best film: Discussing Liv Ullmann’s best film really requires one to talk about Ingmar Bergman’s best. She is not in The Seventh Seal (made nearly a decade before they started collaborating) so that is out. She is not in Fanny and Alexander, either. But Bergman’s best single film is Persona so that is the answer here. Cries & Whispers is not far behind Persona. It is likely that both Persona and Cries & Whispers are two of the best fifty (50) films of all-time- and Liv is simply spectacular in both.
at 28-years-old Liv Ullmann would become a sensation with her breakthrough performance and first archiveable film in Persona
best performance: Persona is also the answer here but there is very little separating Ullmann’s top eight performances. Ullmann is mute for almost the entirety of Persona– this is not a safe performance. It was her first collaboration with Bergman, and she gives Persona and the role the edge (it helps that she is not part of his regular trope at the time- adds to her mystery) it needs.
stylistic innovations/traits: Ullmann’s face as a canvas in closeup (and Bergman’s tasteful staging closeup variants) is the crux of much of Bergman’s cinema. Whether it was black and white photography (Persona, Shame), color (those green eyes brought out in The Passion of Anna, Cries and Whispers), mad crazy, outgoing, pensive… it did not really matter. She proved she could do it without Bergman in The Emigrants and that is key to at least have one film. The argument against Ullmann is that she is propped up here but Bergman and their collaborations but that is a slippery slope when talking about this list. Ullmann’s strength is that she is the only female actor with five mentions as one of the year’s best actors (1966, 1968, 1972, 1973, and 1978). It is fun to watch Ullmann go toe to toe with the greatest actress of all-time in Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata and hold her own. She also battles with the great Max von Sydow several times throughout their career.
from 1968’s Shame. Ullmann comes out of relative obscurity to outduel the likes of even the great Max von Sydow.
Bergman’s penchant for closeups certainly did not hurt his trope of actors– but not actor was featured as often as Ullmann- this one from Cries & Whispers.
directors worked with:Ingmar Bergman with nine (9). She has eleven (11) films in the archives total and a whopping nine are with Bergman. Bergman was simply one of the best select few best auteurs of all-time and not only that- but he was also an actor’s director. He loved dialogue, closeups, and working with actors – more so than Kubrick or Hitchcock who are two of the auteurs ranked ahead of Bergman on the all-time time director’s list.
another frequent collaborator- Erland Josephson- together here in Scenes from a Marriage
top ten performances:
- Persona
- Scenes From a Marriage
- Cries and Whispers
- Shame
- Autumn Sonata
- The Passion of Anna
- The Emigrants
- Face to Face
- Saraband
- Hour of the Wolf
Autumn Sonata really wraps up Ullmann’s miraculous run from 1966-1978
archiveable films
| 1966- Persona |
| 1968- Hour of the Wolf |
| 1968- Shame |
| 1969- The Passion of Anna |
| 1971- The Emigrants |
| 1972- Cries and Whispers |
| 1973- Scenes from a Marriage |
| 1976- Face to Face |
| 1977- A Bridge Too Far |
| 1978- Autumn Sonata |
| 2003- Saraband |
She totally deserves the 2nd place. It isn’t the same as Setsuko Hara or Masina who do benefit from working with great auteurs as well, but to an extent reproduce a lot of their work in the sense of playing variations of very similar characters. Ullmann is different. She can do everything. From whatever Persona is, to tragedy (Shame) to shallowness and emptiness (Cries and Whispers) to psycho (the Passion of Anna) to repressed housewife transforming into emancipated, free woman all the while in existential crisis (Scenes) to schizophrenia (Face to Face)… You name it. And she always excels.
> Masina who do benefit from working with great auteurs as well, but to an extent reproduce a lot of their work in the sense of playing variations of very similar characters.
This opinion is solidly wrong and I’m shocked to see you saying something like this.
@Zane – of course the characters are different, first of all because they would be written differently and secondly because both Hara and Masina are supremely talented actresses that couldn’t be typecast even if they tried. But even in Masina’s case, when I’m talking about variations of similar characters, I mean it temperamentally. It doesn’t stand for La Strada that much, but that role creates very special requirements as far as characterisation goes. But Cabiria and Juliet of the Spirits do have some common ground. Think of it this way; Katherine Hepburn played many different characters, most of them wonderfully written, with amazing depth and skill. But her mannerisms, her signature if you will, never left her. That doesn’t make her a lesser actor. It doesn’t even make her ‘limited.’ It’s just a certain something she brings with her to every role. To some extent the same goes for Masina. That’s my point. As far as that is concerned Ullmann completely disappears, which I guess is tougher to do when working with the same director as often as she did. My comment was in a way a compliment both to her and to Bergman.
@Georg- We are on the same page here- well said
@Zane – to be fair, though, I see where your disagreement stems from, because my choice of words in the original comment is quite unfortunate and it doesn’t articulate my thoughts correctly. That was my bad.
so pleased to see Liv raking this highly. one of cinema’s true living legends.
looking forward to seeing the rest of this list! hope to see the Ingrid Thulin somewhere too.
Let’s be real, the only reason she is not at the top of the list is because an American has to be number one on any list like this and it’s the same with Ingmar Bergman. You can argue quality and preferences but the quantity makes it really hard in this case.
@Cinik – Thanks for the comment- but of course an American is not number one on this list.
https://lwlies.com/articles/liv-ullmann-autumn-sonata/
A beautiful review of Ullmann’s most underrated performance in Autumn Sonata (Imo one of cinema’s most underrated performances). Should’ve won an Oscar for this one.
What’s your review @Drake?
@M*A*S*H- I caught Autumn Sonata in May of this year here- such an impressive work (and underrated by the TSPDT consensus) all around