn’t get the press that Ullmann did. Also, Ingrid Thulin’s greatest work comes in two of Bergman’s most challenging films – Winter Light and The Silence. These are tough tough films, at the apex of Bergman’s alienation and despair. But she is the actress to bring that out. She is not ingratiating, like Ullmann can be. Thulin is somewhere ELSE. I mean, her performance in Cries and Whispers … I get goosebumps just thinking about it.
It was an honor to pay tribute to an actress who goes where others fear to tread. She goes where other actors would say, “Uhm, no. I’m not doing that.” OR they would think, “Wait … I was unaware of how deep this went.” The air is really really thin where Thulin works. Not too many people could survive up there. Ingrid Thulin has few peers. I’d put her on an extremely short list, with Gena Rowlands and Anna Magnani.
