Italian Years
.jpg) (The Complete Films) In 1948 Ms Bergman saw the Italian films Open City and Paisan directed by the neo-realist filmmaker Roberto Rossellini. She found herself so inspired by the films that she sat down and wrote the famous "Ti Amo" letter to Rossellini. It went,
"I saw your films Open City and Paisan and enjoyed them very much. If you need a Swedish actress who speaks English very well, who has not forgotten her German, who is not very understandable in French, and who in Italian knows only "Ti Amo" I am ready to come and make a film with you.
Best regards, Ingrid Bergman."
Her words turned out to be prophetic, she would fall out of love with Lindstrom and in love with Rossellini. Bergman and Rossellini would soon marry and the union would produce three children, Robertino and the twins, Ingrid and Isabella, five films, and the stageplay, Joan at the Stake.
Rossellini cabled back,
"I have just received with great emotion your letter which happens to arrive on the anniversay of my birthday and the most precious gift. STOP It is absolutely true that I dreamed of making a film with you and from this very moment I will do everything that such a dream becomes reality as soon as possible. STOP I will write you a long letter to submit to you my ideas. STOP With my admiration please accept the expression of my gratitude together with my best regards."
In 1949, filming of Stromboli began, the first of Bergman's films directed by Rossellini. In Stromboli, Bergman plays Karin, a Czech refugee, seeking to escape from an Italian displaced persons' camp by marrying a young ex-soldier, Antonio, who takes her back to his lonely island, Stromboli, in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Karin tries to adjust to the primitive and drab life of the island, which is foreign to her passionate and life-loving nature. She attempts to make friends with the village women, who treat her suspiciously and hold her aloof. She appeals at moments of doubt and bewilderment to the village priest who likewise keeps her at a distance. She finds she has little in common with her taciturn young husband, who spends much of his time fishing. Only a young lighthouse keeper offers the semblance of friendship.
Her husband considers her flighty, becomes irritated with her failure to conform to the local mores, and when he suspects her of having a dalliance with the lighthouse keeper, nails boards to the windows and doors of their home. The realization that she is pregnant adds to Karin's bewilderment and depression. She enlists aid of the lighthouse keep in effecting her escape, and flees to the volcanic mountain of Stromboli, where she is caught in the acrid fumes of a lava flow. She falls asleep on the ground, and in the morning, after meditating and considering her course of action, she senses a regeneration in herself and decides to return to the village and her husband and make what she can of her life there.
After Stromboli, Bergman and Rossellini embarked on a series of films, Europa 51 (TheGreatest Love) in which the star portrayed an idealist who goes mad; We, the Women, (Siamo Donne) an episode film in which she played a flighty actress; Viaggio in Italia (Strangers) opposite George Sanders in which she played an English matron who reconciles with her husband (Sanders) during an Italian journey; and Fear made in Germany opposite Matthias Wiemann, in which Ms Bergman was an adulterous wife who submits to blackmail. There was also a production of the last hours of Joan's life, Ms. Bergman's childhood heroine, Joan of Arc at the Stake, a stageplay.
Their films were met with some acclaim, but with even greater popular scorn. Rossellini, out of pride, refused to let Ms Bergman do films for other producers, though she had good offers. One of Rossellini's friends maintained at the time that the director's neo-realistic techniques and his famous habit of shooting a film spontaneously as he went along, without the benefit of script, conflicted with Ms. Bergman's Hollywood oriented approach to filmmaking. In 1955, Ms Bergman convinced that she would never make a successful film with Rossellini, overruled his objections and agreed to do Anastasia and Tea and Sympathy.
Rossellini went to India to film and in
1957 returned with Sonali Das Gupta, the wife of an Indian director. Das Gupta shortly thereafter gave birth to Rossellini's daughter. Soon after, Bergman's marriage to Rossellini was annulled. Later, Bergman said of the Rossellini annulment, "If only Roberto had accomplished something successfully, the marriage might have been saved. I understood him, but I was powerless to alter the way things were. Roberto's pride was hurt. Everything seemed to go against him - very hard for a man of his talent and ability to swallow. And Anastasia and Tea and Sympathy didn't help any."
In 1958, Kay Brown introduced Ms. Bergman to Lars Schmidt, a theatrical impresario from a wealthy Swedish shipping family. They found that they had much in common and began going out together. They soon discovered that they were in love and Ms. Brown found herself receiving regular telegrams from Ms Bergman and Schmidt with "Thank You" on them. They were married later that year. Schmidt is said to resemble Lindstrom in character and temperament.
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Films
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Rosa Ingrid Bergman (gardening.mweb.co.za) - Rose named after Ingrid Bergman.
Evergreen/Deciduous: Evergreen
Plant Type: Rose
Flower Colour: Velvet red
Foliage Colour: Green
Best Season: Summer to Autumn
Light : Sun
Attributes: Cut Flower
Height (m): 1.5
Hybrid tea rose. Only a very special rose could honour Ingrid Bergman, and being a red rose, it had to excel. It is most fitting that this rose was raised in Scandinavia by the rose breeding firm of Poulsens Roses which has a century of traditions and experience. "Poulsen" roses are famous for their vigour and general toughness and Ingrid Bergman is no exception. 35 broad and firm petals make up the large, glowing, velvet red blooms which hold their brilliancy in the sun as no other crimson hybrid tea does.
The bushes grow into well branched specimen plants clothed with glossy, deep green leaves which remain untouched by mildew or black spot. New, bronze red shoots appear until deep into Winter, producing their shapely blooms in an abundance comparable to a grandiflora rose.
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