The Best Intentions

The Best Intentions (1992)

Den goda viljan

In this film about Ingmar Bergman's parents, Henrik Bergman is studying for the priesthood and trying to make ends meet when he encounters the lovely, affluent Anna. Despite their social differences, Henrik and Anna fall in love, wed and move to the country. They lead a quiet life as Henrik works as a priest, but it isn't long before the simple people and plain surroundings make Anna long for a more lavish lifestyle, which causes marital stress.

Date of release
1992-05-24
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (77)
Runtime
3h 2m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Bille August

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 5 · Nominations: 4. Including: Palme d'Or; Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress; Guldbagge Award for Best Screenplay; Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role

The Best Intentions is a 1991 Swedish television drama film directed by Bille August and written by Ingmar Bergman. It is semi-autobiographical, telling the story of the complex relationship between Bergman's parents, Erik Bergman and Karin Åkerblom, who are renamed Henrik and Anna in the film but retain their true surnames. The film documents the courtship and the difficult early years of their marriage, until the point when Anna becomes pregnant with their second son, who corresponds to Ingmar himself. Samuel Fröler and Pernilla August played Henrik and Anna, respectively.

Production

Semi-retired director Ingmar Bergman conceived of the film while writing his memoirs The Magic Lantern. He wrote the screenplay based on the early years of the marriage of his parents, Lutheran minister Erik Bergman and Karin Åkerblom, between 1909 and 1918, attempting to see them less as "mythical giants who dominated his childhood", and more as complicated people.

In writing his parents' story before his birth, Ingmar found himself limited to "fragmentary notes, brief tales, isolated episodes". Many of Karin's letters to Erik were lost and presumed destroyed by Karin. Ingmar's sister Margareta Bergman possessed most of their parents' papers, and some were published by 1992. Erik had written an autobiography for Margareta in 1941.

Professor Rochelle Wright details where the film differs from history, noting that unlike Henrik and Anna, Erik and Karin in fact met as second cousins. While Karin's parents were opposed to her marrying Erik, there are not many details as to how this conflict played out in reality. The separation of Erik and Karin related not to her treatment for an illness in Switzerland, but rather to her studies for nursing in Stockholm and Gothenburg.

Ingmar completed the screenplay in 1989. He respected Danish director Bille August and submitted the screenplay to him. August was facing budget difficulties with the Hollywood film he was working on, and abandoned it to travel to Stockholm to meet Bergman, whom he admired. Bergman told him he had seen August's film Pelle the Conqueror seven times and that August would have complete control over the direction of The Best Intentions.

Bergman insisted on the casting of Pernilla Östergren as Anna, after she played Maj in Fanny and Alexander. Bille August had not met her before The Best Intentions, but later married her. Pernilla accepted the role, not knowing it had been written for her, which she said would have frightened her.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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