'Film Artist' Bergman Put His Life on the Screen

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

We're taking a moment now to remember the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. He died at home at age 89. Bergman's many films included "Scenes from a Marriage," "Fanny and Alexander" and "Wild Strawberries." His life was occasionally as dramatic as his art. And in 1976, he told NPR about his confinement after a nervous breakdown.

Mr. INGMAR BERGMAN (Filmmaker): Sometimes you are in a situation, there are no two alternatives - one you die, one you stay alive. And I knew that was my only two alternatives. Now I have taken the second alternative. I am alive. And I'm very grateful.

INSKEEP: Ingmar Bergman's characters came alive in more than 50 films. In the years before Bergman's death at the age of 89, his fellow director Woody Allen called him probably the greatest film artist since the invention of the motion picture camera.

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INSKEEP: This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.