Ingmar Bergman Out of Focus: Film Cultures and International Reception

Director Ingmar Bergman occupies a central place in the history of modern cinema. Credited with igniting a cinematic revolution, his ability to produce work which resonated with audiences globally has brought scholarly attention to the impact of Bergman’s Swedish background on his oeuvre. Ingmar Bergman Out of Focus revises this question of Bergman’s “familiarity” to produce a more expansive understanding of Bergman’s cultural heritage. Considering the impact of Bergman’s films on film festival organizers, critics, academics, and audiences all over the world, this volume illuminates how Bergman’s film aesthetics simultaneously shaped modern culture and were themselves reshaped by the debates and concerns that preoccupied his viewers.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables Acknowledgments Foreword Jan Holmberg (CEO of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation) Introduction Fernando Ramos Arenas, Jono Van Belle, and María Paz Peirano Chapter 1. Off the Beaten Track: Birgitta Steene’s Pioneering Reception Research on Ingmar Bergman Jono van Belle Chapter. Reception of Ingmar Bergman and the Concept of ‘Art Cinema’ in Chile and Argentina (1950s–1960s) Alejandro Kelly-Hopfenblatt & María Paz Peirano Chapter 3. Did Uruguay Discover Bergman? The Early reception of Swedish Cinema and the Trails of a Shared Modern Feeling Mariana Amieva Chapter 4. The Making and Unmaking of Ingmar Bergman, Religious Filmmaker. Arthouse and Catholicism in Spain (1960–63) Fernando Ramos Arenas Chapter 5. The Castaway of the Post-Thaw Tide: The 1959/1960 ‘Bergman Season’ in the People’s Republic of Poland Konrad Klejsa Chapter 6. Discussed, Demonised, Disputed: The Film Critic as Gatekeeper on the Path towards Bergman’s Canonisation in Italy Giulio Tosi Chapter 7. We Live in the Same World: Fan Mail to Ingmar Bergman Eirik Frisvold Hanssen Chapter 8. Accessing Ingmar Bergman in Twenty-First Century India: Film Festivals, Societies and Filmmakers as Reception Pathways Ashvin Immanuel Devasundaram Conclusion Fernando Ramos Arenas, Jono Van Belle, and María Paz Peirano List of Film Titles Index

About the Author :
Jono Van Belle is an Assistant Professor in Media and Communications Studies at Örebro University in Sweden. She gained her doctorate in Communication and Cinema Studies jointly at Ghent University and Stockholm University in 2019. Focusing especially on Ingmar Bergman, cinema memory, audience reception, gender studies, and media policy, she has worked on the reception of Ingmar Bergman in Sweden and Belgium and, together with Åsa Jernudd, on cinemagoing in Sweden during the 1950s and 1960s.

Review :
“This is a timely, original, and rich piece of work, adding to the vast Bergman studies a novel approach that has to a large extent been missing – the reception of his work outside of the Euro-centric focus.” • Louise Wallenberg, Stockholm University “This volume is a welcome and vital contribution to the fields of Bergman Studies and Cinema Reception Studies. It challenges the long-standing misconception that Ingmar Bergman’s films have occupied a narrow cultural space dominated by white, urban, middle-brow audiences in the United States and Western Europe. Moreover, this anthology is essential reading for those intrigued by overlooked histories of transnationality, or who delight in the discovery of new dimensions in well-trodden topics. The essays are not only of a consistently high scholarly caliber but are also compellingly engaging, making the collection indispensable.” • Daniel Humphrey, Author of Queer Bergman: Sexuality, Gender, and the European Art Cinema.