LIV ULLMANN: THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: Giving a Star Her Due

Liv Ullmann received an honorary Oscar in 2022. This in itself seems like a worthwhile pretense to take a more robust look at her blessed life courtesy of director Dheeraj Akolkar.

It occurred to me that we could have just as easily had a documentary of her done in her native tongue, and yet this project feels specifically oriented toward an international, English-speaking audience. If I’m a barometer for the rest of my peers, then it’s certainly a worthy endeavor because I only had a myopic sense of her stellar career.

One of the project’s first orders of business is to get her out from under the shadow of famed Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman. It’s true their body of work together is staggering including cinematic gems such as Persona, Scenes From a Marriage, Cries and Whispers, and Autumn Sonata among others.

Still, in singing her praises, John Lithgow opines, “For those who say she would have never been one of our greatest actors without Bergman, he would have never been one of our greatest filmmakers without Liv Ullmann.”

The 3-part series takes this sentiment to its obvious conclusion by highlighting her own ambitious directorial career which saw her adapt two screenplays by Ingmar Bergman and work with the likes of Cate Blanchett and Jessica Chastain on stage and screen. 

Ullmann proves herself to be a stunning subject from the outset because not only is she forthcoming, she’s so genuine and authentic in spirit and a kindred one at that. I failed to realize that unlike many of her compatriots in the Bergman stock company, including Bergman himself, she is Norwegian (like some of my ancestors), and not Swedish. Coincidentally she was also born in Japan like some of my other ancestors albeit to Scandinavian parents because her father was working as an engineer at the time.

In one sequence Liv exhibits the precious treasure of a scrapbook that her mother put together in celebration of her confirmation. It is full of the childhood drawings and mementos many of us have — both cute and mundane — although these tokens just happen to belong to one of the most incomparable actresses of all time.

Jessica Chastain, who has taken on the mantle of such Ullmann roles as Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House and Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage, pinpoints one of Liv’s great strengths. She celebrates brokenness. Because when something breaks and is eventually healed, it’s far more beautiful. What’s more, Liv reflects our humanity back at us. 

Something that runs in tangent to this is Liv‘s own admission that she absolutely adores the close-up. She says, “The closer the camera comes the more eager I am to show a completely naked face. Show what is behind the skin, show the thoughts that are forming.”

For others, this would be such a terrifying ordeal to allow the facade to be stripped away, and yet she readily welcomes it both in her film performances and for the documentary camera.

A Hollywood Star

After her rash of successes in the ’60s, Liv became the new Nordic star in demand within the Hollywood community and these new opportunities put her in contact with some of the industry’s finest stars.

She has a great sense of humor for her work during this period and an appreciation of being in the middle of such a cultural moment with movies like A Bridge too Far, casting her alongside remarkable performers such as Laurence Olivier. She also speaks fondly of Rock Hudson, someone who was watching out for her in an environment where her bright-eyed naivete might easily be taken advantage of.

Greta Garbo is introduced early on as a paradigm of the great Scandinavian star, and in many ways, the American media portrayed Liv Ullmann as her second coming. She played Annie Christie on Broadway and even once crossed paths with the reclusive actress in New York City.

It was at one time both the actualization of a great fantasy of hers playing out, but it also highlighted how different they really were. Garbo seemed to have no inclination of who Liv was, perceiving her to be yet another autograph seeker causing Garbo to seek refuge in Central Park.

Liv says, unlike Garbo, she probably won’t be a legend, but she has togetherness. We can all dispute the first part, but it’s easy enough to appreciate what she means thanks to maintaining close relationships with family and friends in her homeland.

However, by the same token, I’m reminded of the verse mentioning how “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” Liv talks about how she has been celebrated the world over for being among a new generation of women making a name for themselves amid the growing rise of feminism in the 1970s.

At the same time, Norwegian society was beholden to this idea of “Janteloven,” essentially that you are not to think you’re anything special or that you are better than anyone else. Humility is one thing, but one could see how this could easily be used to dismiss someone else’s accomplishments. Liv spends a moment explaining how she was parodied and treated quite differently in the Scandinavian media.

Regardless, she is the first to acknowledge she lived a charmed life with a swimming pool and a nice house in Hollywood only to go back to Sweden to shoot Scenes of a Marriage at 4 o’clock in the morning with outdoor toilets and very humble means. Her ability to live in this duality was part of her timeless resonance. In surveying everything, she notes how God was very good to her.

Liv Ullmann: Conclusion

As we get close to Liv and her aura, it becomes apparent there are no airs about her – not a fake bone in her body. She wells up with so much candor — so much exuberance and zest for life — you just want to listen to her for hours on end.

Her life and international stardom put her in contact with so many intriguing figures beyond Hollywood. She even met Brezhnev during the height of Détente. However, one of her most unlikely acquaintances and friends is Henry Kissinger! Of course, Kissinger is still around and as opinionated as ever.

He considers Liv to be completely naive and yet respects and appreciates what he can learn from her perceptiveness about humanity. He openly points out that she has a “range of human sensitivities” that elude him very often. It’s obvious that they share a mutual respect and affection.

Another important aspect of Liv‘s life is her yeoman’s work with UNICEF. She preceded one of my other favorite actresses in Audrey Hepburn in being a world ambassador for the organization. Both of them have such an enveloping warmth and compassionate bearing to them, and their visible platforms helped push for change and a call for greater human dignity.

One exceptional example involves John Lahai. At first, we aren’t sure why he was introduced. He grew up in an orphanage in Sierra Leone with very few prospects and only visions of a brighter, distant hope. He says, “I am an orphan. I have no one. But I had a dream of going to college in the U.K.” 

Then, an angel came into his life. Of course, it was Liv Ullmann. She made a connection, heard his story, and found herself answering the call. She made his dream possible and now years later he’s a scholar with a wife and children. Liv is still a very important presence in his life perfectly epitomized by his daughter being named in her honor.

There are interludes where Ullmann sits in front of a microphone reading her writings aloud. They are the only moments that feel truly canned and manufactured. Still, one passage, in particular, summarizes the prevailing vision in her extraordinary, wide-ranging life.

“I do not want to arrive at the end of life and then be asked what I made of it and have to answer: ‘I acted.’ I want to be able to say: ‘I loved and I was mystified. It was a joy sometimes, and I knew grief. And I would like to do it all again.”

There’s something grandiose about her ambitions — she still wells up with so much fervor and passion — and taking stock of her life even for a few short minutes, it seems like she’s lived an enchanted existence. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to get to know her better, and I hope she might garner all the appreciation she deserves. Not simply as an actor or a director but as a gracious human being too.

Liv Ullmann: A Road Less Travelled was released in the U.S. on June 22. 

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