Harriet Andersson | |
---|---|
Born | Stockholm, Sweden | 14 February 1932
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1949–2007 |
Spouses | Bertil Wejfeldt (m. 1959–1964)Bobo Håkansson (m. 1980–1982) |
Partner(s) | Per Oscarsson (1951–1953) Ingmar Bergman (1953–1955) Gunnar Hellström (1956–1958) Jörn Donner (1960s) Börje Åberg (1970s) Ulf Törnberg (1970s) |
Children | 1 |
Harriet Andersson (born 14 February 1932) is a Swedish actress, best known outside Sweden for being part of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company. She often plays impulsive, working class characters.
Harriet Andersson began her acting career as a 15-year-old student at Calle Flygare stage school. She joined director Ingmar Bergman for several stage productions at Malmö stadsteater between 1953 and 1956. [1] [2]
In a 2008 interview with Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle , Andersson debunked a rumor that she was discovered by Bergman while working as an elevator operator: "In an elevator! Ha, that's a new one for me. No. I did operate an elevator, but that was when I was 14½! Ingmar did not discover me. I was discovered in 1949 in theater school. Before Monika, I had many small parts. Most of them were a little like Monika. I looked that way. I looked like a bad girl. But I wasn't a bad girl, really. I was a very nice little girl, until I found out what life was." [3]
Bergman wrote the title role in Summer with Monika (1953), specifically for Andersson. Filmed in Sweden, the motion picture shows the romantic history of two disaffected youths from first meeting to a summer idyll followed by their hasty marriage and subsequent divorce.
Although the romantic relationship with Bergman was brief, they continued to work together. Andersson appeared in several of his best-known films, including Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Cries and Whispers (1972), and Fanny and Alexander (1982).
In Through A Glass Darkly, in which Andersson appeared with Max von Sydow and Gunnar Björnstrand, she portrays a latent schizophrenic. The film title is taken from a verse in First Corinthians (13:12) where Paul of Tarsus says, "For now we see through a glass darkly: But then face to face; Now I know in part; But then I shall know even as I am also known". The plot deals with the actions of four persons during a twenty-four-hour period in an old house a far distance out on the Swedish Archipelago. Some audiences were shocked by Andersson's vivid portrayal of the presence of God as represented in the dark world of a schizophrenic.
Like several other Bergman associates, she has also had a career in English-language films including performances in Sidney Lumet's The Deadly Affair (1966) and later in Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003).
Her autobiography, a set of interviews with Jan Lumholdt, was published in 2006. [4]
Andersson has won several acting awards, including the Swedish Guldbagge Award, [5] the Norwegian Amanda and best actress awards on the Venice Film Festival (1964) and the 9th Moscow International Film Festival (1975). [6] In 1968, Andersson received the Bodil Award for Best Actress for her role in the Henning Carlsen Danish comedy People Meet and Sweet Music Fills the Heart . Recently, Andersson won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Stockholm International Film Festival 2010.
Harriet Andersson was married to childhood friend Bertil Wejfeldt 1959–1963/4. She has a daughter, Petra Wejfeldt (b. 1960), whom Andersson named after her character in Smiles of a Summer Night. She lived with the Finnish director Jörn Donner for some years in the 1960s, and she appeared in Donner's films, A Sunday in September (1963), To Love (1964), Adventure Starts Here (1965) and Anna (1970). [7]
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoundly personal meditations into the myriad struggles facing the psyche and the soul". Some of his most acclaimed works include The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), Persona (1966) and Fanny and Alexander (1982), which were included in the 2012 edition of Sight & Sound's Greatest Films of All Time. He was also ranked No. 8 on the magazine's 2002 "Greatest Directors of All Time" list.
Ingrid Lilian Thulin was a Swedish actress and director who collaborated with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She was often cast as harrowing and desperate characters, and earned acclaim from both Swedish and international critics. She won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in Brink of Life (1958) and the inaugural Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Silence (1963), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for Cries and Whispers (1972).
Persona is a 1966 Swedish avant-garde psychological drama film written, directed, and produced by Ingmar Bergman and starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann. The story revolves around a young nurse named Alma (Andersson) and her patient, well-known stage actress Elisabet Vogler (Ullmann), who has suddenly stopped speaking. They move to a cottage, where Alma cares for Elisabet, confides in her, and begins having trouble distinguishing herself from her patient.
Smiles of a Summer Night is a 1955 Swedish comedy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was shown at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. In 2005, Time magazine ranked it as one of the 100 greatest films since 1923.
Through a Glass Darkly is a 1961 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow and Lars Passgård. The film tells the story of a schizophrenic young woman (Andersson) vacationing on a remote island with her husband, novelist father (Björnstrand), and frustrated younger brother (Passgård).
Berit Elisabet Andersson, known professionally as Bibi Andersson, was a Swedish actress who was best known for her frequent collaborations with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.
Knut Gunnar Johanson was a Swedish actor known for his frequent work with writer and director Ingmar Bergman.
Summer with Monika is a 1953 Swedish romance film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Harriet Andersson and Lars Ekborg. It is based on Per Anders Fogelström's 1951 novel of the same title. It was controversial abroad at the time of its first release for its frank depiction of nudity and, along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it helped to create the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated country.
Per Anders Fogelström was a Swedish writer, and one of the leading figures in modern Swedish literature. He spent his whole life in Stockholm, and the most famous of the more than 40 books he wrote in total is a series of five novels set in the Swedish capital that he dearly loved, describing the lives of successive generations of Stockholmers between 1860 and 1968:
Margit Carlqvist is a Swedish actress. In Sweden she starred in many movies during the 1950s. Internationally, she may be best known for her role in Ingmar Bergman's film, Smiles of a Summer Night.
Eva Elisabet Dahlbeck was a Swedish stage, film, and television actress. She received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film Brink of Life (1958). Dahlbeck retired from acting in 1970 and became an author.
Gunn Wållgren (born Gunnel Margaret Haraldsdotter Wållgren; ; was a Swedish stage and film actress. She is best remembered for her role in Ingmar Bergman's film Fanny and Alexander.
Anita Björk was a Swedish actress.
Naemi Briese was a Swedish film actress.
Naima Wifstrand was a Swedish film actress, operetta singer, troubadour, director and composer. In her later years, she was cast in several supporting roles in Ingmar Bergman films.
Gustav Edvin Adolphson was a Swedish film actor and director who appeared in over 500 roles. He made his debut in 1912. He appeared with Ingrid Bergman in Only One Night (1939), and is noted for his roles in the film Änglar, finns dom? (1961), the television version of August Strindberg's Hemsöborna (1966), and as Markurell in Markurells i Wadköping (1968). He also directed the first Swedish sound film, Säg det i toner in 1929.
Gunnar Fischer was a Swedish cinematographer who worked with director Ingmar Bergman on several of the director's best-known films, including Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) and The Seventh Seal (1957). In addition to his career as cinematographer, Gunnar Fischer directed short films, wrote screenplays (1933–41) and published books for children.
Herman "Erik" Nordgren was a Swedish composer, arranger and bandleader.
Bibi Lindström was a Swedish art director. She designed the sets for more than a hundred film productions.
Per Axel Lundgren, credited as P.A. Lundgren, (1911–2002) was a Swedish art director active in Swedish cinema from the 1940s to 1980s. He is known in particular for his collaborations with the film director Ingmar Bergman.