Swedish cinema icon Ingrid Thulin, star in Bergman films, dead at 77

AFP ^ | January 8, 2004

[Charles Henrickson]

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Ingrid Thulin, a leading actress in many Ingmar Bergman films including the classic "Wild Strawberries," has died at the age of 77 after battling cancer, hospital officials said.

Much like her famed compatriot Greta Garbo, Thulin -- who died on Wednesday -- combined an aloof, mysterious demeanour with her own brand of Scandinavian melancholy. She was often listed as the best Swedish actress of all time, even ahead of the mysterious Garbo.

The blue-eyed and blonde former stage actress and dancer starred in eight Bergman films, making her first appearance on celluloid while she was still a student at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre in 1949.

A fisherman's daughter, Thulin was born on January 27, 1926 in the small town of Sollefteaa in northern Sweden, according to the Swedish National Register, though Who's Who and several movie websites give her birthyear as 1929.

She soon moved to Stockholm, however, where she trained as a ballet dancer, and later shifted to theater. She first met Bergman there, and worked with him in several stage productions.

It was her role as a suffering Bergman woman in the bleak black and white "Wild Strawberries" in 1957 that first brought her fame.

She played Marianne, the estranged daughter-in-law of Isak Borg (played by director Victor Sjoestroem) who is re-evaluating his life while on his way to receive an honorary university degree. The film is now considered one of the best examples of European art house film of the 1950s.

A year later, she went on to play Max von Sydow's beautiful wife in Bergman's "The Magician". She also shared best actress awards at the 1958 Cannes film festival with Bibi Andersson -- her co-star in "Wild Strawberries" -- and Eva Dahlbeck for their performances as pregnant women in "Brink of Life."

The culmination of her career came with another Bergman film, the 1973 "Cries and Whispers," in which she co-starred with Liv Ullmann and Harriet Andersson as the sister of a dying cancer patient. The film won an Oscar for best cinematography.

In addition to her performances in the Bergman films, Thulin will also be remembered for taking part in international productions. She starred in Vincente Minnelli's remake of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1962), in which her voice was dubbed by British actress Angela Lansbury, and in Luchino Visconti's "The Damned" (1969).

Thulin played her last movie part in 1990 as an elderly woman living in a nursing home who embarks on a love affair with a fellow patient in "La Casa del Sorriso" (House of Smiles).

She was married for more than 30 years to Harry Schein, the co-founder of the Swedish Film Institute. She had moved with him to Italy in the mid-60s.

[Charles Henrickson]

Hej! to the Swedish Ping List.

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[Cicero]

It's been a long time since I saw "Cries and Whispers," in an art house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but that was one powerful movie. I don't know if it was Bergman's best, but it was his strongest.

[Charles Henrickson]

Victor Sjöström and Ingrid Thulin in Ingmar Bergman's
Smultronstället ("Wild Strawberries," 1957)

[martin_fierro]

(whatever Swedish for "Hubba hubba" is)

[Charles Henrickson]

I just saw Smultronstället ("Wild Strawberries") last month--my first Bergman film, believe it or not! It was excellent! (The DVD had some interesting features and commentary on it, btw.)

Ingrid Thulin did a fine job in the film. Her beauty at that time of her life (1957) was stunning.

[expatpat]

Try "The Seventh Seal" and "Virgin Spring".

[Charles Henrickson]

Ingrid Thulin and director Ingmar Bergman in 1958.

[Charles Henrickson]

Ingrid Thulin in 1951.

[martin_fierro]

I'm a little partial to this photo, but whatever.

HUBBÅ HUBBÅ!

[Charles Henrickson]

The story I posted above has been updated to include these reactions to her death:

"She was undoubtedly one of the big Bergman women," film critic Nils-Petter Sundgren told Swedish news agency TT.

"It's bad news. No comment," Max von Sydow told Italian news agency Ansa on the set of a television series he is filming in Bologna.

"She was a wonderful actress and a close friend. I mourn her tremendously," Harriet Andersson told Swedish news Agency TT.

"She was extremely skilful, but so incredibly beautiful that people were tricked by her looks. They didn't always see her other sides. For instance, she had an incredible sense of humor," she added.

[wtc911]

Add Sawdust and Tinsel and Persona to your list...also Through a Glass Darkly. No US film maker ever had such a grasp on the human psyche.

After Persona Bergmann drifted away from uncovering the inner workings of the single mind and moved toward the exploration of relationships. Some think this later phase is his better work. I think the fifties-sixties stuff is far more challenging.

Either way, if your IQ is above room temperature and you enjoy film, as opposed to FX, Bergmann is worth more than a look.

btw...I wrote a paper once arguing that Persona, essentially a two character film, was really the exploration of a single mind in the process of break-down.