All language subtitles for Liv Ullmann - A Road Less Travelled - 1x02

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