”Guden tiger och människorna pratar” - en studie av gudsbilden i Ingmar Bergmans filmer

Abstract

The study is aimed at investigating the images of God, or how God is percepted, that is being presented in the artistic work of Ingmar Bergman, and how they differ from each other. The films that are being analysed in this study is The seventh seal (1957), The Magician (1958), Through a glass darkly (1961), Winter light (1963), The Silence (1963), Persona (1965) and Cries and whispers (1973). To examine the images of God that are being presented throughout the scope of the study I am mainly using common cinematic theories that are presented in James Monacos How to read a film (2000) and Louis Giannettis Understanding film(1993) which basically are structuralist approaches to discussing film as a language and interpretation. I am studying each movie as it is presented to us, the viewers, and only speaking of the film. I am also looking into Ingmar Bergmans personal life, not to examine if he was a Christian believer, but for clues to interpret themes, characters and the event taking place in each of the films. The study is investigating the series of films as a connected unity, a connected unity that explores the relationship of God and mankind as it is presented in the films. The result of the study is that the image of God presented in the films of Ingmar Bergman is a God that moves from the transcendent sphere to the immanent sphere, a God, or “the Holy” that over the years transforms into something materialistic. This new God, or holiness, is something that exists in the interpersonal relations of mankind in the latter work of Ingmar Bergman.