Liv & Ingmar

This documentary covers the intimate relationship between two members of one of the greatest movie collaborations in film history: Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann and Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Their connection lasted forty-two years until Bergman's death in 2007. They had also been romantically involved for six of those years. The film is a co-production of Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Much of the film is narrated (in English) by Ullmann who was in her early seventies at the time. The references to the relationship is interjected with some of the Bergman/Ullmann films (in Swedish) in which it is apparent that the male actors were playing as a stand-in for Bergman.

Together, these two great artists made twelve movies together most of which were made during that magnificent period that began in the mid-1960s and continued through the 1970s. Their best works included "Cries and Whispers", "Scenes from a Marriage", "Face to Face", and "Persona". Calling these movies "art films" is definitely a compliment rather than an insult (as it is for many other cases).

Director Dheeraj Akolkar blends everything in this documentary beautifully: the old film clips, the use of music, using beautiful scenery of locations that reflect the past relationship, and mostly that of Ullmann herself as narrator and subject.

It's very challenging for one speaker to hold an audience's attention for so long. But Ullmann's soulfulness shows as much as a narrator and interviewee as it did during her great acting career. Her honest reflections on the various stages of a volatile relationship are riveting.