Learning About Bergman from His Film Editor
While I never had the pleasure of meeting Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film director who died today, I did have the opportunity to learn from someone who worked very closely with him on some of his greatest films.
In the mid-1980s, I was chosen to learn about screenwriting as part of a Canadian film program called DramaLab. The person who was supposed to teach us dropped out at the last second, and Ulla Ryghe stepped in. I had no idea who she was. But one of the DramaLab organizers told us that she had edited some of Bergman's films: Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence, Persona, Hour of the Wolf, to name a few.
Some of my fellow screenwriters grumbled because screenwriting wasn't her specialty. But no way was I going to waste a chance to learn from a person who had worked with one of the world's greatest directors. Ryghe saw I was interested and, as a result, made me work pretty hard. But I learned a lot about making movies.
Occasionally she would talk about working with Bergman, how hard he pushed her, how creative he was, how intimidating he could be at times. I knew a lot of what she was teaching me was what she had learned from him, combined with her own deep knowledge about film.
In particular, the things she taught me about how to observe the world -- to pay attention to the obvious things we miss every day -- serve me very well in my current job.
9:18 AM ET | 07-30-2007 | permalink
