1982: Love (co-director with Zetterling, Cohen, and Dowd). 1992: Sofie (Sophie) (+ co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1995: Kristin Lavransdatter (Kransen; Kristin Lavransdotter) (+ scenarist/scriptwriter); Lumi?re et compagnie (Lumi?re and Company) (co, one of 40 directors). 1996: Enskilda samtal (Private Confessions) (for TV). 2000: Trol?sa.
Film as Actress: 1957: Fjols til Fjells (Fools in the Mountains) (Carlmar). 1959: Ung flukt (Young Escape) (Carlmar). 1962: Kort ?r sommaren (Short Is the Summer) (B. Henning-Jensen) (as Eva). 1965: De kalte ham Skarven (They Call Him Skarven) (Gustavson) (as Ragna). 1966: Persona (I. Bergman) (as Elisabeth Vogler). 1968: Vargtimmen (Hour of the Wolf) (I. Bergman) (as Alma); An-Magritt (Skouen) (title role); Skammen (Shame) (I. Bergman) (as Eva Rosenberg). 1969: En Passion (A Passion; The Passion of Anna) (I. Bergman) (as Anna Fromm). 1971: The Night Visitor (Benedek) (as Esther Jenks). 1972: Pope Joan (The Devil?s Imposter) (M. Anderson) (title role); Viskningar och rop (Cries and Whispers) (I. Bergman) (as a sister);Utvandrarna (The Emigrants) (Troell) (as Kristina). 1973: Nybyggarna (The New Land) (Troell) (as Kristina); Lost Horizon (Jarrott) (as Catherine); 40 Carats (Katselar) (as Ann Stanley); Scener ur ett ?ktenskap (Scenes from a Marriage) (I. Bergman?for TV) (as Marianne). 1974: Zandy?s Bride (Troell) (as Hannah Land); The Abdication (Harvey) (as Queen Christina); L?uomo dalle due ombre (De la part designer copains; Cold Sweat) (T. Young) (as Fabienne); L?onor (Juan Bu?uel) (title role). 1976: Ansikte mot ansikte (Face to Face) (I. Bergman?for TV) (as Jenny). 1977: A Bridge Too Far (Attenborough) (as Kate ter Horst); The Serpent?s Egg (Das Schlangenei; ?rmens ?gg) (I. Bergman) (as Manuela Rosenberg). 1978: Herbstsonate (Autumn Sonata) (I. Bergman) (as Eva); Couleur chair (Wyergans). 1980: The Gates of the Forest. 1981: Richard?s Things (Harvey) (as Kate). 1983: Children in the Holocaust (Eisner?documentary) (as narrator); Jacobo Timerman: Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number (Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number) (Yellen?for TV). 1984: Jenny (Bronken?for TV); The Wild Duck (Safran) (as Gina); La Diagonale du fou (Dangerous Moves) (Dembo) (as Marina Fromm). 1985: The Bay Boy (Petrie) (as Jennie Campbell); Ingrid (Annakin, Crabtree, and French). 1986: Speriamo che sia femmina (Let?s Hope It?s a Girl) (Monicelli) (as Elena). 1987: Gaby: A True Story (Mandoki) (as Sari Brimmer); Mosca Addio (Moscow Goodbye) (Bolognini) (as Ida Nudel). 1988: La Amiga (Meerapfel) (as Maria). 1989: The Rose Garden (Rademakers) (as Gabriele Schlueter-Freund). 1991: Mindwalk (B. Capra) (as Sonia Hoffman); The Ox (Nykvist) (as Maria). 1992: The Long Shadow (Zsigmond) (as Katherine). 1994: Dr?tnspel (Dreamplay) (Straume) (as ticket seller); Zorn (G. Hallstr?m) (as Emma Zorn).
1957?film debut; 1960?acted with
Swedish Gold Bug for Best Actress, for Skammen, 1968; Best Actress, New York Film Critics, for Cries and Whispers and The Emigrants, 1972; Best Actress, Golden Globe, for The Emigrants, 1972; Best Actress, New York Film Critics, for Scenes from a Marriage, 1973; Best Actress, New York Film Critics, for Face to Face, 1976; Seattle International Film Festival, New Directors Showcase, First Prize, for Sofie,
In Tokyo, 16 December 1939.
Studied acting in London; continued apprenticeship in repertory theater.
Married 1) Gappe Stang, 1960 (divorced 1965); five-year relationship with the director Ingmar Bergman, one child, Linne Ullmann; 2) Donald Saunders, 1985.
Liv Ullmann created a place for herself in cinema history with her performances in films such as Persona, Cries and Whispers, Scenes from a Marriage, and Autumn Sonata. As an actress, Ullmann?s singular beauty and ability to convey meaning through subtle but expressive gesture brought grace and emotional resonance to the work of Ingmar Bergman, and, for three decades, to scores of film and theatre productions in Europe and America. In 1992 Ullmann began her own directorial career. Because her films have been thoughtful character studies that draw on the creative resources of cast and crew members considered part of a company established by Ingmar Bergman, Ullmann?s films are often compared to Bergman?s?or perhaps more accurately, to critics? memories of films directed by Bergman. Close study of Ullmann?s films reveals, however, that while her work explores relationships, settings, and philosophical
Born in the opening months of World War II, Ullmann lived in Toronto with her family during the war in a community known as Little Norway. When the war ended, Ullmann returned to Norway with her widowed mother and older sister. As a young girl, Ullmann, an avid reader and prolific writer of condensed classics, formed a drama club for which she presented her first stage performances. Out of school, her first success as an actress was as the lead in a local repertory production of The Diary of Anne Frank. In 1972 she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in The Emigrants, and in 1976 another nomination for her work in Face to Face. During this period Ullmann returned to her interest in writing, and published the first of two autobiographical works. While continuing to work as an actress, Ullmann began broadening her range in another direction?in the seventies and eighties she became actively involved in humanitarian projects.
In the 1990s Ullmann?s growth as an artist has allowed her to bring together a range of experience. Sofie represents not only Ullmann?s debut as a director, but as a screenwriter as well. The script, co-written by Ullmann and Peter Poulsen, is an adaptation of the 1932 novel, Mendel Philipsen og soen, by Danish author Henri Nathansen. Set in Denmark at the turn of the century, the film?s thoughtful account of a woman?s passage from daughter to wife to mother, and its detailed depiction of the rituals that create a sense of order for a small Jewish community living at a distance from Danish life, combine to offer us a deft portrayal of the way in which contentment?in Sofie?s case, the contentment of her parents?can, as Hal Hinson aptly puts it, ?destroy a life as profoundly as misery can.? Yet the film is not only a clear-eyed look into the complexities of even nurturing domestic life. It also stands as a compelling alternative to commercial cinema. In much the same way orthodox tradition provides the characters with a sense of meaning not found in modern, secular Denmark, on a formal level, the film?s muted colors, long-take aesthetic, and casting of actors with ?imperfect? features give audiences the opportunity to enter a richly detailed world of lifelike characters not found in productions driven by special-effects and star personas.
While Sofie has received the most critical attention and widest distribution of the films directed by Liv Ullmann, work following her directorial debut is also noteworthy. For her next project, an adaptation of the 1920s novel, Kristin Lavransdatter, by Nobel Laureate Sigrid Undset, Ullmann not only directed the film, but wrote the screenplay as well. While Ullmann?s second film is set in the Christian world of medieval Norway, the narrative recalls dilemmas presented to Sofie?s central character, for again the direction of the woman?s life is defined by the opposing demands of filial duty and passion. Here, however, the narrative explores the consequences of rejecting social convention.
Kristin Lavransdatter not only reveals thematic connections with Ullmann?s earlier work?because the film?s meaning is colored by the cinematography of Sven Nykvist?it also suggests a formal bridge to Ullmann?s next piece, her contribution to the compilation film, Lumi?re et compagnie, for which Ullmann designed a self-reflective sequence in which Nykvist is seen filming the camera that films him. Produced in 1995 and shown at a collection of film festivals around the world, Lumi?re et compagnie celebrates the first 100 years of cinema with vignettes created by 40 filmmakers who produced work just as August and Louis Lumi?re had in 1895?using refurbished Lumi?re cameras, shooting films no longer than 52 seconds, and creating films using only natural light and nonsynchronous sound. Ullmann?s contribution to the
Ullmann?s most recent project is a film/television miniseries, Enskilda samtal (Private Confessions). The film, based on a largely autobiographical screenplay by Ingmar Bergman, examines the domestic life of its central character, Anna. The project brings together several members of ?Bergman?s company,? for Nykvist is the film?s cinematographer and the cast includes Max von Sydow and Pernilla August. First shown in Sweden and Norway, the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 to accompany the awarding of the Palm of Palms to Bergman.
Ullmann acknowledges that, like Bergman, she is interested in filmmaking that explores the geography of the human face. She points out, however, that she is concerned as well with figures in settings, and with what bodies as a whole can suggest about the inner lives of characters. Looking at Liv Ullmann?s films as work that exists in its own right, what is perhaps most striking is that her aesthetic choices ask us to reckon with despair?and beyond that, they invite us to see the wonder and expressiveness of simple human gestures.?