Affective Approach to Selected Ingmar Bergman Films

Authors: Grzegorz Zinkiewicz

Abstract:

The paper explores affective potential implicit in Bergman’s movies. This is done by the use of affect theory and the concept of affect in terms of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, from both diachronic and synchronic perspective. Since its inception in the early 2000s, affect theory has been applied to a number of academic fields. In Film Studies, it offers new avenues for discovering deeper, hidden layers of a given film. The aim is to show that the form and content of the films by Ingmar Bergman are determined by their inner affects that function independently of the viewer and, to an extent, are autonomous entities that can be analysed in separation from the auteur and actual characters. The paper discovers layers in Ingmar Bergman films and focuses on aspects that are often marginalised or studied from other viewpoints such as the connection between the content and visual side. As a result, a revaluation of Bergman films is possible that is more consistent with his original interpretations and comments included in his lectures, interviews and autobiography.

Keywords: Affect theory, experimental cinema, Ingmar Bergman, film as autonomous entity.

References:

[1] A Conversation with Ingmar Bergman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85NzBOjVe6c. Acc. 10 June, 2020.
[2] Ingmar Bergman, Persona (A movie script), https://www.scripts.com/script/persona. Acc. 12 June, 2020.
[3] M. Gregg, G. Seigworth, The Affect Theory Reader, North Carolina, Duke University Press, 2010.
[4] G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, What is Philosophy, Trans. H. Tomlinson and G. Burchell. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, pp. 163-201.
[5] Ch. Metz, “What is film phenomenology”, in Studia Phaenomenologica, Vol. 16, 2016, p. 2.
[6] I. Bergman, The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007, pp. 1-6.
[7] Bergman on demons (in Swedish), https://youtu.be/GNt15SOooqQ. Acc. 8 June, 2020.
[8] S. Brackhage, Metaphors on Vision, New York: Anthology Film Archives, 2017, p. 29.
[9] M. Merleau-Ponty, “Eye and Mind”, Trans. M. Smith, in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader, 1993, pp. 121-149.