CAMELOT FANTASIES

Gaslight (1944)[edit]


 With Cary Grant in Notorious (1946)
The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Gaslight (1944), a film in which George Cukor directed her as a "wife driven close to madness" by co-star Charles Boyer. The film, according to Thomson, "was the peak of her Hollywood glory."[12]:77 Bergman next played a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) opposite Bing Crosby, for which she received her third consecutive nomination for Best Actress.

Hitchcock films[edit]

Bergman starred in the Alfred Hitchcock films Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), and Under Capricorn (1949). Under Capricorn was made in England and is a costume drama set in Australia. Bergman was a student of the acting coach Michael Chekhov during the 1940s. Chekhov acted with Bergman in Spellbound and received his only Academy Award nomination for his performance.[14]

Joan of Arc (1948)[edit]

Bergman received another Best Actress nomination for Joan of Arc (1948), an independent film based on the Maxwell Anderson play Joan of Lorraine, produced by Walter Wanger, and initially released through RKO. Bergman had championed the role since her arrival in Hollywood, which was one of the reasons she had played it on the Broadway stage in Anderson's play. The film was not a big hit with the public, partly because of the scandal of Bergman's affair with Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, which broke while the film was still in theatres. Even worse, it received disastrous reviews, and although nominated for several Academy Awards, did not receive a Best Picture nomination. It was subsequently cut by 45 minutes, but restored to full length in 1998 and released in 2004 on DVD.

Between motion pictures, Bergman had appeared in the stage plays Liliom, Anna Christie, and Joan of Lorraine. During a press conference in Washington, D.C. for the promotion of Joan of Lorraine, she protested against racial segregation after seeing it first hand at the theater she was acting in. This led to a lot of publicity and some hate mail. Bergman went to Alaska during World War II to entertain US Army troops. Soon after the war ended, she also went to Europe for the same purpose, where she was able to see the devastation caused by the war.[citation needed]

Italian period with Rossellini: 1949–57[edit]


 


 In Fear (1954)
Bergman strongly admired two films by Italian director Roberto Rossellini that she had seen in the United States. In 1949, Bergman wrote to Rossellini, expressing this admiration and suggesting that she make a film with him. This led to her being cast in his film Stromboli (1950). During production, Bergman fell in love with Rossellini, and they began an affair. Bergman became pregnant with their son, Renato Roberto Ranaldo Giusto Giuseppe ("Robin") Rossellini (born 2 February 1950).[15]:18

This affair caused a huge scandal in the United States, where it led to Bergman being denounced on the floor of the United States Senate. Ed Sullivan chose not to have her on his show, despite a poll indicating that the public wanted her to appear.[16] However, Steve Allen, whose show was equally popular, did have her as a guest, later explaining "the danger of trying to judge artistic activity through the prism of one's personal life."[16] Spoto notes that Bergman had, by virtue of her roles and screen persona, placed herself "above all that." She had played a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) and a virgin saint in Joan of Arc (1948). Bergman later said, "People saw me in Joan of Arc and declared me a saint. I'm not. I'm just a woman, another human being."[17]

As a result of the scandal, Bergman returned to Italy, leaving her husband and daughter (Pia). She went through a publicized divorce and custody battle for their daughter. Bergman and Rossellini were married on 24 May 1950. In addition to Renato, they had twin daughters (born 18 June 1952): Isabella Rossellini, who became an actress and model, and Isotta Ingrid Rossellini, who became a professor of Italian literature.[citation needed]

Stromboli and "neorealism"[edit]


 


 With husband Roberto Rossellini in 1951
Rossellini completed five films starring Bergman between 1949 and 1955: Stromboli, Europa '51, Viaggio in Italia, Giovanna d'Arco al rogo, and La Paura (Fear).

Rossellini directed her in a brief segment of his 1953 documentary film, Siamo donne (We, the Women), which was devoted to film actresses.[15]:18 His biographer Peter Bondanella notes that problems with communication during their marriage may have inspired his films' central themes of "solitude, grace and spirituality in a world without moral values."[15]:19


 


 Memorial plaque on the house in Stromboli where Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini lived during filming of "Stromboli" in 1949
Rossellini's use of a Hollywood star in his typically "neorealist" films, in which he normally used non-professional actors, did provoke some negative reactions in certain circles. In Bergman's first film with Rossellini, her character was "defying audience expectations" in that the director preferred to work without a script, forcing Bergman to act "inspired by reality while she worked, a style which Bondanella calls 'a new cinema of psychological introspection'".[15]:98 Bergman was aware of Rossellini's directing style before filming, as the director had earlier written to her explaining that he worked from "a few basic ideas, developing them little by little" as a film progressed.[15]:19

After separating from Rossellini, Bergman starred in Jean Renoir's Elena and Her Men (Elena et les Hommes, 1956), a romantic comedy in which she played a Polish princess caught up in political intrigue. Although the film was not a success, her performance in it has since come to be regarded as one of her best.

Later years: 1957–82[edit]

Anastasia (1956)[edit]


 


 with Mel Ferrer in Elena and Her Men (1957)
With her starring role in 1956's Anastasia (1956), Bergman made a triumphant return to the American screen and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for a second time. The award was accepted for her by her friend Cary Grant.[18]

Bergman made her first post-scandal public appearance in Hollywood in the 1958 Academy Awards, when she was the presenter of the Academy Award for Best Picture.[19] She was given a standing ovation, after being introduced by Cary Grant and walking out onto the stage to present the award. She continued to alternate between performances in American and European films for the rest of her career and also made occasional appearances in television dramas such as The Turn of the Screw (1959) for the Ford Startime TV series—for which she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress.

During this time, she performed in several stage plays. She married producer Lars Schmidt, a fellow Swede, on 21 December 1958. This marriage ended in divorce in 1975. Schmidt died on 18 October 2009. After a long hiatus, Bergman made the film Cactus Flower (1969), with Walter Matthau and Goldie Hawn.

In 1972, U.S. Senator Charles H. Percy entered an apology into the Congressional Record for the attack made on Bergman 22 years earlier by Edwin C. Johnson.

Bergman was the President of the Jury at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.[20]

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)[edit]

Bergman became one of the few actresses ever to receive three Oscars when she won her third (and first in the category of Best Supporting Actress) for her performance in Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Director Sidney Lumet offered Bergman the important part of Princess Dragomiroff, with which he felt she could win an Oscar. She insisted on playing the much smaller role of Greta Ohlsson, the old Swedish missionary. Lumet discussed Bergman's role:
"She had chosen a very small part, and I couldn't persuade her to change her mind. She was sweetly stubborn. But stubborn she was... Since her part was so small, I decided to film her one big scene, where she talks for almost five minutes, straight, all in one long take. A lot of actresses would have hesitated over that. She loved the idea and made the most of it. She ran the gamut of emotions. I've never seen anything like it."[7]:246–247
Bergman could speak Swedish (her native language), German (her second language, learned from her German mother and in school), English (learned when brought over to the United States), Italian (learned while living in Italy)[21] and French (her third language, learned in school). She acted in each of these languages at various times. Fellow actor John Gielgud, who had acted with her in Murder on the Orient Express and who had directed her in the play The Constant Wife, playfully commented: "She speaks five languages and can't act in any of them."[22] (This is from a Dorothy Parker quote which became a snowclone, "That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say No in any of them.")

Although known chiefly as a film star, Bergman strongly admired the great English stage actors and their craft. She had the opportunity to appear in London's West End, working with such stage stars as Michael Redgrave in A Month in the Country (1965), Sir John Gielgud in The Constant Wife (1973) and Wendy Hiller in Waters of the Moon (1977–78).[citation needed]