A girlie chat with Liv Ullmann

MUMBAI: Within a few minutes of meeting Liv Ullmann, that extraordinary Norwegian actress, our conversation rapidly turns into girlie chat.
She’s in her 60s now—with startling blue-grey eyes and radiant skin—and we dare to ask, “Have you, even at this stage in your life, discovered what love is all about?’’
“Someone put it nicely,’’ she begins, quite unperturbed by the question.“He said ‘Love is like two trees. They’re growing alongside each other, but they’re not intertwining’.’’ Twice Oscar-nominated (for Face to Face and The Emigrants), Ullmann has just been felicitated with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Film Festival of India in Delhi.
We have a thousand questions to ask about her amazing body of films, including those directed by Ingmar Bergman ( Autumn Sonata , Persona , Face to Face ), the five films she has directed (including Faithless, Private Confessions , both with Bergman scripts), and her forthcoming film ( Dolls’ House ,with Cate Blanchett, Tim Robbins and John Cusack).
But we turn to those eternal subjects that addle us all and which she has addressed so acutely in her films—love, unfaithfulness, loneliness—and suddenly bond at a deeper level.
“Eight years ago, my husband had a heart attack and had tubes coming out of him everywhere,’’ she reflects. “He looked so pathetic, so vulnerable. And I thought, maybe this is what god meant for me, to be there when my husband needed me.And I felt good about this kind of love. The other kind is passion, when you’re wet all over, and it’s all so exciting. But it’s not going to last.’’
Did her relationship with Ingmar Bergman change when she graduated from being an actress to a director helming his scripts (she also lived with him for years and has a daughter by him)? “I’d already been an actress for seven years before I met Bergman and most of my work has been without him. But I did 11 films with him and directed two of his scripts. However, the relationship did not change. We already had an affinity for each other. So, when he stopped directing and I started to direct, he asked me to direct his script, although it was a little different when we talked. I’d ask him, what do you think of this? Few are lucky enough to have Bergman as an advisor.’’
When directing Faithless, did she agree with Bergman’s script entirely? “Actually Bergman saw the film only when we edited it, and he disagreed with some of it,’’ she admits.
“I believe in forgiveness, as well as in forgiving yourself, and I put that in the movie. believe I’ve made a better film with the script than he would have himself. Because I’ve said what he wouldn’t have, and I’ve forgiven what he wouldn’t have.’’
Reflecting on Faithless, she had once observed that unfaithfulness was not a conscious act of will. Would that suggest that an adulterer is not responsible for his actions? “Of course he is, because he has a choice. What meant is that infidelity starts much earlier than you think. You think it’s just a kiss, but once you kiss, it’s already too late. You’re not unfaithful when you go to Paris for a fling, for instance. But when you get bored to begin with. For love, like alcohol and other substances, is an addiction. It’s when the thought is in your mind, when you want the excitement again that you’re first unfaithful.’’
She’s slated to go to the Bombay Times party on Saturday night. But confesses, “I’m not really a party person. I would rather be with children there, or with some animals, if there are any. If I found someone who is slightly cuckoo, I’d rather sit and hold his hands.’’
As we leave, we are quite overwhelmed and find our eyes smarting.