POV: I'm Scared Of Ingmar Bergman

I, much like most film geeks have holes in my movie watching history. I don't know much about the Iranian New Wave or Tony Richardson films. I've never been a huge fan of Marylin Monroe, so I'm always taken a little off guard when I see one of her movies and like it. These are just examples of course, there are many more.

The biggest of these crimes is my total and unequivocal fear of Ingmar Bergman. I have only seen Persona (1966) back when I was in college. I remember really enjoying it, but it never made me say, "It's safe, I'm comfortable with this. I can watch these."

The problem is fear, very simple. I've always known that Bergman was a thinking mans filmmaker. I don't see myself as much of a thinking man and fear the mysterious knowledge that these films impart will fly over my shallow skull. My feeble mind is just too frightened of not getting it.


Will I lose my own sense of cineaste credibility if I discover I can't understand his movies? Am I simply over thinking (very ironic) this whole thing and should just relax and view them like an other film? All I know is that the thought of tackling his movies leave me with an odd petrified fear that I have with no other filmmaker.

I'm a fan of Antonioni, Fellini, Godard, Tarkovsky, Tarr and many others. As a matter of fact, I'm a bit of a foreign film nut. I have no fear of subtitles or themes or nonlinear storytelling. As a matter of fact there isn't anything in film that does intimidate me when it comes to choosing something to watch. I even prefer the challenge. There is just something about Bergman that overcomes me with a certain type of cinematic panic. I don't get it and there is a part of me that really wants to understand it.


The only logical conclusion that I have been able to come up with is pretty simplistic. I'm worried about not liking him. That's pretty straight forward. He is an admired and honored director. He has made movies that are considered classics in form and narrative. The visuals, created mostly by frequent collaborator Sven Nykvist, are world renown. Anyone who even dabbles in movie circles knows the shot of Max Von Sydow playing chess with death against those back lit clouds. It's an incredible image and I only know it through still photos.

It's all a sad, sad thing. A place where I shouldn't be and a corner I have painted myself into. Someday, hopefully soon, I can pull myself out of this pit of despair and just relax. I'll throw a couple of Bergman's films onto the top of my Netflix queue and make a day of it. These feelings I have, these emotions that hold me hostage are sure to melt away once those first few frames flicker across the screen, right? Right?