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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The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.
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I want to sound like an instrument. I want my voice and my words to marry the beat. I go with the rhythm of it and the words start to come to my mind and those words could be based on things that's been on my mind for the past year, the past month, the past week, whatever; I write it.
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When it is working, you completely go into another place, you're tapping into things that are totally universal, completely beyond your ego and your own self. That's what it's all about.
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How are we going to make painters by lecturing to them? We are going to make questioners, doubters, and talkers. We are going to make painters by painting ourselves, and by showing the paintings of others. By working frankly from our convictions, we are going to make them work frankly from theirs.
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