Ingmar Bergman Stresses Couples, Critic Simon Says

"Hell alone, or hell together" is the question Swedish movie director Ingmar Bergman poses in his films, critic John Simon '50 told a capacity audience in Boylston Auditorium last night.

In a lecture entitled "The Couple in the Films of Ingmar Bergman," Simon said, "The basic problem Bergman deals with in all his work is the phenomenon of the man-woman relationship." Everything from Bergman's struggle with God to his childhood is connected with his concern with the couple, Simon said.

Underscoring his points with dialogues from Bergman's screen plays, the author of Ingmar Bergman Directs, said, "The relationship between man and woman becomes a kind of battlefield for Bergman, where they engage in perpetual deadlock.

Marvelous and Unique

Bergman's attitude towards women is "marvelous and unique; men approach women as mother or mistress figures, and Bergman's own stance is so refreshing because he really loves women," Simon said.

A historical and social problem in cinema, Simon pointed out, has been that women are seen through the eyes of various types of male directors, since there has been an unfortunate dearth of women directors.

Yet Bergman himself does not render his best portrayals of women as real people in his three films that deal almost solely with women, Simon said. Only when his women participate in relationships with men does Bergman deal with them on a more human level, he added.

"The couple is the crucible, the experimental part in which Bergman studies and analyzes all other problems." Simon said.

"Marriage or non-marriage, the man-woman relationship is the way Bergman always poses his metaphysical or existential problems," Simon concluded. Simon said he regards this issue as the perfect metaphor for any social or human predicament Bergman choses to illustrate.