ABSTRACT

By exploring the critical, journalistic and popular reception of Ingmar Bergman’s films in Australia in the late 1950s and ’60s, as well as tracing their patterns of exhibition and distribution, this essay examines how particular discourses and approaches to Bergman were already well and truly in place by the early ’60s and prior to the arrival of most of the director’s films in the country. The critical response to and release of Bergman’s work in Australia does reveal minor antipodean variations and is an important staging ground for an emerging and quickly evolving screen culture, as well as debates around film as “art”. But it is also highly referential and reverential to received opinion from overseas and evidences the truly global reach of Bergman’s cinema and reputation during this period. This essay will examine the appearance of a range of Bergman films in Australia starting with Smiles of a Summer Night in 1957 and concluding with the controversial release of the heavily censored The Silence in 1965, fashioning evidence for a boom in “Bergmania” that reaches a peak in 1961–62 and provides an important test case for the rise of “foreign” film distribution in Australia.

摘要

通过探索 1950 年代末和 60 年代英格玛·伯格曼的电影在澳大利亚的批判性、新闻性和大众接受度，以及追踪它们的展示和发行模式，本文探讨了伯格曼的特定话语和方法如何在到 60 年代初，在该国大多数导演的电影到来之前。对伯格曼作品在澳大利亚的批判性反应和发布确实揭示了微小的对立面变化，并且是新兴和快速发展的屏幕文化以及围绕电影作为“艺术”的辩论的重要舞台。但从海外获得的意见也具有高度的参考性和崇敬性，证明了伯格曼在这一时期的电影和声誉的真正全球影响力。1957年夏夜的微笑，并以 1965 年受到严格审查的《沉默》有争议的发行结束，为“伯格狂热”的热潮提供了证据，该热潮在 1961-62 年达到顶峰，并为“外国”电影在澳大利亚的发行。