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Face to Face: A Film
A Screenplay of the renowned director, Ingmar Bergman
118 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1976
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87 people want to read
About the author
Ingmar Bergman
164 books601 followersErnst Ingmar Bergman was a nine-time Academy Award-nominated Swedish film, stage, and opera director. He depicted bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope in his explorations of the human condition. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in cinematic history.
He directed 62 films, most of which he wrote, and directed over 170 plays. Some of his internationally known favorite actors were Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in the stark landscape of his native Sweden, and major themes were often bleak, dealing with death, illness, betrayal, and insanity.
Bergman was active for more than 60 years, but his career was seriously threatened in 1976 when he suspended a number of pending productions, closed his studios, and went into self-imposed exile in Germany for eight years following a botched criminal investigation for alleged income tax evasion.
He directed 62 films, most of which he wrote, and directed over 170 plays. Some of his internationally known favorite actors were Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in the stark landscape of his native Sweden, and major themes were often bleak, dealing with death, illness, betrayal, and insanity.
Bergman was active for more than 60 years, but his career was seriously threatened in 1976 when he suspended a number of pending productions, closed his studios, and went into self-imposed exile in Germany for eight years following a botched criminal investigation for alleged income tax evasion.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 30, 2013
I read it translated into Arabic, Bergman is the only one i consider his scripts as a Literary pieces, This feeling became stronger when watching the movies itselfe, It seems when he writes he forget about the movie and focus on the papers, Therefore many of his movies got a different ending when shooting as here on face to face.
The only problem about reading Bergman's scripts is that you can't Prevent yourself imaginning his heroines as he presents them in his movies, I can't read face to face and don't think about Confused sad Liv Ullmann.
The only problem about reading Bergman's scripts is that you can't Prevent yourself imaginning his heroines as he presents them in his movies, I can't read face to face and don't think about Confused sad Liv Ullmann.
May 2, 2023
Piękna, smutna i mądra historia. Bardzo nieoczywista, jak przystało na Bergmana i z mądrym posłowiem, które słusznie odwołuje się do Karen Horney.
July 30, 2021
مترجم چرندیاتی را در آغاز کتاب آورده، مانند اینکه برخلاف هیچکاک، برگمان فقط خودش میتواند فیلمنامههایش را کارگردانی کند (که به تمام دانستهها و علاقه و وابستگیام به هنر سینما برخورد) یا اینکه در بیوگرافی آمده که برگمان متولد سال ۱۹۸۱ است، نشاندهندهی سربههوایی مترجم، یا ترجمهی هردمبیلی آن است. فیلمنامه نیز برگمانی بود. بازی با مرگ و عشق و زندگی. اتفاقا بهنظرم فیلمنامهی خواندنی و جالبی آمد (گرچه قبلا نیز گفتهام که فیلمنامه برای من، همانند نمایشنامه، در ادبیات جایی ندارد، اما تا به اینجای کار، این استثنا بود).
June 29, 2025
Face to Face, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Face to Face is hard to watch but still rewarding.
It is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list:
- http://www.listchallenges.com/new-yor...
Ingmar Bergman is the director and often writer of a long list of masterpieces, not just very good movies:
- The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Virgin Spring, Persona, Fanny and Alexander, Scenes From a Marriage and more
The Norwegian Actress Liv Ullman has the leading role in Face to Face and nine other Ingmar Bergman films:
- Cries and Whispers, the Passion of Anna, Shame- with Max von Sydow, Scenes From a Marriage…
This film was nominated for two Academy Awards, in the year when a film that I personally reject won Best Picture, Director and more- Rocky.
The Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role was won by Faye Dunaway, for her very good performance in Network.
But Liv Ullman was just as good in her portrayal of Dr. Jenny Isaksson.
The film is thought provoking.
But it is painful to watch.
At least for long periods.
Jenny Isaksson is a psychiatrist.
One of her most important cases is Maria.
But the doctor herself has a breakdown.
She is attacked, abused and raped by two men.
After this, the horrible act haunts the woman.
The abuse and the death of relatives make her mad.
If not totally crazy, the doctor has trouble coping.
It is a case of PTSD and not PTG.
In most cases, after a trauma, what victims experience is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it is very frequent.
There is however an alternative called Post Traumatic Growth that can take place after an adverse event.
Jenny Isaksson though is in terrible pain.
It is hard to watch her intense torment.
From the bad smell of old people to unfortunate experiences in childhood, she remembers or just imagines terrible things.
Dr. Tomas Jacobi, portrayed by another magnificent actor that is very present in the Bergman masterpieces, tries to help.
There even seems to be a possibility of an affair.
Then suddenly the heroine tries to commit suicide.
It is Tomas Jakobi that saves her.
- “Dr. Jenny Isaksson: Do you think I'm emotionally crippled for life? Do you think we're a million army of emotionally crippled people, wretches who wander around shouting to each other with words we don’t understand and that make us even more scared?
…
- Dr. Jenny Isaksson: You become grateful for the horrors you're familiar with. The unknown horrors are worse.”
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Face to Face is hard to watch but still rewarding.
It is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list:
- http://www.listchallenges.com/new-yor...
Ingmar Bergman is the director and often writer of a long list of masterpieces, not just very good movies:
- The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Virgin Spring, Persona, Fanny and Alexander, Scenes From a Marriage and more
The Norwegian Actress Liv Ullman has the leading role in Face to Face and nine other Ingmar Bergman films:
- Cries and Whispers, the Passion of Anna, Shame- with Max von Sydow, Scenes From a Marriage…
This film was nominated for two Academy Awards, in the year when a film that I personally reject won Best Picture, Director and more- Rocky.
The Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role was won by Faye Dunaway, for her very good performance in Network.
But Liv Ullman was just as good in her portrayal of Dr. Jenny Isaksson.
The film is thought provoking.
But it is painful to watch.
At least for long periods.
Jenny Isaksson is a psychiatrist.
One of her most important cases is Maria.
But the doctor herself has a breakdown.
She is attacked, abused and raped by two men.
After this, the horrible act haunts the woman.
The abuse and the death of relatives make her mad.
If not totally crazy, the doctor has trouble coping.
It is a case of PTSD and not PTG.
In most cases, after a trauma, what victims experience is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it is very frequent.
There is however an alternative called Post Traumatic Growth that can take place after an adverse event.
Jenny Isaksson though is in terrible pain.
It is hard to watch her intense torment.
From the bad smell of old people to unfortunate experiences in childhood, she remembers or just imagines terrible things.
Dr. Tomas Jacobi, portrayed by another magnificent actor that is very present in the Bergman masterpieces, tries to help.
There even seems to be a possibility of an affair.
Then suddenly the heroine tries to commit suicide.
It is Tomas Jakobi that saves her.
- “Dr. Jenny Isaksson: Do you think I'm emotionally crippled for life? Do you think we're a million army of emotionally crippled people, wretches who wander around shouting to each other with words we don’t understand and that make us even more scared?
…
- Dr. Jenny Isaksson: You become grateful for the horrors you're familiar with. The unknown horrors are worse.”
May 26, 2022
maybe—or, actually, should I say, most definetly—Liv Ullmann's voracious performance elevated the work as a whole. the absolute terror in her sometimes trembling and almost whispered voice pale in comparison to her screaming impersonation of her merciless grandmother, and yet we fully buy it. this is a rare case where the screenplay isn't the most special aspect of a Bergman film, and it took me reading it alone to realize. even when pairing God tier actors on their top-notch game with the never short from great cinematography from Sven Nykvist—like the case of, arguably, Ingmar Bergman's finest movie Autumn Sonata—his writing seems so effortless and limpid and yet so cunning you can feel it as if it were all so real. in Face to Face, the feeling remains, but it mostly relies on Ullmann's tremendous talent to
hold up and sell an unbelievable descent into madness; and by God she does. the writing is amazing, going deep into themes of love, death, love in death and death in love. in the preface, the author credits (and thanks) Jenny for absorbing an anguish he had no reason feeling. I do find curious, however, how he himself did not spiral down after putting this feeling into words and realizing this was what was inside of him. did he feel violated? was there a dark impulse he was forced to give into while actually wanting to? did he really feel happiness fading before his eyes, courtesy of past traumas he refused to or couldn't let go? did he feel such a disconnection between his body and his soul (his "I" and his "me", as some authors should put) that he would just rather end one of them? Face to Face carries a dark story, but while Jenny is forced to confront herself and what's inside her, I imagine Ingmar doing a self examination in the same way, except those were somehow real feelings he felt. it is very complex, and I don't really fully understand the usual Bergman imagery here, but it is definitely a story that will stay with me for years to come.
hold up and sell an unbelievable descent into madness; and by God she does. the writing is amazing, going deep into themes of love, death, love in death and death in love. in the preface, the author credits (and thanks) Jenny for absorbing an anguish he had no reason feeling. I do find curious, however, how he himself did not spiral down after putting this feeling into words and realizing this was what was inside of him. did he feel violated? was there a dark impulse he was forced to give into while actually wanting to? did he really feel happiness fading before his eyes, courtesy of past traumas he refused to or couldn't let go? did he feel such a disconnection between his body and his soul (his "I" and his "me", as some authors should put) that he would just rather end one of them? Face to Face carries a dark story, but while Jenny is forced to confront herself and what's inside her, I imagine Ingmar doing a self examination in the same way, except those were somehow real feelings he felt. it is very complex, and I don't really fully understand the usual Bergman imagery here, but it is definitely a story that will stay with me for years to come.
May 5, 2024
Jeg elsker Bergman, og det var utrolig interessant å lese et av manuskriptene hans før jeg har sett filmen. Han har evnen til å skrive fantastiske historier med gode og komplekse karakterer, og han skriver blant annet sceneanvisninger på en utrolig kul og spennende måte. Jeg følte jeg fikk et unikt innblikk i den kreative prosessen som ligger bak filmene hans, og litt hvordan han visualiserer det vi senere får se på lerretet, som bringes til live av blant annet Sven Nykvist og Liv Ullmann. Jeg tror mye av grunnen til at det føles så unikt er at Bergman både skrev og regisserte sine egne filmer, i tillegg til at han hadde et nært forhold til de fleste av skuespillerene, spesielt sent i karrieren, på 70-tallet, var de fleste av skuespillerne gjengangere (spesielt Ullmann og Björnstrand), så mye her føles som det er skrevet spesifikt for disse skuespillerne med deres uttrykk i tankene, og sceneanvisningene føles også til tider som personlige notater og veiledninger til både seg selv og kollegene, med veldig klare visjoner. Det er selvfølgelig bedre å se filmene, for dette er bare en del av det store bildet, og den hadde kanskje ikke funka så bra for meg som bok om det ikke var for at jeg er veldig stor Bergman-fan. I tillegg så kjøpte jeg boka fordi den ene monologen fra filmen/serien var en av monologene man kunne velge på en opptaksprøve jeg var på, jeg likte den veldig godt, og ville også se om det var noen flere bra monologer der; noe det var. 8/10!
«Kjærligheten er en tilstand av nåde. De som befinner seg i den, vet vanligvis ikke selv at de hører til blant de utvalgte. Kjærligheten virker gjennom deres handlinger med samme selvfølgelighet som rosen gjennom sin duft eller nattergalen gjennom sin sang.» -San Francesco d’Assisi (allegedly)
«Kjærligheten er en tilstand av nåde. De som befinner seg i den, vet vanligvis ikke selv at de hører til blant de utvalgte. Kjærligheten virker gjennom deres handlinger med samme selvfølgelighet som rosen gjennom sin duft eller nattergalen gjennom sin sang.» -San Francesco d’Assisi (allegedly)
August 23, 2022
No cóż! Trzeba przebrnąć przez pewne godziny życia
August 22, 2023
Dużo wyciągnęłam z tej książki duży plus za posłowie które wyjaśnia dokładnie o co chodziło i rozwija problem. Nieoczywista i mocna historia
May 14, 2024
Van aangezicht tot aangezicht. Vertaling van Rita Törnqvist- Verschuur. Utrecht/ Antwerpen: A.W. Bruna & Zoon, 1976.
June 18, 2024
Oh the beauty of it.
Read
January 22, 2020Dont say you love the film if you hvnt read the script lmfao
July 16, 2025
Mia cara Jenny, una volta uno psichiatra ciarlatano e un po' pazzo scrisse che il flagello più grave della terra sono le malattie mentali e che subito dopo viene la cura di queste malattie. Propendo a dargli ragione.
December 10, 2009
Actually it deals with Life, Love, and Death. Because nothing in fact is more important. To occupy oneself with. To think of. To worry over. To be happy about. And so on. v, Prologue
We're thankful for the horrors we're used to. The unknown ones are worse. 71
I do see that life has its moments of splendor. With a certain objectivity I admit that it is even extraordinarily beautiful. And generous. Intellectually I can grasp that it offers all sorts of things. I'm only sorry that I personally think it's a pile of shit. 95
February 19, 2011
For the next few weeks, months, the plan is to read only scripts. Nothing new. Just a trip through great screenwriters of the past. So glad I started here. Bergman's writing is as shattering as his movies. I've never seen this movie, but based on the script, it's similar to Fanny and Alexander in that it's a horror movie that dispenses with monsters and demons and masked killers and goes straight into the thoughts and ideas that most of us are too afraid to face. If you find this book, like I did, lying forgotten on a shelf at some used book store, snatch it up.
June 2, 2024
ingmar bergman, the only man.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews