TIFF's Summer in Italy programme closes with the collaborations between director Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman. Stromboli screens on August 28, Fear on August 29, Europa '51 on August 30 and Voyage in Italy on September 5. This conveniently coincides with the centenary of Bergman's birth on August 29. TIFF is also going a step further looking back at the Swedish star's Hollywood career.
Movie stars get canonized in funny ways. You could be a giant box office star in your day like, say, a Robert Taylor and no longer be much of a household name. I don't know that Ingrid Bergman's filmography in Hollywood holds a candle to the Katherine Hepburns, Bette Davises or Barbara Stanwycks of the world, but if you're in Casablanca — one of those few classic films that everyone still knows — well your face alone can sell the Cannes Film Festival.
This is not to minimize the appeal of Bergman. Her career in Hollywood had many other highlights, especially working with Alfred Hitchcock in Spellbound (August 27 at 6:30 p.m.) and Notorious (August 23 at 3 p.m. in an archival print). Bergman was a terrific actress capable of playing alternating reserve and warmth in one soft-focus close up. She was a top attraction in Hollywood, but it was occasionally difficult to find a slot for her. She was too tall for most of her leading men — except Gary Cooper as she joked — and film plots often had to account for her accent with a goofy explanation.
Here's a quick peak at the films TIFF has assembled:
Bergman doesn't show up in Casablanca (August 22 at 1:30 p.m.) until about half an hour in but she stops the movie, and Humphrey Bogart cold in its tracks.
Under Capricorn is another Hitchcock flick but one of the lesser ones (despite some fawning by the Cahiers du Cinema). I suppose you could watch it for Jack Cardiff's photography and floating camera. Co-lead Joseph Cotton summed it up quite properly as "Under Corny Crap" in his autobiography.
Sam Wood's telling of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (August 30 at 1 p.m.) was a prestige project in 1943 and garnered a bevy of Oscar nominations. The ethnic inappropriateness of the cast hasn't aged well, and Wood's film is slow to pick up. It benefits from some good location work in the Sierra Nevada and pushes to a strong close. The recent Blu-Ray is also absolutely gorgeous so I expect the restored 35mm print might be worth seeing for that purpose alone.
It also kicked off a string of three consecutive years of Oscar nominations for Bergman, The Bells of St. Mary's (September 5 at 6:30 p.m.) in 1944 and finally her first win in 1945's Gaslight (August 29 at 6:30 p.m.).
Then came the scandal, in which she left her husband after becoming inspired by the gravitas of Rosselini's work, which interrupted her Hollywood career.
Her return to Hollywood saw her playing a lot of women martyred by their pasts. Her role in Anastasia (September 1 at 6:30 p.m.) for Anatole Litvak won her another Academy Award. They collaborated again in Goodbye Again (September 3 at 6:30 p.m.), a plodding melodrama with Anthony Perkins and Yves Montaud. One wishes she had worked with Douglas Sirk during this period. The slate wraps up with Sydney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express (September 4 at 6:30 p.m.) in which she won a Best Supporting Actress award for an extended cameo.
Screening Roundup
The Revue's classic of the month is director Dorothy Arzner's Dance, Girl, Dance from 1940. It stars Maureen O'Hara and a young Lucille Ball. They're both part of a struggling dance troupe that hustles its way through cabarets and the like. O'Hara is a talented dancer with dreams of the ballet who gets roped into Ball's burlesque routine to make a living. It's a minor classic but the gender politics make it somewhat interesting for the time. It screens Thurday August 27 at 7 p.m.
There's also a screening of the Elvis flick Fun in Acapulco which finds The King looking for work after getting fired from his boat job by the owner's daughter. It co-stars Ursula Andress. Elvis-buffs only I would say, Sunday August 23 at 7 p.m.
The Tirgan Festival, which spotlights Iranian arts and culture, will have films and director Q&A's running all weekend down at the Harbourfront Centre in their Studio Theatre including a look at the work of Abbas Kiarostami with director Bahman Maghsoudlou in attendance Friday at 9:30 p.m. Check out more details here.
Toronto Screengrab of the Week
Last week we went with the 2007 musical remake of Hairspray [ed: congratulations to Lori Blinn on her correct guess via Facebook] which did an impressive job of taking Roncie back in time. This week we will choose a rather "time sensitive" '90s Johnny Depp flick that picked up some shots here to double for Los Angeles.
