The director Ingmar Bergman called “a hoax”
There’s something very special about the admittedly complex movies of the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman. They explore the nature of the human psyche and spirit and the battle they face in being housed inside a limited physical body, leading to several claims that Bergman is one of the all-time greats.
Such claims are more than justified, with the likes of The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona and Fanny and Alexander proving that Bergman possessed a unique attention to detail that so many other directors could only dream of.
While Bergman inspired swathes of his fellow filmmakers to first take up the camera and start shooting, he had expressed his disdain for a few of his contemporaries and predecessors and their highly acclaimed works. One of the most remarkable comments of Bergman’s was about one of the highest-rated movies of all time.
Of Orson Welles, Bergman once said, “To me, he’s just a hoax. It’s empty. It’s not interesting. It’s dead.” Welles is well-regarded by most critics and fans of cinema alike as one of the most significant figures in the narrative arts, with his debut film Citizen Kane being practically universally admired ever since its 1941 release.
But Bergman was no fan of Welles’ masterpiece at all, noting in the same interview, “Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of – is all the critics’ darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it’s a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless.” As the Swedish director points out, Citizen Kane is indeed “the critics’ darling”, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a good film for him.
Welles’ debut tells of Charles Foster Kane, a composite character based on a number of American media tycoons such as William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Bergman noticed the relations to Hearst, but he was critical of the way Kane created a version of him, most notably for what he believed was a poor sense of production value.
The director said, “Welles walks around with a facial mask and a wig whilst portraying this mogule Hearst, but you can see the edge of the wig all the time! The amount of respect that movie’s got is absolutely unbelievable.”
Evidently, the Swedish director was no fan of his American counterpart, particularly because he felt that the acclaim for his most famous cinematic work was undeserved. Perhaps he wanted all the praise for himself instead.
