Going, going…. gone.

Posted by Tiffany on September 28th, 2009    Add your comment »

Two years ago one of Sweden’s and the world’s greatest film directors, Ingmar Bergman, died at the age of 89 on his island home of Fårö.

Ingmar Bergman, photograph by Irving Penn

Bergman’s works often blurred the line between imagination and reality, delving deep into interpersonal relationships and man’s existential relationship with the Great Beyond.

After visiting Fårö and finding it to be an enchanting and serene place myself; I liked to imagine Bergman there, at his estate where he wrote and filmed so many of his most famous scenes, conjuring up new images sure to provoke and haunt me.

Now Bergman’s estate is up for sale. I saw an ad in Variety last month trying to bring film execs and players together to purchase & preserve it. That would be nice.

But today is the day it really came to an end for me. The selling off of Bergman’s private property through elite auction house Bukowski’s.

Among the many many things on offer were Bergman’s photograph, above, taken and signed by Irving Penn in 1964. It sold for $75,000.

There were also beautiful vintage Carl Malmsten furniture pieces, antiques, tokens and memorabilia from famous admirers, and much more.

A three-piece set of nesting tables by Carl Malmsten, made in 1948. One of the small tables has handwritten notes on it from Bergman himself. It sold for about $12,200.

Randi Fisher original artwork, “Skirmish on the Bridge”, signed and dated by the artist in 1948. Sold for $28,000.

Carl Malmsten designed armchair from 1951. It went for about $3000.

Ludo game board, a classic little number that I actually had my eye on. Apparently Bergman enjoyed this game and I’d like to imagine him in a quiet moment playing it. But at over $2000, I just… couldn’t… do it.
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So I guess this is it.

As Bergman said in 1982, when he released “Fanny and Alexander” and announced it would be his last theatrical film…

“Making ‘Fanny and Alexander’ was such a joy that I thought that feeling will never come back. I will try to explain: When I was at university many years ago, we were all in love with this extremely beautiful girl. She said no to all of us, and we didn’t understand. She had had a love affair with a prince from Egypt and, for her, everything after this love affair had to be a failure. So she rejected all our proposals. I would like to say the same thing. The time with ‘Fanny and Alexander’ was so wonderful that I decided it was time to stop. I have had my prince of Egypt.”

But Bergman didn’t stop working in film altogether then. And though he may be a film-lover like myself’s “prince of Egypt”, and though objects from his creative sanctuary are now scattered across the globe, Ingmar Bergman will never stop being an inspiration.

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