Original subtitles

Liv Ullmann, a goddess of acting and directing.

There's such a wild, generous openness

to the possibility of being alive in Liv that is unboxable.

That flame cannot be put out.

As a person, and then by extension as a director,

that's the way she communicates with people.

She instills, almost by osmosis this feeling of being alive,

and the complexity of being alive.

She goes straight to the soul, she speaks soul to soul.

Silence everyone.

Thank you. Liv, shall we go?

-Yes. -Yes?

After the success with the Oscar nominations,

you thought of writing your first book.

What prompted you to write a book and tell your story?

I wrote a lot in newspapers,

because I had this life in the United States

and publishers saw it and said: "Oh, you have to write a book."

I wanted to show that life is so full of changes,

and I'm part of the changes, and it's my choices

that are making the changes. And be warily,

be aware of what kind of choices you make.

If a man had done my career, it would have been fantastic

even if he had a child at home.

But me doing it, people say: "She leaves her child.

It's not good for the child that the mum is working so much."

We can never do everything, we can never be perfect mistresses,

mothers, women, human being, we can never be that perfect.

I sit in a basement hammering on my typewriter

until my bad conscience drives me up to the kitchen.

I read to Linn, and I'm polite on the telephone

and I talk to the nanny

and tell her she should be free tomorrow because she needs rest.

As if I had all the time in the world to have rest.

The whole time I'm seething with anger.

I doodle on a piece of paper,

and my conscience bothers me because I'm a bad mother.

Because I'm inadequate, don't answer letters,

don't mend the faucets,

but allow them to go on dripping for months on end.

I have coffee with the neighbor

and make excuses for everything I'm doing,

because I know that she will never understand

why this is important for me.

This terrible female guilt.

And suddenly, all over the world,

25-26 countries printed it.

And I sat in every bookstore in the United States,

and the lines were enormous.

I'd never even thought about it, never, never.

I became a famous writer.

The only place where they didn't come like that

was in Trondheim in Norway, where I am from.

They put me in the window of the bookstore,

so I sat in the window and people passing in the street

would see me sitting there to sign books,

but nobody came with any books.

I was sitting in the window and heard from the desk in the bookstore

that a lady did buy my book, and the bookstore owner said:

"She's sitting there in the window, you get her signature."

"No, I don't want her signature."

At that time of course I got sad,

but a month after this is a wonderful story.

I always had Norway.

I always had Norway. They said:

"You made the list of the worst dressed women of the year."

Or you know I sit in a car and there's a parody on the radio.

She was always crying and going on in films,

and I knew it was me.

In Hollywood there's a...

I had such incredible success outside of Norway,

but sometimes in Norway it's difficult

because we have something called Janteloven.

"You must never believe that you are anyone,

and don't think you are anyone.

Don't believe you're wiser than us." I don't want to read it all.

It's ten negative things to think about yourself.

That's never helped me.

The last one is: "You may think I don't know something bad about you."

This is known by everyone in Norway,

so be a little careful with your success.

SIRENE MAGAZINE FOR WOMEN AND MEN

They came with a big magazine in Norway for women liberation.

For once I made the front page in Norway.

But it was this unliberated Liv Ullmann.

They printed the article

because I had also done an ad for Lux soap.

Doing ads doesn't liberate or unliberate you.

Sometimes if you don't have that much money you do ads as well,

and I thought it was an honor to do something about this soap.

But that was enough to call me "the unliberated Liv Ullmann".

In the United States I was accepted as this liberated woman,

I did interviews and I played Nora in "The Doll's House".

I was part of that group. I knew that group.

Another extraordinary thing about Liv is that

she had such a an enormous international cultural impact

in a time where women where just muses,

or their careers where confined.

She's kept moving, changing and evolving

as an artist and a human being.

To be separated from you Nora, I can't conceive of it.

The more reason for it to happen.

"I know a woman who walked out a door, Ibsen's door.

I know what happened to one Nora after she left.

She walked out and continued to let others make her choices.

In search of my lost innocence, I walked out a door.

At the time I believed I was looking for a purpose,

but I found instead

the meaning of choice."

Ingmar wrote "Fanny and Alexander",

the big masterpiece, for me.

When I got it, I said:

"You said it would be a comedy and this isn't a comedy,

and by the way I'm going to do a Norwegian film."

For the only time in our lives we weren't friends.

He wrote to me and called me Miss Ullmann

and said: "You've given up your first-born rights."

Sounds very dramatic, but he did write that.

And for almost a year that happened.

When Ingmar had one of his first private showings

of "Fanny and Alexander" I sat at his side and cried

during the whole thing.

It was a masterpiece and I would have loved to be part of it,

but it was also important for me to...

I can make my own choices.

I was asked to do a script in Denmark

based on a well-known novel

by Nathansen.

And I wrote the script,

and it wasn't so much only about that book,

it was all these thoughts I'd had,

a love story about why we're here on earth? And what is love?

I went to Denmark and gave them the script and said:

"This is the script. There's a lot of me in it too.

but it is Nathansen."

And then they phoned and said:

"Thank you, would you like to direct this movie?"

So, it came to me. I didn't even know, and they didn't know either,

but suddenly they thought I should direct it.

And I called Ingmar, and said:

"Ingmar, I wrote this script and they're asking me to direct it.

It's a big movie.

Ingmar, do you think I can direct?"

And Ingmar said: "Yes, Liv, you can direct."

It came to me, and I was so happy.

but then, you see, I have problems,

sometimes I feel I'm a nobody.

So the first day of shooting,

I went to the cinematographer and said:

"I'm going to get some coffee, can I get you some as well?"

I looked at the script...

"You have a lot to do reading the script,

can I go and get you some cake?"

And then my wonderful colleague, Erland Josephson,

I have done so many movies with him and he's an actor,

he said: "Stop it.

You're a grown-up woman, direct.

Know what your place is. Direct!"

So I tried to direct.

I do remember her telling me: "It's wonderful John,

do not wait, it is an entirely new source of joy and creativity."

And I can absolutely imagine that to be true.

She must be wonderful to work with because she loves actors

and she loves acting and understands the process so much.

And the current again closes around their corpses.

The main actress was in a big close up with the camera,

and I'm sitting there waiting.

And suddenly, she did everything that I had never thought about.

That is the moment when I really knew I could be a director.

I never really had respect for an actor

because you know, I go in and feel and it turns out well.

But now I see an actress, I see her being creative.

If that's what it's like to be a director,

I would like to work with such a person.

From then on, I wanted to be a director.

I wanted to be a director. I hoped people would ask me.

You've been away a long time.

I've been writing and directing a movie.

Did it go well?

It was a really fantastic experience professionally.

Because it's getting close to people

and listening to people and bringing out of them the very best.

-Relationships. -Relationships...

That's where I have my ideas for you after this.

"At the time, my conscience no longer bothered me

because of all that I did not do and did not know.

I found pleasure in my newfound ability to make my own decisions,

even if they were bad.

Took delight in my work, in being angry,

in weeping, in laughing, in living. Joy.

In allowing myself to be me, positive or negative."

How did Kristin Lavransdatter start?

Somebody else was going to direct, but something happened,

and he couldn't do it.

And then, not from Norway then, but from the Swedish producer,

they said: "Liv Ullmann should do it."

LIV ULLMANN TO DIRECT "KRISTIN"

I wrote the script and was very happy doing so.

I loved the story that Sigrid Undset had written.

I had Sven Nykvist as the cinematographer

and I had all the actors that I wanted,

and they were all magnificent and wonderful.

I was very happy

doing the movie, especially when we were up in the mountains.

Not so much in the studio, because...

I didn't have a place to really be.

I didn't have my own office, can you imagine that?

I'm doing this multinational movie,

and it's my second film, and I didn't have an office.

But Sven was fantastic, and because we are so good friends

our language was fantastic.

Everybody was nice

but I was treated as a woman.

So you feel that there are always power games going on in that sphere?

Yes, very often. And I think I lend myself a little to it,

but I hear very often in all my years,

if you are for example, as an actress, the main actor,

people who want other things will often go without your knowledge

and say: "Liv said this is what she wants",

or "Liv would like this."

And it wasn't me,

but that way they can get something

that they find important and good for the movie,

I'm always very suspicious. Why was this decision taken, I ask.

"Isn't this something you wanted?" No, I didn't want this.

I had lined up for a shot,

and suddenly I see the camera is somewhere else

and doing something else.

"We'll do that later" or something.

that really happened, I had a wonderful idea.

It was never part of the movie and Sven didn't know either,

he thought we were doing that shot, but they just...

...moved the whole thing.

I even experienced it once with "Miss Julie",

so late.

I came one day, and they had started the scene.+

I came with the script, and I got out of the car,

and they said: "The light was so good,

we started without you."

That's stayed with me.

But just talking about it I go right back to that stupid Liv,

I don't want to be that woman anymore.

LAVRANSDATTER TOO LONG FOR THE USA

Liv Ullmann has capitulated.

She has agreed to shorten "Kristin Lavransdatter"

from 3 to 2 1/2 hours.

even though she has put a lot of feeling in every scene.

I've been against it the whole time.

I still don't understand what the rush is.

We got a new leader of Norsk Film.

He wanted me to edit it and cut it, and I didn't want to.

Every director who has to cut their movie,

they feel somehow they cut out

some of the bloodlines that are important.

When we talk about it now, we remember two different stories.

Today he's one of my best friends in the world.

That's Tom Remlov.

She's demanding. When I tell her that she is...

She'll say "No, not at all."

She doesn't feel that she's demanding, but she is and knows.

She is literally a primadonna,

in the actual sense of that word.

In other words the first among equals if you like,

the one who has the courage to insist

on her sense of quality, on her sense of what matters.

Working with that as a producer is a challenge,

because you have to believe that even that little small request,

which puts everybody

at the sharp end of a wedge, matters.

She does not negotiate when it comes to art,

and that's a beautiful strength she has.

I think often people who don't know her work as a director

or as a writer, or haven't meet Liv as a person,

can think about her as being Bergman's muse.

But she is she a force of nature on to herself.

KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER A FILM BY LIV ULLMANN

Maybe if I could do it once more, I'd know things

that I would have taken better care of, but I'm proud of the movie.

these experiences also teach you and then you become better

and do things differently.

I'm not a good pupil on those things, because if I'm humiliated,

I'm not a good pupil, unfortunately.

Because it continues to stay within me,

and it grows and I make it worse,

and it doesn't enrich me.

Do you get angry?

Yes, I have a lot of anger in me, a lot of anger.

And when it comes out it's big.

The last time we were together we were talking about this industry

and motherhood and being a woman.

I mean all of these incredible insights she has.

For example, we talked about "A Doll's House"

and I told her I was working on it

and I said something about how Nora famously at the end of the play

leaves Torvald and it's this door shutting

and how controversial it was and what a feminist

act of theatre it was at the time and all of these things.

And Liv's response was to me: "No, she doesn't leave."

I was like: "What do you mean?"

She leaves, it's written, it's a very famous thing,

Nora leaves Torvald and she leaves her children,

and she goes to find out who she is

separate from this life she's lived.

And then she looks at me and goes: "She comes back."

Even though this idea has been written about for a very long time

by great minds who call it the slam of the door

that was heard all around the world,

Liv offers up: "She comes back for her children."

I don't agree with this women liberation. She's strong and leaves

her children and goes out and becomes a free woman.

No, not this Nora.

I would have to leave the husband

or leave the whole appearance of who I am

and who I have been in this family.

But I will come back, and I will have my office

in this house.

That is true, you will have your office.

It will be a good one as well.

She was the first female director I ever worked with.

I think what surprised me most was that she was so easy going

and she was so easy to laugh.

it's always so good for an actor to feel confidence

and you feel there's room for the laugh.

FROM THE FILMING OF "PRIVATE CONFESSIONS"

She created a wonderful atmosphere during the set,

and that is so important.

Ingmar came while everybody else was eating,

it was an intermission. And Ingmar said:

"Do they know I'm here?"

No, that's going to be a surprise when they come here and find you.

"Don't say I'm here". There was a bed, and he crept into the bed

and put a blanket over him, like a child.

And then we could all see that this blanket went up and down.

He was laughing. And then they came in,

Pernilla and Max and everybody.

And then suddenly he gets out. "Hi, I'm here."

And he was so happy.

And that's what he really did in terms of the film,

until I had edited it. And then I went over to his island

and showed him the finished film,

and he liked it but had some suggestions.

He had written the script, so of course he had suggestions.

He wanted to change the ending, and I loved the ending,

and I wanted it to be like that.

He said: "This is not like it was in the script,

that she's walking down a street

thinking about the life that was,

and suddenly she's this young girl."

"But Ingmar, that's really how I want to have this ending."

He said: "I wrote it, and you have to listen to me."

And then I did what many women have done before, I started to cry.

And I cried, and he said okay,

and I got the ending that I wanted.

Ingmar, we have finished your film.

-Right. -15 minutes ago.

-I know. -We have a master actress here.

It's not my film, it's your film.

It is our film. But Pernilla.

I'd just made a movie about Tarkovskij

and we were talking, I said:

"you are a very strong woman."

And she said: "What, me strong?"

And she pretended not to be strong.

I said: "Ingmar has eight kids,

only one kid's name is Ullmann.

It's yours."

That is the moment that I remember,

it's vivid, it's present, always present.

No woman has ever directed an Ingmar Bergman-script,

and you have done two.

Yes.

Now it's serious. David is coming this afternoon.

He felt he had done one bad thing in his life, only one,

and that was he had not been faithful to women

long before Ingrid and me and Kabi and everybody.

I said: "Ingmar, this movie is about you."

"No, it's not at all."

"But you have called him Bergman."

"A lot of people are called Bergman."

It was Bergman.

Lena Endre was fantastic in this movie,

and she falls in love.

And she decides to leave the husband and live with this lover.

I had to talk to Isabella.

I chose a Sunday morning.

She has a little child that comes into her bed.

When Lena had done this scene, the whole floor applauded,

and I said to her: "You are incredible,

but I want you to know that when you're telling the story to people

there's one thing that will always be part of your memory,

and that's the sight of that thin, little girl,

jumping down from your bed and walking on the floor.

You never tell the story without that glimpse that we have seen

with your daughter." Then she did it again.

The small, straight, lean back at the door...

She doesn't turn around.

When you see that, and you don't tell them what to do,

how can you tell them what to do or what to feel?

You just give a suggestion

and they take it and make it real.

And I go home and think it's even better than being an actress,

because they can do sometimes what you can't do.

She's a very brilliant observer.

She's reading all these micro muscles

that is telling you what you feel,

so she's she's very observant about this.

She almost gets religious when she's talking about our profession.

She taught me a lot, like: "Be brave,

go your own way, don't think about the consequences

too much because otherwise you will stop yourself through life."

With Liv when you look at her, she's so carefree.

Despite everything she's been through

she's standing here with such love and happiness

and no problems...

What is she made of?

The worst part was that Marianne never defended herself.

She'd just look at me.

Relentlessly. She must hate me.

In the movie it's the old Ingmar Bergman,

played by Erland Josephson, and the young Bergman

looking back at the time when he was bad to this woman.

There's a long monologue

and he said it to a mirror in the script.

When I did the scene, he didn't say it to a mirror,

he goes into Ingmar's working room where the old Ingmar is,

and he tells the old Ingmar: "I did this.

And I feel so bad about this."

And then the old Ingmar stretches out his hand,

and he forgives himself.

And I loved it. And when he saw it, he said:

"It's going out."

"No, it's not going out, I'm the director."

And so, it stayed.

I was in Norway and heard he wasn't well.

For the first time in my life I took a private airplane from Oslo

and went to the island and went to his house.

There were two nurses there, and I went into the bedroom,

and he was lying there in the bed, already on his way.

And I just sat there, and he talked, I don't know what about.

And then I thought maybe he wonders why I'm here,

if he knows I'm here, and I said:

"Ingmar, I'm here because you called for me."

And he was still there and I left, and it was night

and he died that...

Late that night.

I feel people that have gone from this earth.

They're not there as people the way we know them,

but their energy, who they are,

I don't feel I'm unseen.

my father died when I was six years old

and then I said as a joke on stage:

"He's still sitting there in the gallery watching."

Now I can say that gallery is so full of people.

People don't leave us, they are not there in the same way anymore.

"I do not want to arrive at the end of life

and then to be asked what I made of it and answer:

'I acted.'

I want to say that I loved, and I was mystified,

it was a joy sometimes, and I knew grief,

and I would like to do it all again."

My husband and I had taken over the Sydney Theatre Company,

and we were talking about directors we'd love to work with.

I'd wanted to work with Liv for a long time,

but it's hard to approach someone you've admired for so long, saying:

"Would you work with me? Would you work with us?"

We were in London and we were talking about plays,

talking about Ibsen, who has a lot of weight and depth.

All of a sudden, me and my husband just had this inspiration,

and he was looking at Liv,

and he said: "You'd have made an extraordinary Blanche."

That was fantastic, that was "A Streetcar named Desire"

by Tennessee Williams, and with Cate Blanchett,

we got to work together.

She got this wonderful belief that you just need do it

and exist in that humiliating, embarrassing, often hilarious space

where you find your way together

cause she is interested in the connections between people.

From the first minute we were up on the floor it was important.

It was life and death, and we had to live.

Liv wanted us to live each moment.

That was a very profound memory for me,

and one of huge take away for me

about having the courage to just throw yourself against it.

And the courage to think you are enough.

My best friend was dying at the time,

and I went to the hospital every day, and one day I saw his wife,

who was sitting in the corridor, and she said:

"I don't understand it, but now he's put a sheet over him,

he sits in there and he won't take it off."

And I go into my friend, and he talks like usual,

but under the sheet.

I don't know what he was hiding,

I don't know if he was on his way and didn't want me to see,

I do not know.

I just told that story for some reason to Cate.

And the next day, she's sitting there on the bed waiting for me,

and she has a sheet over her face.

Suddenly, the sheet came off,

but it was still there over her,

hiding who she was now and why she was.

We never really talked about it, it just happened.

I love Cate Blanchett so much

for what she did.

We never really analyzed it or anything.

Not even afterwards.

-That's so amazing. -Yes, we did it together.

And my friend David who died, he would have liked it too,

that he inspired it with the sheet over his head.

She invited us into a space

that was somehow between heaven and earth.

The whole room started breathing in Liv's rhythm.

From that moment on she said every moment is precious,

because you can't move to the next moment

till we've found the truth of this one.

We did it in Sydney, and then we went to New York,

the place of Tennessee Williams, and it was sold out,

you couldn't get a ticket, people talked about it,

and the tickets would sell for thousands of dollars.

It was incredible.

Amazingly well done, really moving.

-The whole cast is so perfect. -I loved it, loved it.

Nothing will ever be like working with you.

You gave me this opportunity, and I wouldn't have got it

if you didn't want to work with me. I'm so happy.

Isn't it amazing in your life, you go through life

and suddenly you have Liv Ullmann saying that to you.

People say beware of working with your heroes

because what if you fall out or have an argument

or you're disappointed?

Nothing about Liv ever disappoints,

but I feel like the creative conversation is not over.

It's not over Liv!

I felt quite intimidated,

I tried to pretend I wasn't.

To be with in the rehearsal room with Liv and Collin and Samantha

was a very exciting experience.

That was probably my favorite part.

I remember doing something I just I kept thinking

that Liv Ullmann was right there watching me.

I said to her:

"I'm getting distracted that you're there."

She was so sweet, she goes:

"I want to be with you. I want you to feel my energy."

-Thank you. -End board.

Lovely.

It just really felt like two creators meeting,

and it was a welcome experience for me

because it made me feel valued in a way

that in the beginning of my career I wasn't used to.

For a long time Miss Julie had been played in a way

that she was observed by this masculine culture

rather than being inside of the character.

And I think Liv has done that in her storytelling

and the parts she's chosen to play and the way she plays them.

And also in the things that she's directed.

She celebrates brokenness in a way,

because when something breaks

and it's healed, it's far more beautiful.

Did you ever feel like giving up or like this is enough?

No, but that is probably because I'm a woman

and I'm not used to getting it my way.

In work or anywhere.

Life for me has always been to create something.

And until I don't know what I'm doing anymore,

which happens sooner or later if I live that long...

There will be something.

I will never leave this wonderful...

...opportunity to create and to be a storyteller.

"I want to express something about humanity in my work,

something with which one can identify

and which conveys the message that people can belong.

That it is possible to long for that, to belong.

So that those on the outside can understand

that we experience it together."

Subtitles: Jakob Jensen plint.com