Jul 30, 2007, 17:44 GMT
Stockholm - Legendary Swedish film-maker Ingmar Bergman, considered one of the most important directors in the 20th century, has died at the age of 89, his family said Monday.
A file photo dated 1957 shows legendary Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman, in Stockholm, Sweden. Ingmar Bergman has died, Swedish news agency TT reported 30 July 2007. He was 89 years old. EPA/SCANPIX
The five-times married director, whose films so often centred on personal relationships, died at his home on the Baltic Sea island of Faro.
His top awards included the 'Golden Palm of Palms' at the 50th Cannes Film Festival in 1997 for his body of work. In 1970 he had received Hollywood's coveted Oscar for his lifetime work.
Bergman received another Oscar for his last great movie Fanny And Alexander in 1984.
Born in Uppsala on July 14, 1918 as the son of a minister, Bergman had his international breakthrough as film director in 1957 with The Seventh Seal, which won him his first prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
In the sixties, Bergman made headlines with sex scenes that were then considered highly daring. His 1963 film The Silence was banned in many places.
Another milestone of Bergman's career was his 1972 Scenes From A Marriage, released both as a television series and a movie, featuring his former Norwegian partner Liv Ullmann and his compatriot Erland Josephson in the lead roles.
After Fanny And Alexander, Bergman ended his work in film, but continued to work for the Swedish National Theatre Dramaten in Stockholm.
In 2003, he filmed a sequel to Scenes From A Marriage with Ullmann and Josephson entitled Saraband.
Bergman was married five times and made international headlines when he left Sweden in protest in 1976 over a dispute with the tax authorities and settled in Munich.
After the death of his wife Ingrid von Rosen, Bergman lived withdrawn on the small Baltic island of Faro.
Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, who is married to Bergman's daughter Eva, on Monday described the death of his father-in-law as 'happy and peaceful.'
He told the Stockholm-based internet paper aftonbladet.se: 'I saw him last week, and he was already on his way then. I'm glad that he died peacefully in his bed on Faro.'
Mankell added: 'Bergman was a complicated person, who survived thanks to his creativity.'
Bergman had been finding it increasingly difficult to write, Mankell said.
'He surely knew by then that he wouldn't live much longer,' Mankell added.
Talking about his memories of his father-in-law, Mankell said: 'I've probably watched more than a hundred films with him.'
Bergman had his own auditorium in his house on Faro and had frequently been sent films by the Swedish Film Institute over the decades.
He was used to watch at least one film a day, often in the company of visitors.
Earlier, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt had paid tribute to film director Ingmar Bergman as one of the 'world's great dramatists,' the TT news agency reported.
In a statement distributed by TT, Reinfeldt said: 'His work is immortal. I hope that his legacy will be preserved for a long time and that it will be built on.'
The enormous significance of Bergman's contribution to film and theatre in Sweden and other countries was hard to grasp, Bergman said.
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