Synonymous with Cinema: An Investigation into Ingmar Bergman’s Critical Reception in Italy

Francesco Bono

doi:10.26417/ejis.v5i3.p68-73

Abstract

The present essay intends to investigate the critical fortune of the Swedish world-famous theater and film director Ingmar Bergman in Italy. In particular, attention will be devoted to the reception of Bergman’s theatrical productions that were shown on Italian stages between the early 1970s, when some of Bergman’s theater productions were first seen in Italy, and the early 1990s, when Bergman’s production of Ibsen‘s A Doll’s House was one of his last theatrical productions to be shown in Italy. On the whole, only minor consideration has been accorded by Italian scholars in their studies on Bergman to his work in the theater. This is well illustrated by the various books on Bergman that have appeared in Italy over the years, which scarcely deal with his theatrical work. One reason for this may lay, as shall be shown in this essay, in the lateness and scarcity with which Bergman’s productions reached Italy. By drawing on a selection of reviews of Bergman’s theater productions published in major Italian newspapers from the 1970s to the 1990s, the following investigation intends to give an account of the Italian reception of Bergman’s work in the theater, from the specific qualities acknowledged to the Swedish director to the formulas, as will be seen, increasingly characterizing the critics’ judgments on him over the years, with the aim to shed light on the critical understanding of Bergman’s oeuvre in Italy.

Highlights

In investigating the critical fortune of the Swedish world-famous theater and film director Ingmar Bergman in Italy, this essay intends to focus on the reception of Bergman’s theatrical productions that were shown on Italian stages between the early 1970s, when some of Bergman’s theater productions were first seen in Italy, and the early 1990s, when Bergman’s production of Ibsen‘s celebrated play A Doll’s House was one of the last theatrical productions by the Swedish master to be shown in Italy
As one leading Italian theater critic, Renzo Tian (1972), has remarked, “In Italy, the name of Ingmar Bergman is synonymous with cinema
In investigating the critical reception of Bergman’s theatrical work in Italy, we find ourselves faced primarily, if not exclusively, with reviews that rarely go beyond the specific play that prompted them, their interest consisting not so much in the quality of their reflections on Bergman’s work, but rather in their documentation of the ways in which Bergman’s oeuvre was understood in Italy, from the specific qualities that were acknowledged to the Swedish film and theater director to the formulas increasingly characterizing the critical discourse around him over the years

Summary

Introduction

In investigating the critical fortune of the Swedish world-famous theater and film director Ingmar Bergman in Italy, this essay intends to focus on the reception of Bergman’s theatrical productions that were shown on Italian stages between the early 1970s, when some of Bergman’s theater productions were first seen in Italy, and the early 1990s, when Bergman’s production of Ibsen‘s celebrated play A Doll’s House was one of the last theatrical productions by the Swedish master. In investigating the critical reception of Bergman’s theatrical work in Italy, we find ourselves faced primarily, if not exclusively, with reviews that rarely go beyond the specific play that prompted them, their interest consisting not so much in the quality of their reflections on Bergman’s work, but rather in their documentation of the ways in which Bergman’s oeuvre was understood in Italy, from the specific qualities that were acknowledged to the Swedish film and theater director to the formulas increasingly characterizing the critical discourse around him over the years This is the kind of investigation that shall be proposed in the following. The critical opinions on Bergman’s work expressed at that time will be compared with those to be found in the reviews of some of Bergman’s later theater productions, including Strindberg’s Miss Julie, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey into Night and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House From this comparison emerges the image, the general idea that Italian critics cultivate about Bergman’s work as a theater and film director

First Encounters with Bergman’s Work in the Theater

Taken up as a Classic

Viewing Bergman’s Theater through his Films