INGMAR Bergman’s obsession with death isn’t confined to his pessimistic, angst-filled movies and plays.
In a rare interview, the internationally acclaimed director said yesterday that he would kill himself rather than “become a vegetable and a burden on other people.”
“A soul slowly dying out, trapped in a body in which the insides gradually sabotage me, that I think would be terrifying,” Bergman, 81, said in a conversation on Swedish TV with his old friend Erland Josephson, who has often appeared in Bergman films.
“But there are possibilities. You can actually decide for yourself whether you want to go on living, and I hope I have enough presence of mind to make that decision.”
“To take your own life?” asked an interviewer who was participating in the show.
“Certainly, and that’s not idle talk on my part,” Bergman replied. “For me that would be a completely natural end. I hope I will have enough sense left to have the capacity and opportunity to plan and organize it.”
Bergman said he has not cared about his own life since his wife, Ingrid (no relation to actress Ingrid Bergman), died in 1985.
“It was the grimmest thing that happened in my life, and it has made an invalid of me,” Bergman confessed.
“I think just living is a burden. That I will never meet Ingrid again feels devasting. It’s a horrible thought.”
Bergman has not directed a film since “Fanny and Alexander” in 1983, but he remains active with stage work.
Last May, the Bergman-directed play “The Image Makers” was performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, although Bergman did not accompany the troupe to New York.
His films often deal with death.
In “The Seventh Seal” (1957), which made Bergman an international star, a knight returning from the Crusades engages Death in a game of chess. At stake is the knight’s life.
“Cries and Whispers” (1972) chronicles a woman who is slowly and painfully dying of cancer, while “Wild Strawberries” (1957) watches as a sad old man relives his life in a stream of reveries.