TIFF 2021: BERGMAN ISLAND

Mia Hansen-Løve‘s films have always been personal — some of them even semi-autobiographical. In Goodbye, First Love, she loosely drew inspiration from her first experience with heartbreak. In her best film to date L’Avenir (Things to Come), parts of the story were influenced by her mother’s life, who just like Isabelle Huppert‘s character, was a philosophy professor. Though her seventh and latest feature Bergman Island seems like a work of pure fiction at first glance, hints of the director’s personal life are palpable throughout.

Chris and Tony

Breezy, lyrical, and often sensual, Bergman Island, at its core, is a rumination of the trials and tribulations of the female creative process and how sometimes creative impulses can shape our relationships and the way we view life and art. When the film begins, we’re introduced to a couple of filmmakers, Tony (Tim Roth in his best performances in years) and Chris (Vicky Krieps, elegant and subtle), as they’re on their way to Fårö to spend the summer writing the next screenplays for their upcoming films. The Baltic Sea island is located just north of the island of Gotland, Sweden where legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman shot some of his films and eventually lived until he died in 2007.

Between the two, Tony is the more famous filmmaker. To him, writing is not that difficult. Chris, on the other hand, finds writing very agonizing. That they’re staying at the house where Bergman shot Scenes from a Marriage — a movie which “caused millions of people divorced,” as the housekeeper put it — makes Chris even more insecure with herself and her art. When Chris tries to open up about her struggle to Tony, hoping he will help and perhaps encourage her to keep writing, he instead does the complete opposite. The two might seem like a couple who respects each other so much at first, but the more we get to know them, the more we realize that there’s tension bubbling underneath them.

For the most part of the film’s first half, Chris and Tony’s relationship — or at least what’s left of it — is under the spotlight. But Hansen-Løve isn’t just interested in the inner dynamic of this couple or how the volatility between them will eventually come to the surface and break the two apart. Instead, what the director largely focuses on is exploring Chris’ worldview — how she sees herself both as a filmmaker and a woman under the shadow of a man who is so big and influential it makes her always feel so small and like a loser all the time.

During a meeting one evening with some local historians, it’s revealed that not only was Bergman unpleasant and cruel to people, he also never fulfilled his duty as a father even though he had nine children — a revelation that makes Chris upset, especially because to her being a successful filmmaker shouldn’t give one the right to abandon their family and act like a complete asshole. But Chris’ concern isn’t something that Tony feels the same about. If anything, he, and apparently a lot of people on the island, agrees with the way Bergman lives his life. Some of them even think that if Bergman had chosen to “change diapers” he would never be a great filmmaker.

Hansen-Løve, however, isn’t particularly bashing the Swedish director. What she offers here is just a reality of how the world is when it comes to women, particularly in this case, female filmmakers who also happen to be mothers. Where their male counterparts, especially the great ones like Bergman, are never judged for whatever the choices they make or if they’re not a great dad, female filmmakers, especially ones with family, will always get a side-eye if they don’t seem to put their family first or sacrifice them just so they can try to make great arts. When it comes to men, the word sacrifice is simply not applied — that’s what Bergman Island tries to address.

Amy and Joseph

As the conversations around gender norms begin to cool down and as Chris has slowly started to accept the fact that she would always be judged no matter what her choice is, she tries to set herself free from all those expectations using her writing. She knows that even though she refuses to choose just one role, either just a mother or a filmmaker, it doesn’t always mean that making a great body of work is impossible. If anything, it’s by fulfilling both roles that she can make her arts be more personal, and in a way, resonant to people like her.

If Chris is a stand-in for Hansen-Løve, the protagonist in the movie that she writes, Amy (Mia Wasikowska) is Krieps‘ character’s stand-in. Like Chris, Amy is a filmmaker unafraid to be vulnerable, or at least to show her vulnerability in her art. She’s on a way to Fårö to attend a friend’s wedding the first time we meet her. But that’s not the only reason; she also wants to rekindle an old relationship with Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie), a man on whom Amy based her first film.

Amy now has a kid, and Joseph is trying to build a life with another woman. But when the two lock their eyes for the first time after a while, the spark is still there, waiting to explode at any moment. Part of this is because of the simmering chemistry between Wasikowska and Lie‘s, but mostly it’s because Hansen-Løve knows really well how to build a tender and sensual mood just by using small glances and intimate framing. Throughout this part of the film, the line between fiction and reality is blurred. And Hansen-Løve keeps things ambiguous especially toward the end of the film. But it’s this ambiguity that ultimately offers makes the movies all the more alluring.

The film about Amy and Joseph seems to not only be the answers to all the questions Chris is asking herself throughout the first half of Bergman Island, but to some extent, it also feels a lot like the continuation of Hansen-Løve‘s third feature Goodbye, First Love. More than anything, through Chris and Amy, the director has made us ponder about the reality in which a female artist has to live in, and how one’s personal life and creative impulse can affect one another. Just like the movie-within-a-movie style Hansen-Løve uses to tell the story,  her latest film is a layered, intelligent work full of reflection about art, life, and relationships.

What do you think of the meta storytelling in Bergman Island?

Bergman Island played at TIFF 2021, and will be released theatrically on October 15th. 

Watch Bergman Island