Ingrid Bergman
Acting style, public image and screen persona

According to the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, upon her arrival in the U.S. Bergman quickly became "the ideal of American womanhood" and a contender for Hollywood's greatest leading actress. David O. Selznick once called her "the most completely conscientious actress" with whom he had ever worked.

Bergman was often associated with vulnerable yet strong characters who were in love but were also troubled by anxiety and fear. As preparation for Gaslight she went to a mental hospital and observed a particular patient. For A Woman Called Golda, she reviewed tapes, to master Meir's mannerisms. In Autumn Sonata, she moves across the screen like a caged animal but always keeps a ladylike composure that makes her words even more "silent but deathly". Bergman could be rigid and stubborn in her acting approach. Ingmar Bergman stated that they argued frequently, on set. "She went to a limit and objected to go beyond the limit." Jan Göransson of the Swedish Film Institute described Bergman as stubborn and loved to question her directors, whose innovative ideas to acting eventually won her over.

Bergman's ability to instantly change emotions was one of her greatest talents. Funing Tang from the University of Miami asserted, "even a moment of reticence, a little glance, or even an eye movement can alter the film's direction and provide her film and character with suspense, ambiguity and mysteriousness, which are rooted in her singular characteristics."

Roger Ebert echoed the same observation when he cited that Bergman has her way of looking into a man's face. He added, "She doesn't simply gaze at his eyes, as so many actresses do, their thoughts on the next line of dialogue. She peers into the eyes, searching for meaning and clues, and when she is in a close two-shot with an actor, watch the way her own eyes reflect the most minute changes in his expression."

For writer Susan Kerr, Bergman might have the greatest downcast eyes in history. "She got her greatest effects in Casablanca and Gaslight and Spellbound and Notorious by swooping her eyes down to the floor and darting them back and forth, as if watching a mouse scurry across the room", Kerr wrote.

Of course, some of Ingrid's pictures in those early American years were not masterpieces, but I remember very clearly that whatever she did I was always fascinated by her face. In her face-the skin-the eyes-the mouth-especially the mouth. There was this very strange radiance and an enormous erotic attraction. It had nothing to do with the body, but in the relationship between her mouth, her skin, and her eyes.

—Ingmar Bergman on Ingrid Bergman

According to Stardom and the Aesthetics of Neorealism: Ingrid Bergman in Rossellini's Italy, Alfred Hitchcock was responsible for transforming the Bergman's screen persona towards a "less is more". He coaxed her to be more understated and neutral, while his camera concentrated the expression in the micro-movement of her face. Much of his work with her involved efforts to quell her expressiveness, gestures and body movements. Susan White, one of the contributing authors in A Companion to Alfred Hitchcock, argued that while Bergman was one of his favorite collaborators, she is not the quintessential Hitchcock blonde. She is more like "a resistant and defiant blonde", in contrast to Grace Kelly type... more malleable and conformative. For Bergman, the face became a central aspect to her persona. In many of her films, her body is covered up in what are often elaborate costumes; nun's habits, doctor's coats, soldier's armors, and Victorian dresses. The technique of chiaroscuro, had been used in many of Bergman's films to capture the ambience and the emotional turmoils of her characters through her face. In the case of Casablanca, shadows and lighting were used to make her face look thinner. Peter Byrnes of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that Casablanca is perhaps the world's best close-up movie, in which he added, "after the initial set-up, they just keep coming, a series of stunningly emotional close-ups to die for". Byrnes asserted that these close-ups is the start of the seduction process between Bergman and the audience. He added, "She is so beautiful, and so beautifully lit, that the audience feels they've had their money's worth already." Bergman's daughter, Pia Lindstrom felt that her mother gave some of her best acting in her later films once her mother had finally been freed of her youthful, radiant physical beauty.

Dan Callahan, a prominent film writer commented that there is an element of suspense when watching how Bergman, who was a polyglot, emotes, enhanced by her voice and the way she read her lines. He wrote that Bergman was less effective while speaking in French and German, as if she were void of creative energy. Angelica Jade Bastién of Vulture echoed the same sentiment, that Bergman's secret weapon is her voice and her accent.

Bergman portrayed women in extra-marital affairs in Intermezzo and Casablanca, prostitutes in Arch of Triumph and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and a villainess in Saratoga Trunk. Nonetheless, the public seemed to believe that Bergman's off-screen persona was similar to the saintly characters she played in Joan of Arc and The Bells of St. Mary's. Although the preponderance of "fallen woman" roles did not besmirch Bergman's saintly status, the publicized affair with Rossellini resulted in a public sense of betrayal. David O. Selznick testified later, "I'm afraid I'm responsible for the public's image of her as Saint Ingrid. We deliberately built her up as the normal, healthy, unneurotic career woman, devoid of scandal and with an idyllic home life. I guess that backfired later."
oulipo:avoid_letter[o]