I don't watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry... and miserable. I think it's awful.
Ingmar BergmanRead
Say anything you want against The Seventh Seal. My fear of death - this infantile fixation of mine - was, at that moment, overwhelming. I felt myself in contact with death day and night, and my fear was tremendous. When I finished the picture, my fear went away. I have the feeling simply of having painted a canvas in an enormous hurry - with enormous pretension but without any arrogance. I said, 'Here is a painting; take it, please.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects an artist's confrontation with their fears, particularly the fear of death, through the act of creation.
In this quote, Ingmar Bergman expresses how his struggle with the fear of death was alleviated through the process of creating his film 'The Seventh Seal.' This artistic endeavor not only served as a means to confront his anxieties but also allowed him to communicate his feelings about mortality directly to others, transforming his personal fears into a shared experience through art.
Themes
ArtDeathFearCreationMortality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the relationship between art and personal fears.
More from Ingmar Bergman
All quotes →To shoot a film is to organize an entire universe.
Ingmar BergmanRead
I'd prostitute my talents if it would further my cause, steal if there was no way out, killing my friends or anyone else if it would help my art.
Ingmar BergmanRead
I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see my face and feel loathing and horror. My indifference to men has shut me out. I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams.
Ingmar BergmanRead
To humiliate and be humiliated, I think, is a crucial element in our whole social structure. It's not only the artist I'm sorry for. It's just that I know exactly where he feels most humiliated.
Ingmar BergmanRead
Only someone who is well prepared has the opportunity to improvise.
Ingmar BergmanRead
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I do a first draft as passionately and as quickly as I can. I believe a story is valid only when it's immediate and passionate, when it dances out of your subconscious. If you interfere in any way, you destroy it.
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A painting to me is primarily a verb, not a noun, an event first and only secondarily an image.
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...And, all at once, the moon arouse through the thin ghastly mist, And was crimson in color... And they lynx which dwelleth forever in the tomb, came out therefrom. And lay down at the feet of the demon. And looked at him steadily in the face.
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Don't play what's there, play what's not there.
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