S.: I see that, but it raises a problem I'm sure you've often discussed. Your films have emotional impact, but since they are also the
most intellectually difficult of contemporary films, isn't there sometimes a contradiction between the two effects? How do you react
when I say that while I watched "The Rite", my feelings were interfered with by my baffled effort at comprehension?
B.: Your approach is wrong. I never asked you to understand, I ask only that you feel.
S.: And the film asks me to understand. The film continuously makes us wonder what the spectacle means.
B.: But that's you.
S.: It's not the film?
B.: No. "The Rite" merely expresses my resentment against the critics, audience, and government, with which I was in constant
battle while I ran the theatre. A year after my resignation from the post, I sat down and wrote the script in five days. The picture is
just a game.
S.: To puzzle the audience?
B.: Exactly. I liked writing it very much and even more making it. We had a lot of f u n while we were shooting. My purpose was
just to amuse myself and the audience. Do you understand what I mean?
S.: I understand, but certain members of the audience can't resist pointing out that Bergman is sending messages, he thinks, but
what are they and why?
B.: You must realize — this is very important! — I never ask people to understand what I have made. Stravinsky once said, "I
have never understood a piece of music in my life. I always only feel."
S.: But Stravinsky was a composer. By its nature, music is non- discursive; we don't have to understand it. Films, plays, poems,
novels all make propositions or observations, embody ideas or beliefs, and we go to these forms —
B.: But you must understand that your view is distorted. You belong to a small minority that tries to understand. I never try to un-
derstand. Music, films, plays always work directly on the emotions.
S.: I must disagree. I'm afraid I didn't make myself clear —
B.: I must tell you before we go on to more complicated things: I make my pictures for use! They are made to put me in contact
with other human beings. My impulse has nothing to do with intellect or symbolism: it has only to do with dreams and longing, with
hope and desire, with passion.
S.: Does it bother you when critics interpret you through these items?
B.: Not at all. And let me tell you, I learn more from critics who honestly criticize my pictures than from those who are devout.
And they influence me. They help me change things. You know that actors often change a film, for better or worse.