Abstract
The last two chapters have argued that Melanie Klein and Jean-Paul Sartre work with concepts specific to their respective disciplines. Nevertheless, points of convergence are apparent in the application of these ideas to Ingmar Bergman’s films. Both theories focus on the imagination as an aspect of human nature that must be understood in its own right. At the same time, both theories observe and emphasise a relational process in which the imagination is related to other aspects of human experience. We have seen how emotional elements are given a primary role by Klein but also in Sartre’s thinking.
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Notes
Christina Howells explores the convergence between Sartrean thought and psychoanalysis. Howells makes a stronger connection between Sartre and Lacan but also sees links with other post-Freudian thinkers, including those of ‘the object relations school’. See Howells, C. (1979b) ‘Sartre and Freud’, in French Studies: A Quarterly Review, Vol. 33, pp. 157–176.
The creative overlap between Bergman’s methods in the theatre and the cinema is illustrated in his discussion with the Markers. For instance, Bergman discusses the example of a play by Sartre, which depicts torture, but for Bergman the most successful adaptation of this involved suggesting the violence, rather than showing it. As Bergman puts it, ‘That is one of secrets of our business – not to show everything.’ Marker, L-L. and Marker, F. J. (1982) Ingmar Bergman: Four Decades in the Theater, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 25.
Steene, B. (2005). Ingmar Bergman: A Reference Guide, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 141–153.
Björkman, S., Manns, T. and Sims, J. (1973) Bergman on Bergman, English translation by Paul Britten Austin, New York: Simon and Schuster (originally published in Sweden in 1970), p. 32.
Koskinen, M. (2007) Ingmar Bergman, Stockholm: The Swedish Institute (first published 1993), p. 11.
Young, V. (1971) Cinema Borealis, Ingmar Bergman and the Swedish Ethos, New York: Avon Books, p. 64.
Gado, F. (1986) The Passion of Ingmar Bergman, Durham: Duke University, p. 160.
See Howells’ article for a discussion of how Sartre incorporates romantic values into his theory of imagination: Howells, C. (1979a) ‘Sartre and the Language of Literature’, in Modern Language Review, Vol. 74, Issue 3, July, pp. 527–579.
Sánchez-Pardo, E. (2003) Cultures of the Death Drive: Melanie Klein and Modernist Melancholia, Durham; London: Duke University Press, p. 12.
‘For Sartre, even when imagining is at its most perceptual, as for instance in visualizing, it has features quite different from those perception involves… While perceiving is the paradigm state that teaches us how things are, imagining is the reverse… It is uninformative through-and-through.’ Robert Hopkins, ‘Imagination and Affective Response’, in Webber (ed.), op. cit., pp. 100–117; p. 100. Nevertheless, Hopkins goes on to explore how imagination, on Sartre’s account, tells us about the world, affectively.
Richmond, ‘Magic in Sartre’s Early Philosophy’, in Webber (ed.), op. cit. pp. 145–160, in particular, pp. 155–156. The obscure work by Sartre, which Richmond discusses, is ‘Faces’ (originally published in 1939 in Ve r v e magazine).
Many reasons have been given for Bergman’s strong female characters. I will just mention here the inheritance from Swedish drama including the works of Henrik Ibsen, with an emphasis on autonomous modern female characters, and that Bergman’s enjoyment of Hollywood cinema, including so-called remarriage comedies, provided many sources of inspiration for strongly independent female characters. The last two influences are discussed by John Orr, in ‘Bergman, Nietzsche, Hollywood’, in Koskinen, M. (ed.) (2008) Ingmar Bergman Revisited: Performance, Cinema and the Arts, London: Wallflower Press, pp. 143–160.
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© 2015 Dan Williams
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Williams, D. (2015). From Three Early Bergman Films to an Analysis of Summer with Monika. In: Klein, Sartre and Imagination in the Films of Ingmar Bergman. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137471987_4
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