Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

An Interview with Liv Ullmann

1980; University of Texas Press; Volume: 20; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1224972

1527-2087

Virginia Wright Wexman, Liv Ullmann,

Kierkegaardian Philosophy and Influence

Liv Ullmann was born on December 16, 1939, in Tokyo, Japan, where her father, Viggo, a Norwegian aircraft engineer, was employed at the time. Though her family soon returned to their homeland, they left again for Canada after the Second World War began. There, in 1943, Viggo Ullmann met with a fatal accident and, after a brief stay in New York, his widow took their two daughters back to Norway. During her adolescence, which she remembers as lonely and painful, Ullmann discovered that by giving recitations she could gain social approval. She decided to become an actress, originally imagining herself as specializing in comedy roles. Twice rejected as a student by Sweden's National Theater School, she spent eight months studying dramatics in London, then joined a repertory company in Norway. After three years, during which her performances were repeatedly acclaimed, she returned to Sweden as a member of the Swedish National Theater and of the Norwegian Theater in Oslo. In 1964 she met Ingmar Bergman, introduced on the street in Stockholm by Bibi Andersson, a mutual friend. As a result of this meeting he created Persona for the two actresses, and Ulimann became the first non-Swedish star to appear in one of Bergman's films. During filming she also began an affair with the director, which led her to divorce her husband of five years, Dr. Jappe Stang, a psychiatrist. She lived with Bergman five years, during which time she gave birth to a daughter, Linn, and starred in Hour of the Wolf (1968), Shame (1968), and The Passion of Anna (1969). After her breakup with the director, she continued to work with him on film projects such as Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes From a Marriage (1972/74), and Face to Face (1976). In comparison with her work for Bergman, the films she has starred in for other directors have been relatively undistinguished, with the exceptions of Jan Troell's The Emigrants (1972), The New Land (1973), and Zandy's Bride (1974). Her American roles, in films like The Devil's Imposter (1972), Lost Horizon (1973), and The Abdication (1974), have been particularly disappointing. Nonetheless, she has been honored by many American awards for her performances, in-