Ingmar Bergman is one of those Mount Rushmore-Capital G Great-directors whose work is best appreciated the later in life you encounter it. Sure, the occasional Seventh Seal viewing or even if you want to tackle Scenes From a Marriage orFanny and Alexanderin yourjunior year of college, go ahead. But the meat of Bergman's career is a dish best served well aged. Bergman is of that older school of filming concerned with slowing down the pace, long takes, a lot of time spent indoors, haunting compositions, and other trademarks that have come to represent Scandanavian filmmaking as a whole.
Bergman came to directing later in life than most of his contemporaries, directing his first film at age 28, but he was nothing if not a prolific journeyman from there. Between 1946 and his ostensible "feature film" retirement that began after 1982's Fanny and Alexander, he churned out 40 features. He also directed over a dozen more films for television throughout that time and all the way up until his final feature, 2003's Saraband, a sequel to the aforementioned Scenes From a Marriage. And none of this is to mention his extensive work in theatre in Stockholm at both ends of his career.
Bergman's films are nothing if not cold, with sex being treated equally cooly, and sometimes as bursts of warmth in an otherwise dour endeavor. Sadly with all of these films to his name, we only have nude content from six of his films. Let's take a look at how the ice cold sex and nudity of Ingmar Bergman's films perfectly complimented his frigid style.
The Silence(1963)
This is the concluding film in an unofficial trilogy about tests of faith and belief in God—following 1961's Through a Glass Darkly and Winter Light, released earlier in 1963. Its frank sexual content made it something of a rabble-rouser in its day, despite containing content no dirtier than your average French New Wave endeavor.Bergman's preoccupation with Freudian themes and dream interpretation throughout the early days of his career reaches its pinnacle here with this tale of two sisters traveling home through Central Europe.
The elder Ester, played by Bergman regular Ingrid Thulin, is illand her younger sister Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) resents having to care for both her sister and her ten year old son. While bedded down in a small town, Anna heads out to get into some trouble and comes across a theatre. She stops to watch the show, but the real show is happening in the booth next to hers, wherea couple is straight up having sex...
This, of course, arouses the pent up emotions in Anna, who soon begins bringing men back to their hotel room for sex. Her son Johan even spies Lindblom's bountiful breasts in the dark as he spies on his mother from the next room...
While not explicit, for the time and place, it certainly must have come as a shock. Bergman's shadows wouldn't make their way across a woman's naked body for five more years, however...
Hour of the Wolf(1968)
The island of Fårö, off the southeastern coast of Sweden, is where Bergman called home from the early 1960s until his death in 2007. Throughout those forty-plus years, he shot several films on the island, including this one about artist Johan Borg (longtime Bergman collaborator Max von Sydow) living in self-imposed exile with his wife Alma (Liv Ullmann). Their world is turned upside down when it is revealed that Johan's ex lover—and more importantly, ex-muse—Veronica (Ingrid Thulin, back again) is married to the wealthy Baron who lives in the large castle on the island.
Johan begins a descent into madness, underscored by Alma's loving regard for her husband despite her knowledge of his various peccadilloes. Like many Bergman couples, this is one tied together by a supernatural need to be together for the sake of survival. Many of Bergman's wives have strong ties to their husbands—and vice versa—that can't be torn apart by wanton infidelity. This theme bears itself out in this film as Alma never leaves Johan's side, even after he non-fatally shoots her, and being the one who can actually see and defeat the literal manifestations of her husband's demons.
None of this stops Johan's descent into madness from including some flashbacks to a topless Ingrid Thulin, messing around on the bed with von Sydow in his "good old days"...
Perhaps my favorite parody of Bergman is tied to this film. It came in this SCTV sketch where flop-sweat drenched cable access horror host Count Floyd (Joe Flaherty) gets hold of a film called "Whispers of the Wolf" cribbing its horror sounding title from this film, though it's more a parody of Persona...
Shame (1968)
After glancing over her participation in Hour of the Wolf, let's dig into the career of Norwegian actressLiv Ullmann. Starting with the aforementioned Persona, Ullmann made ten films in total with Bergman over a nearly forty year partnership, including his last film, Saraband in 2003. They tried the romance thing, their romantic entanglement lasting a grand total of five years, a mere fraction of their much longer and more fruitful relationship as creative collaborators.
For their third collaboration, the second in 1968, Ullmann once again took the lead female role in Shame, playing wife to von Sydow once more. Here they play married musicians attempting to eke out a quiet existence away from the city on the eve of World War II. As the war drags on, however, the very thing they left the city to avoid begins encroaching on their quiet life in the country.
Bergman's longtime cinematographer Sven Nykvist does exceptional work throughout their various collaborations, but his handheld work here is among the best work they did together in black and white. Also shot on the island of Fårö, the film brings the impact of war down to its most micro-level. Bergman shows the impact of war on two people, and through this achingly intimate portrait, brings the war home in ways many other filmmakers couldn't.
The film's nudity also mirrors the mundanity of life in the early part of the film, with Liv Ullmann casually getting ready for the day with her top open and her breasts visible just one minute in...
It clearly delighted Bergman to put his then-lover topless in the film, because the scene lasts just a little bit longer than it needs to, but not gratuitously so. It should also be noted that this is Ullmann's only nude appearance in one of Bergman's films and the last time she would appear topless on film...
The Touch(1971)
Eventually, Bergman was going to have to make a movie in English, just because these sorts of things are expected from universally admired non-English-speaking directors. It's one of the litmus tests a director must pass if they're going to be considered for more commercial fare. Bergman, of course, failed that test spectacularly. The Touch is not a bad film and certainly not his worst—I'm looking at you, The Serpent's Egg—but it's distinctly Swedish sensibilities failed to connect with American audiences, despite thepresence of beloved actor Elliott Gould.
The gorgeous Bibi Andersson plays Karin, a woman married to the much older doctor Andreas (von Sydow, as per usual) who meets and falls for an American archaeologist played by Gould. The two begin a passionate affair that threatens to rip apart Karin's otherwise perfect life, and if that sounds depressing, fear not as Bergman reportedly considered this his first "love story." It definitely contains one of his best nude scenes, capturing Andersson's amazing breasts on film as she and Gould get down to business...
Cries and Whispers(1972)
Bergman's biggest crossover hit at the time, 1972's Cries and Whispers became the first and only film of his to land a nomination for the Best Picture Oscar. At the time, Bergman had two Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film—in back-to-back years, no less for The Virgin Spring and Through a Glass Darkly—but this film brought him new found notoriety and earn him the first of three Best Director nominations over the next 11 years.
The film is one of the most haunting portraits of death—or at least, waiting for death—ever put on film. Sisters Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann) must wade in sorrow as third sister Agnes (Harriet Andersson) isin the final throes of a losing battle withcancer,having awaited deathfor over a decade now. There is also a fourth member of the dynamic at play, a servant named Anna (Kari Sylwan) who has been much more of a comfort in these final weeks to Agnes than either of her sisters. Of course, because of her low status on the social hierarchy, this doesn't bode well for what will happen to her when Agnes eventually dies.
Nykvist won an Oscar for his incredible cinematography on the film, and every image is one you want to linger in for as long as Bergman will allow. The film's only nudity comes, as one might expect, rather casually, as Ingrid Thulin's Karin gets undressed and sits nude waiting for her servant to bring her nightgown...
Fanny and Alexander(1982)
Our final stop on this tour of the middle twenty years or so of Bergman's career couldn't end on a higher note. 1982's Fanny and Alexander is among the most complex and richly rewarding films ever made. Originally conceived as a television miniseries, the full tale runs 312 minutes, a comparative breeze in this age of binge-watching. There is a three hour "theatrical version" which is excellent, but plays like an adaptation of the longer film rather than its own thing. Criterion has a set featuring both cuts of the film, along with a feature documentary about its production, so you can compare and contrast for yourself.
Spanning the first decade of the 20th century, this historical epic follows the exploits of the titular pair of Swedish royals, children in the Ekdahl family, using 10 year old Alexander as the audience surrogate. Following the sudden death of their father, the children are then bounced around from house to house as Alexander wrestles with his own faith, and the various adults bed-hop their way to happiness.
Despite the expansive running time, all of the nudity proper occurs in the first hour. A young Pernilla August (a.k.a. Shmi Skywalker, mother of Anakin) plays a maid named Maj, who is having an affair with Alexander's uncle Gustav, flaunts her fun bags when he attempts to get some hanky panky happening...
Not ten minutes later, ol' Uncle Gustav is still trying to get it wet—and failing—with his wife, played by Mona Malm, who right nipple keeps popping out of her rather constricting top...
Bergman himself considered Fanny and Alexander to be“the sum total of my life as a filmmaker” and it's as good a place as any to end any discussion of the legendary director. We've got more fun directors planned over the next two weeks, don't worry, we're not going to wallow in misery much longer.
Ingmar BergmanFilms with Nudity for Which We Don't Have Content
Check out the Other Directors in Our Ongoing "SKIN-depth Look”Series
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Non-nude images via IMDb
