Get in me! (Taken with instagram)
Could you talk a little more about the drinking? So many writers, even if they’re not alcoholics, drink so much.
Probably not a whole lot more than any other group of professionals. You’d be surprised. Of course there’s a mythology that goes along with the drinking, but I was never into that. I was into the drinking itself. I suppose I began to drink heavily after I’d realized that the things I’d wanted most in life for myself and my writing, and my wife and children, were simply not going to happen. It’s strange. You never start out in life with the intention of becoming a bankrupt or an alcoholic or a cheat and a thief. Or a liar.
And you were all those things?
I was. I’m not any longer. Oh, I lie a little from time to time, like everyone else.
![criterioncorner:
INGMAR BERGMAN INTERVIEWS INGMAR BERGMAN
once upon a time there was a Swedish publicity magazine called Filmnyheter, issued by production company Svensk Filmindustri to promote their pictures. when Ingmar Bergman’s Summer With Monika came out in 1953, the accompanying issue of Filmnyheter included an interview between Ingmar Bergman and… Ingmar Bergman. you can read the entire thing in the booklet that Criterion has included inside their Summer With Monika release, but i’ve included some of my favorite snippets below. Bergman’s droll sense of humor is evident throughout his work, but between all the doom and despair it can be easy to forget just how hilarious the dude really was.
Bergman: What was it like making Summer With Monika?
Bergman: I didn’t *make* Monika. [source novel author and co-screenwriter Per Anders] Fogelström bred her in me and then, like an elephant, I was pregnant for three years, and last summer she was born with a big ballyhoo. Today, she is a beautiful and naughty child. I hope she will cause an emotional uproar and all sorts of reactions. I shall challenge any indifferent person to a duel!
Bergman: From what I’ve heard, Summer With Monika includes the obligatory Swedish nude swimming.
Bergman: I haven’t heard that nude swimming has become obligatory in Swedish filmmaking. But I think it should be.
Bergman: So do you want to say anything with this film?
Bergman: “Get out! But return!”
Bergman: Any beautiful moment from the shooting of the film?
Bergman: As always, one forgets the hard work and remembers the fun. In this case, the skerries. We—
Bergman: MAKE IT SHORT!
Bergman: One morning at six o’clock, we were on our way to location, the engine of our little boat thumping across the still waters. The horizon at sea fused with the sky, the islets stood like floating octopuses in all that soft white. Up above, the fiery button of the sun was burning. It was warm and unusually still; there wasn’t even a swell, not a ripple. It was like eternity itself. It was like being in eternity. The smell of the sea, the quivering in the hull, the murmur around the stem, and the high silence — the summer of eternity.
Bergman: And then what happened?
Bergman: Nothing. That was it.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4higayhlX1qebry0o1_r2_1280.jpg)
INGMAR BERGMAN INTERVIEWS INGMAR BERGMAN
once upon a time there was a Swedish publicity magazine called Filmnyheter, issued by production company Svensk Filmindustri to promote their pictures. when Ingmar Bergman’s Summer With Monika came out in 1953, the accompanying issue of Filmnyheter included an interview between Ingmar Bergman and… Ingmar Bergman. you can read the entire thing in the booklet that Criterion has included inside their Summer With Monika release, but i’ve included some of my favorite snippets below. Bergman’s droll sense of humor is evident throughout his work, but between all the doom and despair it can be easy to forget just how hilarious the dude really was.
Bergman: What was it like making Summer With Monika?
Bergman: I didn’t *make* Monika. [source novel author and co-screenwriter Per Anders] Fogelström bred her in me and then, like an elephant, I was pregnant for three years, and last summer she was born with a big ballyhoo. Today, she is a beautiful and naughty child. I hope she will cause an emotional uproar and all sorts of reactions. I shall challenge any indifferent person to a duel!
Bergman: From what I’ve heard, Summer With Monika includes the obligatory Swedish nude swimming.
Bergman: I haven’t heard that nude swimming has become obligatory in Swedish filmmaking. But I think it should be.
Bergman: So do you want to say anything with this film?
Bergman: “Get out! But return!”
Bergman: Any beautiful moment from the shooting of the film?
Bergman: As always, one forgets the hard work and remembers the fun. In this case, the skerries. We—
Bergman: MAKE IT SHORT!
Bergman: One morning at six o’clock, we were on our way to location, the engine of our little boat thumping across the still waters. The horizon at sea fused with the sky, the islets stood like floating octopuses in all that soft white. Up above, the fiery button of the sun was burning. It was warm and unusually still; there wasn’t even a swell, not a ripple. It was like eternity itself. It was like being in eternity. The smell of the sea, the quivering in the hull, the murmur around the stem, and the high silence — the summer of eternity.
Bergman: And then what happened?
Bergman: Nothing. That was it.
![criterioncorner:
WHEN KUROSAWA MET KIAROSTAMI
(via swintons)
Akira Kurosawa had written a favorable commentary in the publicity leaflet that accompanies the public screening in Tokyo of Abbas Kiarostami’s Where is the Friend’s Home?, And Life Goes On:
“I believe the films of Iranian filmmaker Kiarostami are extraordinary. Words cannot relate my feelings. I suggest you his films; and then you will see what I mean. Satyajit Ray passed away and I got very upset. But having watched Kiarostami’s films, I thank god because now we have a good substitute for him. Recently, in the face of the decline of cinema in developed countries, nations with little experience in the area of filmmaking have produced valuable works; and I have to think about this more seriously after seeing Kiarostami’s films.”
An unprecedented comment by Kurosawa who seldom talks about other director’s films. In fact, during the past 43 years he has only written about the works of Andrei Tarkovsky, John Cassavetes, Ray and now Kiarostami.
Late in September 1993, Abbas Kiarostami held a two and a half hour long meeting with Akira Kurosawa in Tokyo.
Kurosawa: I have to say that I honestly enjoyed watching your films. They include appreciation for your working style. How do you work with children, in particular? They do not feel at home in my films and keep watching me in a discreet way.Kiarostami: Maybe that’s because you are Kurosawa. The children that work for me hardly know me. During the actual filming I try to pretend that I’m not the governor. Usually I ask the crew to judge about their acting. Of course, every needs a special trick, sometimes it is another story.Kurosawa: This is the cinema that must be supported and taken seriously. My children and grandchildren never see American films. They have their own boycotting system which rules out violent films. I wish this humanistic cinema could stand against all vulgarity.I’m sure good films are being made everywhere. But filmmaking in Europe and the States is going backwards while good films are being made in Asia and finding their way to International film festivals. The global screen is not for the films of only one country. Films make their viewers familiar with the cultural settings of their country of origins. If they are made according to a national culture then they will be welcomed abroad. My grandchildren and I made ourselves familiar with Iran and her people with your films. […]
Both of the filmmakers agree that those who look for flaws in films deprives themselves the joy watching a film.
Kurosawa: My painting teacher used to tell me to look at the world with a half closed eye. We have to see everything altogether, it is only then that we will be able to see the truth [x]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1vnjck0dj1qzg2mso1_1280.jpg)
WHEN KUROSAWA MET KIAROSTAMI
(via swintons)
Akira Kurosawa had written a favorable commentary in the publicity leaflet that accompanies the public screening in Tokyo of Abbas Kiarostami’s Where is the Friend’s Home?, And Life Goes On:
“I believe the films of Iranian filmmaker Kiarostami are extraordinary. Words cannot relate my feelings. I suggest you his films; and then you will see what I mean. Satyajit Ray passed away and I got very upset. But having watched Kiarostami’s films, I thank god because now we have a good substitute for him. Recently, in the face of the decline of cinema in developed countries, nations with little experience in the area of filmmaking have produced valuable works; and I have to think about this more seriously after seeing Kiarostami’s films.”
An unprecedented comment by Kurosawa who seldom talks about other director’s films. In fact, during the past 43 years he has only written about the works of Andrei Tarkovsky, John Cassavetes, Ray and now Kiarostami.
Late in September 1993, Abbas Kiarostami held a two and a half hour long meeting with Akira Kurosawa in Tokyo.
Kurosawa: I have to say that I honestly enjoyed watching your films. They include appreciation for your working style. How do you work with children, in particular? They do not feel at home in my films and keep watching me in a discreet way.
Kiarostami: Maybe that’s because you are Kurosawa. The children that work for me hardly know me. During the actual filming I try to pretend that I’m not the governor. Usually I ask the crew to judge about their acting. Of course, every needs a special trick, sometimes it is another story.
Kurosawa: This is the cinema that must be supported and taken seriously. My children and grandchildren never see American films. They have their own boycotting system which rules out violent films. I wish this humanistic cinema could stand against all vulgarity.I’m sure good films are being made everywhere. But filmmaking in Europe and the States is going backwards while good films are being made in Asia and finding their way to International film festivals. The global screen is not for the films of only one country. Films make their viewers familiar with the cultural settings of their country of origins. If they are made according to a national culture then they will be welcomed abroad. My grandchildren and I made ourselves familiar with Iran and her people with your films. […]Both of the filmmakers agree that those who look for flaws in films deprives themselves the joy watching a film.
Kurosawa: My painting teacher used to tell me to look at the world with a half closed eye. We have to see everything altogether, it is only then that we will be able to see the truth [x]
Taken with instagram
Taken with instagram
Irving Park, Portland (Taken with instagram)
Taken with instagram
Taken with instagram
