Skrivet 27 Jun 2012

Jan Holmberg interviews himself on the new website, ingmarbergman.se

Why are you redesigning ingmarbergman.se?
We launched the site with a great hullaballo in 2005, when we were awarded website of the year by Culturenet Sweden. On the verge of our launch date, we heard mention of something called YouTube (we still had no idea about the new online community called Facebook). Wikipedia had already been around for awhile, but wasn't worth writing home about just yet. To cut a long story short, at a time that now seems like ages ago, there was still a ways to go to Web 2.0. Now it is time for us to update, so here we are!

I see.
Er, yeah. We still possess the world's largest collection of Ingmar Bergman's work, just that now we are more modern, more fun, more attractive, much larger and... well, overall much better than before.

How so?
We have images of all 200+ Bergman plays which have been staged around the world; a map displaying all locations where Bergman worked, filmed and lived; the world's best-ever timeline; our very own archive blog...

A blog sounds... hip.
Doesn't it?

Yeah.
Well, it's not really a blog.

Uh-huh.
You don't have to read it. It doesn't matter to me. It will find its fans, who will be treated to pictures of exciting happenings which are nearly as difficult to be granted access to as the Swedish Security Service's Stasi archives. They can also check out the latest from our visitors and researchers, subscribe to The Official Ingmar Bergman Spotify Playlist, learn what a 'bone folder' and 'The Principle of Provenance' are, and best of all, find out which paper we use in our pressboard archive folders and how to construct an archive box!

Exciting. I was just wondering how the number of Bergman's writings suddenly increased 300-fold. Have you rummaged through his dirty laundry hunting down shopping lists and infuriated thoughts on scraps of paper?
Now that you mention it, let me just add that the previous list was far from comprehensive. And no, 300 is not even close to the total out there - there are thousands of letters, the infamous notes to his housekeeper, for example, which are not included. All of his film scripts, prose, notebooks, essays... Bergman the author is underestimated, but this will soon be a notion of the past. 

Is that so. How, exactly?
You'll have to wait and see.

Do you find it clever to pretend to be Bergman, with this faked self-interview?
Yeah, a bit. But I do it with absolute humility! As we all know, Bergman is the master of the self-interview, having published his first in 1946 and his last in 1994. (These two are also good examples).

You're getting arrogant. Just who do you think you are?
Who am I? Who are you? Who am I? Who is he?

Correction: arrogant and pretentious. Anyhow, what can we expect to find on the Spotify playlist: the likes of Carmen Carrozza and Slayer?
More or less. Well, maybe a bit more baroque music than accordions and death metal.

You dropped the name. What was wrong with Ingmar Bergman Face to Face?
Wrong and wrong. Naming sites is a little 2005, wouldn't you say? Regardless, we are now ingmarbergman.se, short and sweet. 

By the way, I came across a mistake. Donald Karlsson, one of the 18 painters on the set design of Fanny and Alexander, spells his surname with two 's'. How difficult can it be? Are you completely clueless? 
Thank you. Error noted and amended. If you or anyone else out there happens upon any mistakes or misquotings, please send us a mail.

Sure thing. Good luck.
Thank you very much. I assume your well wishes are sincere.

Nah, it just seemed the right thing to say. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?
Yes. I would like to kill you. As for the rest of you, please continue to visit and use our site. And spread the word!