Not long ago I holidayed in Finland. I was staying with a friend with no TV so was having to entertain myself by other means of media. In her bookshelf I came across My Story, the memoirs of the Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman.
Written and published in 1980 with cooperation of Alan Burgess, the book was delightful reading. Bergman arrived to Hollywood late 1930s. Even at that time the Hollywood starlets were cosmetically enhanced (Rita Hayworth’s hairline was famously lifted to better her looks) but the film mogul David Selznik decided to try something different with Bergman. She was sold to the press and audience as she was: with thick eye brows, bad teeth, too tall, too fat and with her real name – “film star au naturel”.
Bergman's own words are entertaining reading. She seems genuine and lovely, although perhaps prone to fall in love easily and ready to sacrifice a lot for romance. She was practically barred from the States after divorcing her first husband and leaving her daughter behind to be with Roberto Rosselini, her second husband.
She writes about the pressures to be thin, her weight struggle and love of ice cream (not perhaps totally unrelated issues). When down, she wrote to her friend that she was "constantly smoking, drinking more than ever and had gained four and a half kilos".
How refreshing! Today’s movie stars are so dull and uninteresting with their macrobiotic cucumber soup diets and 3 hour a day workouts. No wonder she was favoured by Hitchcock and loved by the public. Salut for the real screen legends!
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| Ingrid with Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca |
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| With Cary Grant in Hitchcock's Notorious |
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| With her second husband Roberto Rosselini and their three kids: Roberto, Isabella and Ingrid |
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| Growing old gracefully in Ingmar Berman's Autumn Sonata, her last feature. |
