We are now well into summer and this issue is rather late: my apologies! Since the publication of the spring issue, ideas about Ingrid and her films have been flying back and forth, by e-mail and on Bergmania and it's great to know that interest in Ingrid is increasing with time, not diminishing.

Summer for Ingrid was her family time. During the 1960s I imagine her spending the summer months on the island, Dannholmen, with Lars and the children, often all four children. She must have been very happy during those summers. She wrote in her autobiography that she and Lars always promised themselves that they would have their summers together on the island. Mostly they were away from the glare of publicity, but they did allow reporters and photographers to visit them. Some of the lovely family photographs can be seen on the Fjallbacka website: you will find a link elsewhere on this page. The people of Fjallbacka loved and respected Ingrid and she, in turn, became just another member of the Swedish community, helping with the summer yachting school.

I am sure, too, that Ingrid's summers at Santa Marinella, during her Italian years, were happy and carefree - with all those doves [which she loved], dogs and hens - witness the delightful episode in "Siamo Donne". Some of us now have this film, thanks to Willem, and I am able to copy it [in PAL VHS format] for anyone who hasn't yet seen it. In 1957 Ingrid at last had Pia with her to join her three Italian children and we have some beautiful photographs of the whole family, united at last.

So, dear Ingrid - Hail to summer!

To our Swedish friends we say "Glad Midsommar!" - a bit late, but we know how important a festival it is for you.

Perhaps Ingrid's excellent Swedish film "Juninatten" should be OUR special summer film.

Happy Birthday to Ingrid’s twin daughters, Ingrid Junior and Isabella, who celebrated their forty seventh birthday on June 18^th.

I have to report on this recent poll, which named the top twenty five women stars of all time. Ingrid was named at Number Four. Well, I would like to know exactly how the list was chosen and what the merits were that the AFI was looking for. All we know is that the list was chosen from those who made films before 1950, or, if they started later, must subsequently have died. I am not going to give my personal comments on the three women who are supposed to have beaten Ingrid into fourth place - I think we all know how I feel and I know how many of my fellow Ingrid fans feel! I just think that Ingrid was in a league of her own. She had what none of the others had: great beauty, amazing mobility of facial expressions, eyes that said everything, a face that almost told you what she was going to say on film before she started to speak the lines, an absolute ability to make us believe in her - totally and all the time. Ingrid is still converting new fans every day - that says it all!

What a beautiful film! How much I liked it! Ingrid Bergman is so different from the way I expected her to be. I saw the pictures from this film in Ingmar Bergman's biography and I remember that it happened right after I saw "Anastasia" for the first time and then, suddenly, I saw Ingrid middle aged without make-up - so different! But she's luminous in the film - she's so beautiful, artistic, tragic and unforgettable. I read in "My Story" that she dubbed "Autumn Sonata" in English, but I have the original version in Swedish with English subtitles. It was interesting to see Ingrid speaking in her native language - Swedish, German, English, French, Italian. How could she do it? Well, I have to record this video for myself somehow - I just can't give it back and not have a copy for myself.

I think that Liv Ullmann played very beautifully! I like the scene where they are sitting at the piano together and Ingrid speaks about music. And the last scene where Eva blames Charlotte for her sister's illness is so great played by Ingrid.

I liked it so much, I knew that I would. It's impossible not to like the film with Ingrid in it! And again, I CANNOT understand why she didn't get an Oscar for it. I think that it was very well said by Cary Grant that Ingrid should get an Oscar every time she appears in a film.

A MOST UNUSUAL AUTOGRAPH By Mika Raatikainen

Mika recently won AN INGRID AUTOGRAPH on an online auction site. It is of Ingrid, Jack Benny and Larry Adler during their European tour in 1945. Mika wrote to the seller, asking if he knew the history BEHIND THESE AUTOGAPHS . This is the reply he received: "...In answer to your question regarding the autographs, my grandfather was a U.S. military policeman during the Second World War. He was standing on the left hand side of the stage at the USO tour performance. He was responsible for guarding the stage, making sure that nobody would run up on to the stage where the performers were. Jack Benny was performing on the stage at the time, singing "Love in Bloom". Ingrid Bergman was standing next to my grandfather, and said to him "I love that song". It was during that brief conversation that my grandfather asked her for her autograph. He grabbed the first piece of paper he could find. A short time later, he asked the other two performers for their autographs on the same piece of paper. The autographs were acquired in 1945 at the Pilsen Czechoslovakia Opera House".

"RAGE IN HEAVEN". This early Ingrid film, released in 1941, rarely receives much attention. Here is an article by Michelle:

French director Francois Truffaut, in his all too short life, was without a doubt one of the movies’ greatest enthusiasts. His personality, writings, and above all his films, exuded that enthusiasm, enveloping his audience with an infectious charm. While watching one of his less optimistic movies, "The Woman Next Door", a psychological drama about a couple’s all-consuming passion, I was delighted to come across a reference to one of Ingrid’s movies "Rage In Heaven". If you read Truffaut’s book with Hitchcock , you know that this film was a particular favourite of his. The scene: Gerard Depardieu and his wife are dining out after a trip to the cinema. They run into some friends and begin discussing the movie. Depardieu gets the plot wrong, having been obsessing over his lover instead of watching the film. "No, no." they tell him." He didn’t get murdered. He killed himself, putting the knife above the door hinge so it would look like a murder. It was all explained at the end". This movie in a movie was called "The Walking Dead". Whether this was "Rage In Heaven"’s actual title in France, I don’t know. Personally, I like to think Truffaut chose it in reference to Robert Montgomery’s intentionally emotionless performance, which, perversely, only served to enhance his portrayal, making him all the more sinister. That’s it. The Truffaut thing doesn’t have much to do with Ingrid, but I think fans may be interested to read this.

Pia Lindstrom’s excellently researched and presented documentary about Morocco has been seen on American television. Those of us who live in Europe haven’t been lucky enough to see it on our televisions yet.

Isabella Rossellini has been seen on American television AND in Britain in the mini series "Merlin". This is a most unusual and beautifully filmed drama. Isabella plays the part of Nimue.

Isabella has also narrated a documentary about the wildlife to be found in New York’s Central Park; she has always loved domestic animals and keeps cats and dogs at her New York home, just as she did in Rome, so it’s no surprise that she is also interested in wild animals.

Ingrid Rossellini, Isabella’s twin sister, has not followed her sisters into the media. She is a scholar and has become a professor of Italian Renaissance Literature, specialising in the poet Petrarch, about whom she has written two books. This surely shows the disparity of ways in which Ingrid’s children have used the considerable intelligence, which they inherited from their mother.

Alfred Hitchcock is reputed to have once said "Ingrid – so beautiful, so dim!" . Considering he was a great friend of Ingrid, this is an amazing statement and so untrue. Ingrid was far from dim – she was highly intelligent and developed, over the years, a great wisdom. Someone who can speak five languages and act, both in films and on the stage, in all of them, is definitely NOT dim!

"Shake hands, we shall never be friends, all’s over;

I only vex you the more I try.

All’s wrong that ever I’ve done or said,

And nought to help it in this dull head:

Shake hands, here’s luck, good-bye.

But if you come to a road where danger

Or guilt or anguish or shame’s to share,

Be good to the lad that loves you true

And the soul that was born to die for you,

And whistle and I’ll be there."

I love Housman’s poetry. This one is sad. Look closely into it and perhaps you will see that it could have been an admirer of Ingrid, sex immaterial, who knew that it was impossible to get close to her, to be a real friend, but who would have died for her….. would certainly have been there on those occasions in her life when she desperately needed the support of true friends.

My apologies for the fact that this issue does not contain all the material promised, but look out for it all in future issues of The Ingrid Chronicle!

I welcome your comments and please do send me contributions for the Chronicle – we need more articles by fans, so start writing!!!!!!!

Warmest wishes to you all, from Mary