Bergman speaks about Antonioni 

"Those that are emerging are so incredibly talented. These young emerging directors, they know the job well. But it's not so often that they really have anything to say." 'Nuff said.

and then to think about the fact that they died on the same day!

As a Swede, I can say that the translation may be a bit off. What he said could be translated as '' and he made >AT LEAST< 2 masterpieces... '' The saying '' I alla fall'' In Swedish means both ''anyhow'' and ''at least''. To me it sounds like he means ''at least''.

R.I.P Chris Marker! Same day, 5 years after these two.

RIP Michelangelo Antonioni (September 29, 1912 - July 30, 2007), aged 94 And RIP Ingmar Bergman (July 14, 1918 - July 30, 2007), aged 89 You both will be remembered as legends.

Ingmar is my favorite director....also because he really gets into peoples "soul"...I love Ingmar... cheer from New Orleans the city of jazz..

Antonioni also said "I mean simply to say that I want my characters to suggest the background in themselves, even when it is not visible. I want them to be so powerfully realized that we cannot imagine them apart from their physical and social context even when we see them in empty space." Something I really love about his characters. Especially in Il Deserto Rosso

L´ Aventura and L´Eclisse are at least as good as La Notte and Blow up. These four films are real masterpieces.

Bergman and Antonioni died the same they, two genius with a particular sensibility, thanks forever!

L'Avventura for me is one of the 20 greatest and more important films ever made. La notte and blow up are masterpieces too, but L'Avventura is a milestone that changed cinema.

Tack för det, Ingmar!

Antonioni was the first director to really make film seem line fine art. what i mean by this is, his shot compositions, particularly in the malaise trilogy and Red Desert, were just so ahead of the pack it wasn't funny. the lighting, framing etc was just not as obvious as his predecessors. it was deceptively simple. 'La Notte' and 'Red Desert' are two of the best shot films ever in my opinion

It's shocking how this still applies today. It's taken me 10 years of serious filmmaking and writing to finally discover my voice, what I wanted to say, and how I wanted to say it, and I'm still learning. But because we live in the day of pretty pictures on Instagram we have more "photographers" and "directors" where most people are getting so focused on the technicals of things to make things "look cool." There's no voice though, there's no language. I believe it to be fear of being messy since those who want to be filmmakers want to go Hollywood but I'm excited for a new wave of independent cinema.

This is the greatest statment i have ever heard!!!Bravo!!!

Antonioni is the greatest director and i love Ingmar Bergman, but antonioni is just something different , and his films are still highly relevant, they have aged very well, unlike some of Bergman's movies . La Notte, L'avventura , The Passenger are masterpieces and one of the best movies ever made. And i don't know why he says antonioni wasn't a technician, because he sure as hell knew better than bergman where to place the camera and how to frame gorgeous shots .

beautiful.

Master of cinema . Bergman

so true

It is astonishing how spot on Antonioni (& Berman) were about "the new young directors". We all know who they are. They are incredible technicians, they make us feel a lot. But do they have something to say? It is for their own generation to decide. It seems true that for one Bergman, one Kurasawa, Antonioni, Tarkovsky, or Truffaut there need to be a hundred new young, usually Hollywood film directors. Blockbusters are receding a bit now, but so many rhyme w a mono-syllabic grunt speaking only emptiness, but incoherently, so that the viewer felt full... if only for a moment. Ironically today, we go well back in time, to Jane Austin or Shakespeare (The Hollow Crown) to listen to what today's cinema has to say. Something the past has already said. Magnificently. We do it rather well. NB: Bergman used medieval settings in Virgin Spring & The Seventh Seal to say something v vital about his own time.

@ewlalah It's the perfect way of putting it.

this man knows what he is saying

i agree... with almost everyone in here :)

I agree

ORSON WELLES made "Citizen Kane" when he was 25... I was talking about welles, not about Kubrick.

He didn't talk badly about Antonioni, but about young 'talented' film makers who, despite their technical prowess have nothing to say. Bergman says that Antonioni wasn't technically gifted, but he could still make 2 great works of genius that tell us a great deal

Little inguiry: What's your favourite movie from each of them? Speaking of me, I haven't seen much of them yet but I just adore Bergman's Persona and Antonioni's Blow-up.

Take that Spielberg!

@Morellolover Advanced planning and technical profiency are two separate things.

sottotitoli in italiano? italian subtitles?

@dtrailen Right...

Bergman's Seventh Seal and Antonioni's Blow Up/La Notte

I love Bergman's films, but for him to say the only masterpieces by Antonioni are Blow Up and La Notte is blasphemous. How could he leave out Il Grido, L'Avventura, L'Eclisse, Red Desert or The Passenger? I put Antonioni and Bergman in the same echelon of filmmakers as Bresson, Tarkovsky, Teshigahara, Fassbinder, Bunuel, Kurosawa, Herzog, Welles, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Altman, Cassavetes and Jodorowsky (just to name a few). In other words, the top echelon.

Hej Denmark arw the kings now, so many great films and tv. Anders

Bergman is right. a lot of younger film makers are talented, but their films are usually devoid of content.

@pevainer Right...

I love Bergman, I really do. I've seen all of his films, even those made for TV. But I can't understand how he didn't like Antonioni. Of course Antonioni didn't made so many good films as Bergman, but he made really great films. I think Bergman was a little bit jealous of Antonioni because he saw his own movies reflected in the ones made by Antonioni. In his book "Pictures" (I don't know the name in English), Bergman dislike almost every single one of his films. I think that the movies made by Antonioni apply to these cases. Some are films that Bergman could have made and dislike after making them. This is my opinion, however, there are no facts here😅

I totally agree -- I find Antonioni to be one of the most technically proficient and formal directors in the history of the medium.

He is right ! Originality is scarce ! Also, the director is just a puppet of the film producers and financers. This is not Art ! Art shouldn't be compromised !

Wow, I read the comments and you are all ridiculous. "He's better than him" "NO, this guy is better than that guy" "No way, besides he was his and favourite director" "No, HE was his favorit director" "No" "Yes" "NO" yada yada yada... And you guys think you know something about film? If you have a favourite director you need to take a step back and open up your mind to the possibilities of film. No one is better than the other, they're just different; comparing Bergman with Antonioni is like comparing an apple with a pear - it's useless and leads to nowhere. EDIT: I need to add that Bergman says "(Antonioni) made AT LEAST two masterpieces" not JUST two masterpieces. The subtitles are wrong.

Forgotten

How is two great filmmakers dying on the same day ironic?

@MyName42 Michael Bay? Of course he's not, he's talking about swedish directors.

No disrespect. I'm with you on Kubrick, but he did "Fear and Desire" when he was 25, which is hardly one of the greatest movies of all time, and I don't think was considered a movie that totally changed Cinema forever.

everyone's taste is different. In my opinion, Bergman's films are far more dull and obvious than Antonioni, but each to their own.

Visually you can see the Bergman influence not only in Cinema but throughout popular culture.

Actually Stanley Kubrick was the most "Technician" in Cinema History in my opinion... and NEVER EVER call Orson Wells overrated!!! The guy was only 25 when he made one of the Greatest movies of all time, a movie that totally changed Cinema forever. So take it easy...

@clockworkscott I don't think it's really a nationality thing. Coincidental might have been a better way of putting it.

many new director know about tacnically well, but they haven't know that what the souls of film, arts and life. which anthonioni was doing. thats the fact.

Bergman is right when he talks about a lot of younger filmmakers have talent, but their films are devoid of content, when he talks about Antonioni wrong that much. If there was no Antonioni there were no Godard Tarkowsky Tarr etc. Sorry Ingmar

i wonder who are the directors he speaks about

Him and antonioni died on the exact same day

@bmortloff OK, its a coincidence...

Orsen Welles didn't hold Antonioni in high regard either. But at least Antonioni can take comfort in the fact Kurosawa was fan of his.

I find what he said about Antonioni confusing, not a technician... He admires Blow Up which is technically one of the most impressive films I've ever seen... The long take at the end of The Passenger is technically as ambitious as anything Bergman attempted. Its ironic, two great film makers who died on the same day.

I am shocked to hear him talk lightly of the great genius that is Antonioni. Then why quote him?

@dcasey77 It's coincidence.

@dcasey77 The films of Bergman were so wellplanned in every techincal aspect, I mean the camera- and character movements, positions and framings, and the editing, the whole handcraft behind his films were so tight made. Antonioni was much more loose, intuitive and spontaneous when he handled his technical side of his films, he did rarely plan what to do on the days of shooting. Zabriskie Point is a mess, and so is The Passenger. Actors are out of frame, editing and sound almost out of timing.

Max von Sydow är det bästa vi har för tillfället, utan tvekan.

Since when does "two masterpieces" count as talking lightly of someone?

Welles was a great technician all right, and a great director, but I prefer Godard, or Antonioni, or Rivette, or Straub & Huillet... Welles was a mannerist and his films are too much for me : too much speed, ideas, images, dialogues... I like when directors let the audience see how they built the structure of their film. I think that the audience of the 21th century need more time and contemplation instead of speed and informations.

The importance of "messages" or a meaningful idealistic approach in films are way overrated. There is absolutely no need for such distractions.

I have to disagree with Bergman here. I don't think Blow Up is that good. It's ok. I much prefer L'avventura, L'eclisse, Passenger (Nicholson superb) and Identification of a Woman. As for Antonioni not being a technically gifted I'm not entirely convinced about that either.

ART FILM MAKER beeF

Orson never really had a body of work. His first was so great.

I know he's one of the finest directors to ever live but I don't really agree with him here. I feel that film is whatever you want it to be, wether that's tell a message or just be entertaining, or both. Tarantino for example is all entertainment, Kubrick was mainly substance, Scorsese is a mix of the two. I know a lot of top level directors aren't fans of Scorsese because they feel the same as Bergman, he's one of best technical directors around but doesn't always have a message.

Like he said : overrated.

I'm so dissapointed... ONLy BLOW UP AND LA NOTTE

Dont confuse Antonioni with the maestro.. Bergman and Tarkovsky are the greatest ever.

Bullshit.

He's done two masterpieces, you don't have to bother with the rest. One is Blow-Up, which I've seen many times, and the other is La Notte, also a wonderful film, although that's mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Il Grido, and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade.

@maneatingseas What do you mean? Bergman aknowledged Antonioni's masterpieces and used him as an example of a filmmaker of substance. Besides, they were peers, there is no reason why Bergman should be sanctimonious, or kiss Antonionis ass.

Bergman's views are the only reason that gave me the courage to admit to myself that Citizen Kane is a profoundly boring film. Sorry fellas.

calling this man jealous is slow thinking,the man loved film,he went as he says 5 days a week,and what he says here is significant-as with any language,painting ,music cinema-you must have something to say.I don't agree with him on Antonioni's masterpieces,I personally prefer L'Aaventura,and Il Grido.

Antonioni > Bergman

@jujunanino what? they arent even close to the most technical... and how can you not like bergman?? antonioni is great but it is godard who is overrated..

It's not often they have something to say, every story has already been written. These fancy directors are just pretentious.

Talkin shit about Antonioni. I also don’t like his films.

Citizen Kane's overrated. The writing and acting is atrocious.

He concentrated on single images, never realising that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don't feel anything for L'Avventura, for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress. Bergman = jerk