TV-host

10:00:01:14 – 10:00:10:01

(SWEDISH)

If this was a deserted island..which of your own films would you bring? Having to watch them constantly

Ingmar Bergman

10:00:11:18 – 10:00:13:20

(SWEDISH)

What a horrible thought!

Ingmar Bergman

10:00:15:18 – 10:00:19:12

(SWEDISH)

I would much rather watch films made by other directors.

VOICE OVER

10:00:19:21 – 10:00:31:14

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Ingmar Bergman had 1711 videotapes in the TV-room of his island home on Fårö. Everything. From highbrow to lowbrow. Arthouse to grindhouse.

Films on every topic imaginable.

Alexander Payne

10:00:31:14– 10:00:36:15

(ENGLISH)

I’d be terrified not to make a film with laughs in it, cause I just think how do you know if they liked the film?

VOICE OVER

10:00:36:18 – 10:00:45:00

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

This episode will discuss Comedy in the films that Bergman had.  

Guest is the internationally acclaimed Swedish director Tomas Alfredson.

Tomas Alfredson

10:00:45:03– 10:00:51:15

(SWEDISH)

I think it is good to joke about heroes. To make fun of people who have a lot of status.

VOICE OVER

10:01:48:10 – 10:02:14:22

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

This is the Swedish filmdirector Tomas Alfredson. Right now enjoying accolades from all over the world for his films Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and before that Let The Right One In. Twp quite serious films that only in a few rare scenes give away the fact that Alfredson began his career directing comedies. Alfredson is on his way to Ingmar Bergman’s house on Fårö.

Tomas Alfredson

10:02:34:00– 10:02:45:04

(SWEDISH)

It is strange to visit the home of someone who has died so recently. It’s kind of like visiting the un-amusement park.

VOICE OVER

10:02:46:22 – 10:02:50:00

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Alfredson is here to talk about humour in films.

FILMCLIP

10:02:51:10-10:03:07:17

(ENGLISH)

The parallel bars, my speciality. I am something of an athlete you know. Yes, yes. I was known as the Pavlova of the parallels. Yes, yes it is all coming back now.

VOICE OVER

10:03:17:10 – 10:03:30:04

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

No one falls down the stairs in the comedies of Ingmar Bergman: Bergman had a different approach to comedy. Resulting form the fact that he only made light and funny films when he was feeling incredibly depressed.

FILMCLIP

10:03:30:06-10:03:31:22

(SWEDISH)

I have suffered quite a bit!

VOICE OVER

10:03:33:00– 10:03:40:20

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Bergman wrote Smiles of a Summer Night because he was absolutely miserable. A love affair was over, a marriage too.

FILMCLIP

10:03:40:22-10:03:46:10

(SWEDISH)

It’s my turn to speak!

No, I’m talking!! And if I’m talking I will keep on talking even if I have nothing to talk about!

VOICE OVER

10:03:46:15– 10:03:51:15

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Bergman was broke and he had such stomack-pains that he was convinced it was cancer.

FILMCLIP

10:03:51:17-10:03:54:00

(SWEDISH)

What did you want to say?

Oh, I’ve forgotten now.

VOICE OVER

10:03:55:00– 10:04:00:15

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Bergman has said he was faced with two choices – either to kill himself, or to write a comedy.

FILMCLIP

10:04:08:15-10:04:10:00

(SWEDISH)

Want some sugar in that?

No, thank you.

VOICE OVER

10:04:11:00– 10:04:24:00

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

The funniest moments in Ingmar Bergman’s films are embedded in some very dark stories. The funniest films are – and this many film-makers agree on – often surrounded by a heavy black framework.

FILM CLIP

10:04:24:07 – 10:04:25:05

(SWEDISH)

Please excuse my thoughtlessness.

Tomas Alfredson

10:04:46:05 – 10:04:47:24

(SWEDISH)

Bergman’s German touch!

Tomas Alfredson

10:04:59:05 – 10:05:00:05

(SWEDISH)

Hello, my name is Tomas.

Tomas Alfredson

10:05:02:08 – 10:05:05:14

(SWEDISH)

Do you want me to take my shoes off?

Yes, those are the rules here.

Tomas Alfredson

10:05:15:05 – 10:05:28:12

(SWEDISH)

His enthusiasm for pine is completely out of control. Even the air-con is covered in the finest pine. I’ve never seen a bigger sauna.

Tomas Alfredson/ Interviewer

10:05:31:10 – 10:05:56:09

(SWEDISH)

What is the order in here, are the films divided into Swedish and foreign films?

No, mostly it is alphabetical.

Why would anyone want to keep so many films?

You know, it’s one thing to collect commandmends. That would be easy. There are ten of them and you can organize them a certain way. But this! Once you start with this, there is no end.

Tomas Alfredson

10:05:57:00 – 10:06:19:08

(SWEDISH)

Look he has “Emanuelle”! The old man… A very exciting picture.

About a woman who…  is without clothes I believe.

Tomas Alfredson

10:06:19:20– 10:06:22:15

(SWEDISH)

Look, here are two films made by my father. 

Tomas Alfredson

10:06:24:06– 10:06:34:16

(SWEDISH)

Look, “Bergman’s Voice”!  He looks like on of the Muppets. What’s his name..Ernie, Ernie in the Muppets.

Tomas Alfredson

10:06:34:25– 10:06:43:00

(SWEDISH)

This collection is a show of strength, of sheer willpower .

And that’s what it looked like..

Robert De Niro/ interviewer

10:07:02:15 – 10:07:06:08

(ENGLISH)

This is Charlotte.

Hi, nice to meet you. Please have a seat.

VOICE OVER

10:07:08:13 – 10:07:32:04

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

The actor who is most frequent in Ingmar Bergman’s videoroon is Robert De Niro. The films are mostly from early on in De Niro’s career. Pictures like the Godfather, the Deer hunter, the Mission and 1900. In recent years De Niro has made the move to comedy with films such as Analyze this where he plays a mobster with anxiety issues who decides to go into therapy.

FILMCLIP

10:07:34:10-10:08:18:07

(ENGLISH)

It may be all those things.

Any feelings of guilt?

About what? I didn’t kill him.

I know that, I’m just speculating.

Maybe, in some way, you may have wanted him to die.

Why would I want my father to die?

Well, you said that you were fighting. He slapped you around because you were rebelling against his authority. There might have been some unresolved Oidipedle conflict.

English, English.

Oidipus was a Greek king who killed his father and married his mother.

Fucking Greece.

It is an instinctual drive. The young boy wants to replace his father so that he can totally possess his mother.

What are you saying that I wanted to fuck my mother?

No, it’s a primal fantasy.

If you would see my mother..

Paul..

Are you out of your fucking mind!

It’s Freud!
Well, then Freud is a sick fuck and you are too for bringing it up!

Robert De Niro

10:08:22:00-10:09:13:08

(ENGLISH)

People had asked me to do stuff that was more typical comedy. Like Billy Crystal was involved with Analyze this..and he was responsible for – let’s try and get Bob to do this. And I said yeah, I read it and it’d be fun to do something like that.

In the movies that I’ve done, even in Taxi Driver there are ironic moments that are funny. It wasn’t necessarily fun, it was what it was and I was trying ot work this gun, this rig, and I’d practiced with it a bit to get it to work right. But that was part of the whole scene anyway. It didn’t matter if it came out differently, that was the whole idea of the scene, to try and get it to work.

FILMCLIP

10:09:13:15-10:09:24:15

(ENGLISH)

I’m standing here, you make a move.

You make a move..

It’s your move.

Don’t try it you fuck!

Robert De Niro

10:09:25:00-10:09:34:18

(ENGLISH)

I was just trying to stick to the task of getting it out. And trying to take myself very seriously because if I laughed then it’s another thing.

FILMCLIP

10:09:35:12-10:09:54:24

(ENGLISH)

You talking to me? You talking to me? Then who the hell are you talking to? Are you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here..

Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? Oh, yeah?

VOICE OVER

10:10:05:00-10:10:25:15

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

The role in Taxi Driver is not unlike De Niro’s role as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy. A film about a man who wants to be stand up comic at all costs and fanatically pursues his idol, played by Jerry Lewis until he gets his way.

De Niro and director Martin Scorsese researched the role together.

Robert De Niro

10:10:27:15-10:10:50:03

(ENGLISH)

I sais let’s pick the brains of these fans. The ones that are waiting for you outside a theatre, a premiere or something, with the autograph stuff and.. The real hardcore fans. I said let’s go and visit a few of them, so we did and I dragged Marty around with me

FILM CLIP

10:10:55:04-10:11:13:11

(ENGLISH)

Jerry, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to disturb you, I don’t mean to take up any of your time. I just want to talk to you for a minute. I just need..If we could just drive away..You can drop me off anywhere..

Drive away?

No, I have a very strict rule about people who get into my car.

I don’t mean to be rude but I put myself in the line for you..

Robert De Niro

10:11:13:24-10:11:49:07

(ENGLISH)

The outfit that he wore..We were driving down Broadway and next to the stage deli they had this classic Broadway Las Vegas type stores that sold a lot of classy kind of Broadway clothes. So we went in and saw this, on a mannequin. The whole mannequin was just like – Marty and I – let’s just take the whole thing. We took the whole thing and copied even the hairstyle and that was where we got that from.

Robert De Niro/ interviewer

10:11:50:19-10:12:25:00

(ENGLISH)

When did you realize, wow I’m good at this?

I don’t know if I ever realized that I’m good at it, I just do my best and you know sometimes I can look at a movie years later and say yeah that’s not bad and so on. I think a lot of people have this, actors get..they don’t want to see themselves and sometimes I’m the same,  I don’t want to see it, I don’t want to..I have too many critical things I’d say or..even vanity or whatever.

But if  you get some distance from it, years and years or a decade or two then you can kind of be a little more objective.

Robert De Niro/ interviewer

10:12:26:08-10:13:16:00

(ENGLISH)

You’ve worked with some of the greatest directors there are, do they have anything in common?

I think the most important thing for any director is that they give you a sense of not being able to do anything wrong, so that you can do stuff wrong, you can try stuff, but you’re not afraid to try stuff. You’re not afraid to be sat on, you’re not afraid you’re going to be sat on, It’s important to, not only the actors, but all the creative people on the set is able to feel comfortable so that they can do their best, but if something isn’t quite working, then you figure it out  and the director would be the first to say – look, I don’t know this either, but let’s figure this out.

VOICE OVER

10:13:26:05-10:13:26:13

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Bergman sometimes hired comedians to play his heavier roles.  

Behind all the smiles and laughter Bergman found that comedians often had a greater depth.

Robert De Niro

10:13:27:00-10:13:36:13

(ENGLISH)

I don’t disagree with that, I have many comedian friends                  

and I think they avoid some pain by being funny.

Robert De Niro/ interviewer

10:13:37:15-10:14:13:21

(ENGLISH)

If Bergman was alive and he called you up and said: I’m going to do this film about the existence of God and infidelity and you want to have the lead here?

I’d say well what do you intend to do? Can you show me the script or the outline, I’d probably say because it’s him and then I’d say you know – whatever your reasons are that’s great. I’ll figure out what I have to do and you have your reasons, I have mine and we’ll come together.

I mean with Marty Scorsese it’s the same, we do things. Marty will have certain things that he’s doing and I have that I do and we come together.

Robert De Niro/ interviewer

10:14:17:05-10:14:30:22

(ENGLISH)

Are you a shy person?

Sometimes.

When would that be?

I don’t know.

OK, thanks a lot.

VOICE OVER

10:15:00:23-10:15:18:23

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Ingmar Bergman passed away in the summer of 2007. Before that he and Tomas Alfredson were colleagues. Alfredson edited his hugely successful Swedish film “Four shades of brown” in the same corridor as Ingmar Bergman when he was editing his final film Saraband

Tomas Alfredson

10:15:20:15-10:15:24:10

(SWEDISH)

Bergman wasn’t the kind fo guy you’d have a chat with at the coffee machine.

VOICE OVER

10:15:25:23-10:15:40:03

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Ingmar Bergman wrote the screenplay for actress and former lover Liv Ullman’s film Faithless from 2000. Alfredson was hugely touched by the film, so much that he wrote to Bergman and asked if he could do a remake of it.

Tomas Alfredson

10:15:42:00-10:17:38:04

(SWEDISH)

About half a year passed before he got back in touch with me.

He called me on my cell phone and excused himself: I think it’s so uncomfortable to talk on these mobile phones, you can get some kind of radio interference in your head..

So I said: But I’m the one with the cell phone, you’re on a landline, aren’t you?

Yes, but I’m very uncomfortable with this phone thing..

So. That was a very strange excuse.

But he heard me out and in the end he liked the idea of a remake.

He said it was important that I did the film I wanted to do it.

That was very encouraging and fun. But then he started calling more often. And, completely contrary to what he had promised, he started involving himself in how I should make the film. He called and asked who I was giving the lead to. He wanted to know which actresses turned me on. He asked me who made my crotch “jump”. The question completely stressed me out, I’m not used to talking about things like that. At least not on the phone, so he scared me a little.

Anyway the whole thing was very funny. We has some really great conversations, his mind was so fast. It was very difficult to keep up with him.

But the film didn’t happen, I ended up doing something else.

VOICE OVER

10:18:02:14 -10:18:21:08

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Another film in Bergman’s video-room is About Schmidt. In it Jack Nicholson plays an insurance salesman who, upon retiring, embarks on a journey. Ingredients such as old age, memory and solitude are themes that the director Alexander Payne, largely borrowed from Ingmar Bergman.

Alexander Payne

10:18:30:24 -10:19:03:22

(ENGLISH)

It was originally called The Coward and it was the first feature I wrote when I got out of filmschool, I had envisioned it being my first feature, but it didn’t work out that way, and  with respect to Mr Bergman you may see traces of Wild Strawberries in it or suspect that and that is true. I mean certainly in Wild Strawberries, he has the occasion of the travel to receive his award, an enciting incident, an event which starts all these feelings. And the reflections that he goes through is extraordinary beautiful cinema,

VOICE OVER

10:19:15:00 -10:19:24:00

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Alexander Payne has a special gift when it comes to mixing drama and comedy, traces of his slightly twisted humor are evident in all his films. From Citizen Ruth to The Descendants. There is a zealous accuracy in all he does, from putting together his mood-board to eventually making his film.

Alexander Payne

10:19:24:20 -10:20:40:16

(ENGLISH)

Location-scouting is fantastic, it’s fun to start to put together in your brain and at that point while you’re location-scouting you know mostly who the actors are going to be and now you’re seeing where you are going to put them. Later the adrenalin-rush and the unity of focus, of purpose, of directing is a wonderful contrast to the chaos of ordinary life. And I’d say that we who work in film live for that. The director is the only person on the movie-set who is sitting in the movie-theatre watching the movie. Everyone else is working and I’m sitting there watching the movie in my brain, and saying: no, it should be a little bit darker, no it could be a little bit funnier, no it could be a little bit slower.

Then, my favorite part technically of film-making is editing and montage is a very, very beautiful process. And you sit a top the hideousness of writing, the ignominy of seeking funding, the physical exhaustion of directing..you sit a top all of that and just put a film together and it’s quite beautiful.

VOICE OVER

10:20:56:23 -10:21:09:15

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Alexander Payne most famous and acclaimed film is Sideways from 2004. In it two old friends go to California’s wine-district and wrestle with their very different forms of midlife-crisis.

FILMCLIP

10:21:10:00 -10:21:36:05

(ENGLISH)

Hello?

Victoria..

Miles?

Victoria!! How the hell are you?

What..what’s on your mind?

Oh, nothing, just heard that you got remarried? Congratulations! Boy, I didn’t think you had the stomack for another go around..

Oh Miles, you’re drunk..

No, just a little local Pinot..

Alexander Payne

10:21:36:10 -10:22:12:02

(ENGLISH)

I do try to find comedy in life as I see it. Meaningfulness, meaninglessness, all those things that we feel at different times. It is nice to try and put all that stuff into a film. I get a lot of questions like yours about: how do I mix tragedy or pathos with comedy? And, the question surprises me because isn’t that what we experience in life? Don’t we want the texture of films to be somewhat like the texture of our lives?

Alexander Payne

10:22:16:24 -10:22:28:20

(ENGLISH)

I’d be terrified not to make a film with laughs in it, cause I just think: how do you know if they liked the film? And if you are doing a straight drama I guess the only way you know they like the film is if they don’t walk out.

Wes Anderson/ interviewer

10:22:46:18 -10:22:59:17

(ENGLISH)

That’s a strange place to have a toilet..

I know..

I would like to know if it is possible to shoot you on the balcony so that we have something to edit with?

Sure.

Looking out at Paris.

Yeah.

Wes Anderson

10:23:12:20 -10:23:39:08

(ENGLISH)

Comedy is not the word you think of with Bergman. But there are funny things in those movies. He is one of those directors who can do a movie where there is not a single joke in the whole movie, and the movie does not suffer for it. And there aren’t that movie, there aren’t that man movies where you can say – there was nothing funny.

VOICE OVER

10:23:41:00 -10:24:14:00

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

American film-director Wes Anderson is by all standards very unusual, major studios give him huge budgets and a great deal of freedom when directing his, often sad but also very funny, modern fairy tales about family and love. Films such as The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom. Anderson has in many ways reinvented comedy. His films aren’t knee-slappers, instead the audience is transfixed by his stories, Quietly smiling at the absurdity that all human beings are alone and, more or less, disappointed with life.

Wes Anderson/ interviewer

10:24:12:10 -10:24:41:22

(ENGLISH)

Your films are often about loneliness, I think. Why is that?

You know, it is probably easier to make something funny happen when you’ve got more emotion. Whatever emotion there is, the more there is of it, the easier it is to exaggerate it to being funny or whatever happens that makes something funny. It is probably hard to make a comedy with a little bit lonely, but A LOT, then I think you’ve got something to work with.

FILMCLIP

10:24:42:05-10:25:09:05

(ENGLISH)

Alright. Let’s check out.

Did you get that Vikram?

Yeah.

Good.

We’ll give them a little reality this time. A washed up old man with no friends, no distribution deal, wife on the rocks, people laughing at him, feeling sorry for himself..

Can I have a word alone with my son? Please?

VOICE OVER

10:25:10:22-10:25:31:00

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

This is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou with Bill Murray in the lead. Wes Anderson and Murrays first collaboration is in Rushmore, one of the many comedies Ingmar Bergman had amongst his tapes. In Rushmore we meet Max Fischer, a troublemaker, a theatre-director, and a young man very mush like the young Wes Anderson himself.

Wes Anderson

10:25:33:00 -10:26:15:19

(ENGLISH)

I was not doing that well in my school and somehow the teacher knew I was interested..I had written one play and the teacher in fourth grade she decided that any week that I got through without any disciplinary problem, it would be a mark and after a certain number of weeks I could put on a new play. So, she sort of loaned me the resources of the school and the classmates to do these productions and I think that had a very big affect on me because after fourth grade, I kind of kept doing that. Sort of putting these things together on my own and kind of got used to being able to get a group together to do what I had in mind.

VOICE OVER

10:26:19:12 -10:26:26:23

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Bergman also had The Royal Tenenbaums, a film that started with two scenes in Anderson’s head and no real story at all.

Wes Anderson

10:26:29:00 -10:26:39:01

(ENGLISH)

I had a whole collection of characters, more than I had a story.

It’s got to be half an hour of the movie before anything actually happens.

FILMCLIP

10:26:42:18 -10:26:47:21

(ENGLISH)

I need help. So do I.

VOICE OVER

10:26:49:10 -10:27:01:07

(VOCIE OVER/ ENGLISH)

The tools Anderson uses when creating his quirky humor include an extremely well thought-out props and scenery and a special kind of strange and contradictory dialogue.

FILMCLIP

10:27:02:12-10:27:20:07

(ENGLISH)

Can I say something to you Henry?

Ok.

I’ve always been considered an asshole for about as long as I can remember, that’s just my style. But I’d really feel blue if I didn’t think that you were going to forgive me?

I don’t think you’re an asshole Roy, I just think you are kind of a son of a bitch.

Well, I really appreciate that.

Wes Anderson

10:27:21:15 -10:28:17:00

(ENGLISH)

Somebody says the thing the way they read it..The way you would normally say that, but what I actually wrote was this..And it has got a couple of things swopped around and maybe four extra words that aren’t really necessary. I remember I had one, it was Danny Glover had a line, I don’t think you are an asshole, I just think you are kind of a son of a bitch. And Gene was like – it is the same thing. It means the same thing. And I went, I know, I know..The word has the same definition.

And I went I know but..

And Danny Glover said you know I think he is saying: you’re not a bad guy and Gene was like: I know but it doesn’t mean that.

And, I mean he is right! He is definitely right but..and I remember thinking – ok – people aren’t going to understand what we are talking about but ok..

Wes Anderson/ inteviewer

10:28:17:05-10:28:40:00

(ENGLISH)

What actors are comedians from the Bergman films? Any of the big? Like Gunnar Björnstrand? How do you say? Björnstrand?

Yes, that’s the way.

I don’t know how to pronounce these names probably, I mean you say Sydow right?

Von Sydow.

You don’t say Sydow?

VOICE OVER

10:28:40:22 -10:28:57:03

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Anderson is meticulous. Not only with his pronounciation: his films are full of structures and methods of organization. Uniforms, schedules, chapters, lists. Just like Bergman’s video-shelves Anderson’s pictures are all about orderliness.

Interviewer/ Woody Allen

10:28:58:04 -10:29:36:20

(ENGLISH)

There is always this orderliness in your films, people are laminating stuff, there are schedules..Are you chaotic?

I am quite orderly with the way..you know I like to get my work in order..I like to keep a lot of things in order, I also don’t like to have things too pinned down at the same time. I tend to like to keep a lot of freedom. Yeah, I have some mixed relationship with order and that’s probably somehow in these movies too. The one where I have them laminating itinerarys that’s an odd thing to feel your characters need to do.

FILMCLIP

10:29:37:22 -10:30:02:03

(ENGLISH)

I had Brandon make us an itinerary.

Who is Brandon?

My new assistant. He is going to place an updated schedule under our doors every morning of all the spiritual places and temples that we need to see and expedite hotels and transportation and everything.

And how is he going to do that?

I had him bring a printer and a laminating machine.

Where is he?

It doesn’t actually matter, he is in another compartment on another part of the train. But we never see him.

VOICE OVER

10:30:27:00 -10:30:38:09

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Prior to his international career Tomas Alfredson directed top Swedish comedians in locally very successful films such as Screwed in Tallinn, Ben and Gunnar and Four Shades of Brown.

Tomas Alfredson

10:30:38:15-10:31:34:08

(SWEDISH)

To be funny or to know what is funny and to have the ability to get people to laugh is all about intuition. Reality is in no way absolute. Rather, it is subjective. The way I see it anyway. The room we’re in now looks one way from where I’m sitting. But completely different from where you are. Still, it is the same place we are looking at. And if you are a number of comedians as the ones I’ve worked with, you try to find the fun angles on all these perceptions of reality. You try to be where it is a little more fun.

FILMCLIP

10:31:37:15 -10:31:44:24

(SWEDISH)

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

I don’t know why but I really think this is a beautiful thing to say.

There is hope.

VOICE OVER

10:31:55:00 -10:32:03:05

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

In Screwed in Tallinn a group of love-sick men, all strangers to each other, participate in a trip to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, arranged by a very unprofessional matchmaker. Prior to the trip we meet Roland, played by Swedish comedian Robert Gustafsson, a man who, in painful detail, is preparing to meet his future wife.

FILMCLIP

10:32:03:05-10:32:35:20

(SWEDISH)

Turn the girl..

When I find her it is going to be like setting out on a journey together. And then we’ll see what happens. So far I’ve never been allowed to “call to port”, so to speak. But that’s what I’m really hoping for.

Tomas Alfredson

10:32:37:22 -10:32:46:24

(SWEDISH)

He has really done this place up nicely. It is a much friendlier, warmer place than I had imagined.

Tomas Alfredson

10:32:48:18 -10:33:12:22

(SWEDISH)

I find it funny when things go wrong. When someone’s intentions point very clearly in one direction but the result end up somewhere else. Someone wants to look a particular way, but ends up looking just the opposite. Someone wants to make somebody else happy and they end up hurt instead. I think a lot of humor resides in mistakes like these.

VOICE OVER

10:33:25:11-10:33:21:09

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Tomas Alfredson is the son of famous Swedish comedian, writer and film-director Hasse Alfredson.

Tomas Alfredson

10:33:41:50 -10:34:05:13

(SWEDISH)

My earliest memory of film is from when I was five or six years old. I discovered the fact that you could capture time with this thing, the film camera. I grew up with film all around me. It was every day life to me. A natural part of my life. I have a hard time seeing myself doing something else.

FILMCLIP

10:34:10:20-10:34:11:06

(SWEDISH)

Go away!!

VOICE OVER

10:34:15:10-10:34:29:18

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Alfredson international breakthrough came 2008 with Let The Right One In. A pitch black depiction of Sweden in the 1980s. A film full of vampires, children, snow and clumsy everyday realism.

Tomas Alfredson

10:34:36:10 -10:35:09:00

(SWEDISH)

After Let The Right One In came a huge change for me. The phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Proposals came from all over the world. At the start it was great and flattering and very encouraging. But I also realized I wouldn’t be able to deliver the things people were expecting of me. All I can do is tell of  things that I’ve had personal experience of.  

VOICE OVER

10:35:16:21-10:35:30:00

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Things changed when Alfredson read the script to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, based on John Le Carrés classic spy-novel, he found there was something about the bleak British spies of the 1970s which he could relate to.

Tomas Alfredson

10:35:35:05 -10:36:27:00

(SWEDISH)

I had been waiting to make a film for one and a half years before Tinker Tailor showed up. I hadn’t dared to do anything at all. But I found there was something about these men. Silent, grey, running around with secret messages, that appealed to me. There was some thing about this damp British environment that I recognized. I spent a lot of time there as a child in the 1970s, and I had been breastfed with old British spy-series.

FILMCLIP

10:36:17:24-10:36:22:08

(ENGLISH)

It takes five hours to get drunk on this monkey’s piss

Tomas Alfredson

10:36:26:12 -10:36:40:15

(SWEDISH)

I felt this was a reality I could do something with. I can’t do spaceships and monkeys. I have nothing in common with themes like that.

FILMCLIP

10:37:03:23 -10:37:06:05

(ENGLISH/ FRENCH)

Sorry, I’m late.

No problem.

VOICE OVER

10:37:09:11 -10:37:16:10

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Another comedy in Ingmar Bergman’s videoroom is the French film The Taste Of Others, directed by Agnes Jaoui.

VOICE OVER

10:37:21:02 -10:37:28:14

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

In the film Castella, a square and boring factory owner falls in love with his English teacher, bohemian actress Clara.

FILMCLIP

10:37:29:04 -10:37:50:22

(FRENCH/ ENGLISH)

You had some homework?

Do you want me to read it?

Yes, please.

I was alone.

I was alone in the rain

And there was clouds in my brain..

Oh, it’s a poem.

VOICE OVER

10:37:53:14 -10:38:04:01

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Clara, who thinks she is better than Castella, isn’t in love at all.

The film’s funniest moments are when Castella tries to impress Clara but does just the opposite.

Agnes Jaoui

10:38:05:11 -10:38:24:16

(ENGLISH)

Why is it funny? Well, in fact it is very sad. But it is funny because it is ridiculous, it is ridiculous to think you are superior thanks to your taste.

VOICE OVER

10:38:26:10 -10:38:36:04

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Agnes Jaoui has so far directed three feature films, all low key comedies that in one way or the other deal with people who try to fit in where they don’t really belong.

FILMCLIP

10:38:38:00-10:39:05:00

(FRENCH)

I am talking about people in general, people in general likes when it is funny.

He’s right, it has been a while so you did something funny.

Well, I’ll try, I’ll try and do comedy.

But maybe he’ll like your next project?

Oh yes, with Ibsen, he might die of laughter.

With who?

Ibsen.

Oh yes, Ibsen is a lot of fun.

A very entertaining form of Norwegian comedy, no?

Another really funny guy is Strindberg..

Agnes Jaoui

10:39:07:23-10:39:26:14

(ENGLISH)

He wants to be in the group of the artists and says “May I come, may I come”. The strange is that..with artists who are supposed to be open-minded and curious and they are not, it makes me mad.

FILMCLIP

10:39:28:06-10:39:59:00

(SWEDISH)

Malla? Will you open the door?

Oh, how you’re enjoying this!

I am just asking you to be prepared – Malcolm is very jealous.

Is he armed?

I don’t think he’ll have a problem with you, without a gun, if he is up for it.

Can I maybe hide somewhere?

We aren’t at the theatre now, little Fredrik..

But it is a bloody joke, isn’t it!?

Please excuse me being all dirty. My horse fell just outside the city. My faithful Rummel.

VOICE OVER

10:40:01:07-10:40:15:08

(VOICE OVER/ ENGLISH)

Ingmar Bergman is one of Agnes Jaoui’s great sources of inspiration and her favorite Bergman film is Smiles of a Summer Night. Although many may disagree with her, Jaoui thinks that Ingmar Bergman is funny.

Agnes Jaoui

10:40:17:22 -10:40:40:08

(ENGLISH)

He is funny. Of course I wouldn’t call him a comedy film-maker, but when you see something that is so exactly that: relationships or a way of acting it provokes in my a kind of laugh, a kind of jubilation.

Tomas Alfredson

10:41:08:22-10:41:20:06

(SWEDISH)

This is from Bergman’s dancing days. When he was on tour singing and doing the Charleston, I think.

Tomas Alfredson

10:41:20:17-10:41:29:03

(SWEDISH)

The light is hidden by more pine!!

Ingmar Bergman’s fusebox.

Tomas Alfredson/ interviewer

10:41:20:17-10:42:20:14

(SWEDISH)

Is the phenomenon of Ingmar Bergman funny?
I think it is good to joke about heroes and to make fun of people who have a lot of status. It is great to put a silly hat on people who are like that.. And since Bergman is known to be a very gloomy type, or at least his films are known to be dark and serious – that makes it a great thing to joke about.

I don’t think he was a gloomy person, rather the opposite – he liked to make jokes and have fun.

Thank you.

Now we’re done.

Woody Allen

10:42:34:03-10:42:38:17

(ENGLISH)

He liked to, when he was on Fårö, see a film every day.

Alejandro G Inarritu

10:42:38:12-10:42:41:10

(SPANISH)

Look! Cocoon!

Crocodile Dundee

Francis Ford Coppola

10:42:42:19-10:42:46:11

(ENGLISH)

It was George Lucas who said: You have to do the Godfather cause we were so broke..

Holly Hunter

10:42:46:13-10:42:50:18

(ENGLISH)

I’m so honored, that he would have looked at a movie that I was in.

Martin Scorsese

10:42:51:23-10:42:54:02

(ENGLISH)

Sex is very funny..but I don’t remember