EDITORIAL by Mary Hutchings
Welcome to the second edition of the new magazine dedicated to the unique
and eternal INGRID BERGMAN. How do you describe Ingrid? I have just
watched Casablanca
again - and I still cannot define what exactly it is about Ingrid which makes
her unlike any other actress. I watch those early films and I watch the later
ones: age did not alter the power Ingrid had to carry me along with her every
facial expression, every nuance of speech and gesture. And she would make you
believe in her as a bad girl equally well as she would draw you into total
sympathy with her in a "good" role - contrast Notorious and
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness for example. I defy any other actress to have attempted two such different roles - and there are many more examples.
I would like to thank Matt Cawley for the space on his page and for putting up with my nagging about what images I would like to see in his gallery [it is excellent, by the way] and for answering my endless questions about my computer!
Thanks also to Elizabeth Anthony, on whose page I have articles about
Goodbye Again and
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, as well as my own, off the cuff, biography of Ingrid. And thank you to all readers of the first issue, who e-mailed me with comments and questions. I hope to include some of these responses in this issue.
NEWS NEWS NEWS
It was with surprise that I read about an auction of Ingrid memorabilia at Sotheby's on March 18th.Some items were being sold by a person to whom they had been given by one of Ingrid's relatives. Nine of Ingrid's school exercise books, some containing stories which would have been of interest to us [though we would need to have them translated from the Swedish!], were sold for £520. There was also an early signed photograph and Ingrid's copy of the script of
Ocean Breakers. The latter has her name written on it, in pencil, in her handwriting and is anotated in another hand. Neither of these items was sold - they were either withdrawn or did not reach the expected reserve price. It would be VERY interesting to know who bought the school books. Personally, I hope they went to a museum in Stockholm or to the Svensk Film Industry archives. I checked with the Ingrid archive in Connecticut and they are not there. Anyone with any news about this mystery, please contact me!
Notorious has just been re-issued on VHS PAL in the UK by Cinema Club at the very reasonable price of £4.99. It has a different picture on the box from the edition issued by W.H.Smith, so is worth buying, if you are a really keen fan. I have bought it - as you probably don't need to be told!
Casablanca - For the first time a CD of the soundtrack has been issued. It includes the original score, "As Time Goes By", songs and tunes played at Rick's AND some dialogue. A must! UK readers can buy it from Pentagon - which can be accessed through Billy Hicks's page. Billy has scanned the cover of the CD and it is well worth visiting his site to have a look at this - thank you, Billy!
CONTINUING THE GOOD WORK FOR CHINESE ORPHANS
My friend, Lucy Trapp, received the following E-mail:
From: Marilyn Timm
Subject: Gladys Aylward Orphanage
Date: March 9th 1998
Dear Ms Trapp,
This morning I have received some information back from our ELCA
missionary, Rev. Wendell Friest, who is serving in Taipei,
Taiwan, concerning your request about the Gladys Aylward Orphanage.
Rev. Friest reports that he knew Gladys Aylward when he first arrived
in Taiwan himself. His information is this: After she died, a co-worker,
Kathleen Smith, took over the leadership of the orphanage. Rev. Friest
checked with a colleague who knows the orphanage ministries in Taipei
very well, and he said that when Kathleen Smith retired several years
after Ms. Aylward's death, that the remaining children were placed in
other orphanages, and the orphanage was closed at that time.
Sincerely,
Marilyn Timm
Office of Rev.Thomas Schaeffer
Program Director for East Asia
Division for Global Mission, ELCA
If anyone has any questions or comments about the above news items, please e-mail me. Better still, if YOU know of an item of news which would be of interest to INGRID fans, please let me know in time for the next issue. Thanks! Mary.
INGRID'S WORK FOR CHARITY
The letter printed above reminds me that Ingrid's considerable help with charitable causes, especially those associated with refugee children, must not go unnoticed. When Ingrid was on a tour of Japan in 1970, she decided to detour to Taiwan and visit Gladys Aylward -to see, at last, the missionary she had so brilliantly portrayed in "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness". She arrived too late: Gladys had died ten days earlier. But Ingrid met Kathleen Langton-Smith, the lady who continued Gladys's work at the orphanage. Kathleen showed Ingrid the humble surroundings in which Gladys had lived and a scrapbook, full of cuttings and pictures from the film - so she HAD been interested. It was, however, the obvious selflessness with which Gladys had dedicated her life to these orphans which moved Ingrid. From then on, Ingrid did much to help the Gladys Aylward orphanage, which became The Gladys Aylward Foundation. Thanks to Ingrid's intervention The Variety Club of America became one of its most generous benefactors. Ingrid was questioned about this charity work by Michael Parkinson, when he interviewed her on British television in 1973; he asked her what her role was. Modestly she replied:"Oh - I'm not anything really - just a sort of godmother". She did say that she had been much moved by the story of "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness", because it was a true story of someone who had always put others first and who, after adopting five Chinese children herself, had ended up with over a hundred, whom she led to safety over the mountains, in a gruelling journey. A clip from the film was shown - the scene where Gladys buys the Chinese orphan baby girl for sixpence and names her Sixpence. The applause from the studio audience was enormous and Ingrid looked, typically, embarrassed. She never understood, did she, what an impact even one scene from one of her films, could have!
In the next issue: The Ockenden Venture.
INGRID REMEMBERED: A Television Documentary
This new documentary about Ingrid's life and career was first shown on British television in May 1997, but I think it had been aired in American first, possibly with the title Intimate Portrait. This new documentary was long overdue. Before it was made, all we had was the [delightful] tribute made shortly after Ingrid's death and narrated by John Gielgud - this was indeed a kind and moving tribute and one which we should all treasure. We had also seen "Ingrid In Italy", a compilation of home movies about Ingrid's Italian years - and of great interest. The new documentary was narrated by Ingrid's daughters Pia Lindstrom and Isabella Rossellini and, although it drew on items and interviews which had been in the original tribute - the interview with the late Kay Brown for example - it contained new insights into Ingrid as a person, as told by her daughters.There were some as yet unseen home movies - a beautiful little colour scene of Ingrid with Pia [aged about seven], doing warm-up exercises, scenes of Ingrid and Pia shopping, during Pia's first visit to Italy and more scenes of Ingrid with her three younger children. Both Pia and Isabella spoke lovingly of their mother. Pia said that there will be no "momma dearest" type books from any of Ingrid's children - they all loved her too much. Pia spoke with great sincerity about the time when Ingrid left her to live in Italy: she said that, when she was old enough to understand, she realised that marriages do break up, that she realised that Ingrid did not "abandon her", as had been bandied about by the press in 1949, and that, in adulthood, she had become close to her mother. I loved the little anecdote from Isabella, who said that Ingrid would tell her to change her T shirt, if she thought it was getting dirty! Isabella also said that, although her mother was away working, she visited the children often and made sure that the household was running smoothly. Ingrid did not neglect any of her children and there is no doubt that she loved them all dearly.
Towards the end of the film we saw Pia accepting the Emmy, which Ingrid was awarded posthumously, for "A Woman Called Golda". "She will live in my heart for ever" said Pia. And in ours, and in ours!!!!
If you live in the UK and would like a video of this documentary in PAL VHS format, please contact me for details.
LETTER FROM A READER
I received this letter from Daniel Hendler, who lives in Israel and is a doctor in the hospital where Golda Meir was treated and where Ingrid filmed scenes for "A Woman Called Golda":
Dear Mrs Hutchings,
Like you, I have been an Ingrid Bergman fan for a very long time. At first, when I was still a child, it was her beauty that impressed me, and as time passed away, I was finally spellbound by her unusual gift as an actress, that unique Bergman touch that made unforgettable so many roles, including some of those that in less perfect hands should have become completely forgettable ones. Yet, it was not a matter of perfection in the acting skills and techniques that mastered her art: we can easily find many other actresses equally and even more perfect than her in that field, but it would be surprisingly hard to find another actress who attained as much of her success to build an almost half of a century career in five languages and even more countries. It is also hard to believe that for almost all the time, she performed in foreign languages, switching from Swedish to German, then to English and Italian and finally to French, being always equally praised. This comes only to remark her outstanding life-achievement, and also to point out the strength of that magic Bergman touch, that overcame accent difficulties as well as the absence of formal technique, to establish herself as one of the best actresses of the century by the simple right of her powerful and natural inner acting skills.
I am maybe bothering you with my comments, and I would like to know if I can be of any help with your wonderful task of writing your Bergman Chronicle. I will be very glad to do so, but if my English is not sufficiently proper feel free to let me know it and I will certainly understand. In any case it would be a pleasure for me e-mailing about Bergman with you.
Best regards, Daniel Hendler
Thank you, Daniel, for this very encouraging letter! I think we all agree with your sentiments about Ingrid. I look forward to contributions from you and other fans and, please, keep the readers' letters coming in!
DEDICATED TO INGRID My choice of poem for this edition:
"Best and brightest, come away!
Fairer far than this fair day,
Which, like thee to those in sorrow,
Comes to aid a sweet good morrow
To the rough year just awake
In its cradle on the brake.
The brightest hour of unborn Spring,
Through the winter wandering,
Found, it seems, the halcyon morn
To hoar February born.
Bending from Heaven in azure mirth,
It kissed the cold forehead of the earth,
And smiled upon the silent sea,
And bade the frozen streams be free;
And waked to music all their fountains,
And breathed upon the frozen mountains,
And like a prophetess of May
Strewed flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear
Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.
[From "To Jane: The Invitation" by P.B. Shelley]
There are so many aspects of Ingrid's appearance and character that remind us of Spring - so this poem seems very apt. In two of her films the image of Spring is uppermost: "Intermezzo" [1939] and "A Walk in the Spring Rain" [1969]. The "silent sea" and the "strewed flowers" can also be images of the scattering of Ingrid's ashes off the island of Dannholmen.
By the way, the first line of this Shelley poem appears as the epigraph to the final chapter of Donald Spoto's biography "Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman".
IN THE NEXT EDITION:
Griffith James, who was for many year's Ingrid's manager and close friend, died in January 1997. Thank you, Griff, for helping to care for Ingrid during her final illness.
IN THE NEXT ISSUE:
First of a series about how people became fans - their first Ingrid film,
the effect she had on them etc. I already have several stories from fans.
If YOU have a story to tell, please e-mail me. Any comments on the current
edition or questions about Ingrid will be very welcome. |
