Strindberg’s Mark on Ingmar Bergman

Abstract

From an early age Bergman began reading Strindberg voraciously and showed his veneration for him by directing many of his plays, always returning to him, revising his productions or creating new ones, such as in the case of Fröken Julie and Ett drömspel, which he mentions at the end of Fanny och Alexander and is a gravitational force in Efter repetitionen, where Enland Josephson plays the role of a theatre director who is one of Bergman’s alter egos. However, along with returning to him in theatre and explicitly referring to him in some of his films, Bergman drew on Strindberg to build his film dramas as an exploration of human pain, the unrest of love and sexual relations, the dead turned into ghosts that pursue the living, and the uncertain boundaries between reality and dreams, among other issues. This is how Strindberg’s mark on Bergman’s film production will be explored, with the idea that he not only created under the playwright’s influence but that, to some extent, he continued his work.