Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words Page #7

To me, it was the best thing

that could happen in the world.

My career

has always been important.

When they were little,

I took them with me.

But it was difficult

when they started school.

I do regret it,

but I don't think my Italian children

suffered because of it.

We were always so happy

when we met up again.

They liked the idea

of coming to meet their mother.

I went back to Italy every month

when I wasn't working.

But when I was on stage,

I was away for seven months

one month for rehearsals

and six for performances.

But they came to see me

whenever it was possible.

I often told myself

there was a positive side.

I was like a friend to my children,

more than a mother saying,

"Brush your teeth.

Go to bed. There's school tomorrow."

I think I was more of...

a friend than a mother.

I always felt that Mama could

only be 100% happy if she acted.

So for me it was important that

she went to work and stayed with us.

Because otherwise we had a mama that

was trying to be happy with the family,

but she was a little bit bored

with the family.

I think for my other siblings sometimes,

that part was more painful.

They wanted to come first.

But for me, I just thought, "I know why

she hasn't I'm gonna do the same.

I'm gonna have as much fun as her."

Dear Mollie,

I'm in Rome to see the children.

I'm faced with the worst imaginable thing.

Isabella has scoliosis.

I can't understand it.

She looks so healthy.

It's as though my heart is paralyzed.

I was the luckiest of all

because I was sick when I was a girl.

Mama stopped working

for two years to be with me.

So I think I benefited

from my back operation

because I never felt neglected.

When there was an emergency,

Mama stopped working to be with me.

Will you please tell me

what this is all about?

I've quit my job.

Or rather I've traded it in for Paris.

- You quit your job?

- Yep.

- Why?

- They were gonna send me to New York.

Oh, but, Philip.

No buts, not from you.

Let's have a pact, all right?

No, Philip, you can't do this.

I won't let you do it.

It's done.

Sorry.

Slippery.

Swing it.

That's it.

I would like to see what I can do now

at my age that is interesting.

It isn't only what do you look like.

It is also what you feel like.

I feel like continuing

what I am doing in my age.

I think she loved movies very, very much.

But at a certain age,

they don't write so many scripts

for women who are 45 or 50.

You go to the theater if you have

the capability of doing that.

So she did the movies she could

and the ones she wanted to do.

Uh, but then the theater took over.

And then Lars, of course,

was a theatrical producer.

So she did a month in the country

and various plays that I saw in London.

AFTER A 21 YEAR ABSENCE, NEW YORK

WELCOMES BACK INGRID BERGMAN

I was in my early 20s.

It was my first paying job in New York

that I got through a little notice

in the actors' newspaper Backstage,

and it turned out be this

Somerset Maugham play, The Constant Wife,

starring Ingrid Bergman

and directed by Sir John Gielgud.

My whole life, I have never forgotten

how completely down to earth,

and warm and engaged she was.

You know, when I think that I could have

worked with some monster, you know,

from show business,

and it would have really put me off

the whole business.

And to work with Ms. Bergman,

who was always so gracious and so kind.

For many years I'd been a tall,

very clumsy person,

and it was very meaningful to me

to see someone

who so was in their beautiful, strong body

as a woman.

And not hunching or, you know.

And just proud of who she was,

and so centered.

I think she felt very comfortable

with this nucleus of people she had,

that she'd had in London.

And I think it's one of the reasons

she wanted

to continue doing the play, uh,

with Sir John.

To continue having that experience

of being on stage and working,

yet very protected, I feel.

I think she had a core of friends,

you know, like Ruth Roberts,

who was a dialect coach in English.

I remember Ruth. I remember Kay Brown,

Mother's agent from the beginning.

It was the woman that selected her.

Irene Selznick, David Selznick's wife.

Those are really Mama's best friends,

and they were people

that bridged family and work.

She talked a lot about her children.

- She talked about you and your back

- I had a back operation.

She talked about your other sister

and your older sister, uh,

and her son.

That was her family. That was her closest.

And I believe maybe in some way

she talked more about you

than maybe you always felt.

I was surprised, because after

both Mama and Irene Selznick died, um,

we went and read the correspondence

because they saved all their letters

to see if there was something interesting,

maybe a book or something

about two women that counted so much.

We looked at the letter,

and it was only about children.

Yeah.

- It was very touching.

These were two women

that were so interested in their work.

And that surprised me.

I thought that the letter would give us

an incredible insight

into the world of Hollywood, of film,

of creating theater.

Nothing. Just always children.

I have wanted so long

to do something for Ingmar Bergman.

And then I saw him again

at the film festival in Cannes.

I was on the jury.

And he came down

with his picture Cries and Whispers,

and I decided that

I would remind him

and put a little letter in his pocket.

We're going to have to talk to them.

Is that okay?

And being directed

by such an artist as he is,

and it was just like

a little family working together.

And he works very close to his actors,

and though he knows what he wants and how,

he is so open to suggestions

and so willing to follow

the instinctive reaction

that his actors have.

And he builds on that, you see.

He would never say,

"That's not your business

to discuss this with me."

No, he will take more and more out of you,

and then help you to develop

what he wants you to develop.

So it's a very close relationship

that you have with him.

When the daughter

is through a whole night

telling the mother,

"You have ruined my life.

Look at me. I can't do anything

because you were never here."

And I hate her and I hate her,

and I told her.

It was a three-page monologue.

And in the end,

the camera is on her and she says,

"Please, I am sorry.

Hold around me. Please love me."

And Ingrid said, "I'm not gonna say that.

I want to slap her in the face

and leave the room."

And it became a catastrophe.

And Ingmar was furious.

And she wouldn't say it.

And they screamed and they screamed.

And so they went out in the corridor,

and we knew the movie's over.

It's not going to be.

She wasn't gonna do it.

And we heard screaming and screaming,

and then it became quiet.

Door opens. In comes the genius, Ingmar,

and the actress.

And of course he won.

But I have feelings too.

Well, I argued in the beginning

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