S.: May I ask you how "The Touch" differs from the one you intended?
B.: I intended to paint a portrait of an ordinary woman, for whom everything around was a reflection. Bibi Anderson is a close
friend of mine — a lovely and extremely talented actress. She is totally oriented towards reality, always needing motives for what she
does. I admire her and love her. But she changed the film. What Bibi Anderson did made the film more comprehensible for ordi nary
people and more immediately powerful. I agreed with all her changes.
S.: You use music less and less in your films. Why?
B.: Because I think that film itself is music, and I can't put music in music.
S.: If you could have shot all your films in colour, would you have?
B.: No. Because it is more fascinating to shoot in black and white and force people to imagine the colours.
S.: Do you work in colour now— to any degree — because you feel that the audience demands it?
B.: No. I like it. At the beginning, it was painful, but now I like it.
S.: Why do you use so much dialogue in your films?
B.: Because human communication occurs through words. I tried once to eliminate language, in "The Silence", and I feel that
picture is excessive.
S.: It's too abstract.
B.: Yes.
S.: Some people have criticized your films for being too theatrical — particularly — the early ones. How do you answer this
charge?
B.: I am a director —
S.: But aren't the two forms different?
B.: Completely. In my earlier pictures, it was very difficult for me to go from directing in the theatre to directing films. I had al -
ways felt technically crippled — insecure with the crew, the cameras, the sound equipment — everything. Sometimes a film succeed-
ed, but I never got what I wanted to get. But in "Summer Interlude", I suddenly felt that I knew my profession.
S.: Do you have any idea why?
B.: I don't know, but for heaven's sake a day must always come along when finally one succeeds in understanding his profession!
I'm so impressed by young directors now who know how to make a film from the first moment.
S.: But they have nothing to say. (Bergman laughs.)
ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY
Vocabulary Notes
1. point n 1) the sharp end., tip, as the point of a pin (needle, knife, stick, pen, pencil, weapon, tool, etc.); 2) a small dot or a full stop, as 4.6 (four point six); 3) the essential thing, part, the most important thing in a speech, story, action, etc., e. g. The point is that it is
no ordinary case. I don't see your point. You've missed the whole point, to the point relevant to the subject,