Greatest scandal in Hollywood history? Sure, maybe the recent past has offered some gossip and a few public shamings.
But we live in a more permissive era. In 1949, one of Hollywood’s greatest stars had her career stopped cold when news of marital infidelity hit the tabloids.
This scandal was a fall from grace for Ingrid Bergman, the Oscar-winning star of “Casablanca” and “Notorious.” At the height of her stardom and universally beloved at the time, Bergman went to Italy to make a film with director Roberto Rossellini and soon became pregnant by him.
The affair, splashed across the newspapers for months, ended both their marriages. The story is at the heart of “Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words,” a thoughtful documentary about the great star.
Director Stig Bjorkman interviews Bergman’s children (including Isabella Rossellini, a star in her own right), but mostly it uses her own words. These are drawn from diaries and letters (spoken by current “Danish Girl” Oscar nominee Alicia Vikander), and they paint a portrait of a very intelligent, serious and restless soul.
Bergman was eager to leave her native Sweden when Hollywood called in the late 1930s — the urge for something new was already there. Her rapid rise to stardom is conveyed with charmingly starstruck diary entries from the time, as she gazes around at the dazzle of la-la land.
Bergman’s family has fully cooperated with this documentary, including the use of home movies. But they are all frank about their mother, and Pia Lindstrom (Bergman’s daughter from her first marriage) is obviously still puzzled and wounded by her mother’s straying habits.
One intriguing theory is that Bergman, whose mother died at a young age, was drawn to men who photographed her. It’s how she pleased her father, a camera buff, and it helps explain her affairs with film directors (and with famed still photographer Robert Capa).
It also helps explain her burning desire to act in movies, and the intimate relationship she was able to create with the camera. Few actresses could hold a close-up like Ingrid Bergman.
The scandal and its aftermath are explored in the documentary, and treated not so much as a mistake as a necessary move for an artist who needed something different.
She’s not treated as a shining icon, and that’s part of the film’s strength. Bergman emerges as a person, not just a movie star — the likes of which we may not see again.
“Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words” 3 stars
This documentary portrait of Ingrid Bergman includes her own commentary (drawn from diaries and letters) and the testimony of her children, still somewhat puzzled by her restless ways. It’s a fine portrait of an artist both headstrong and sensitive.
Rating: Not rated; probably PG for subject matter
Showing: Sundance Cinemas
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