Editing Ingrid Bergman (section)

=== 1950–1955: Italian films with Rossellini ===
[[File:Bergman stromboli.jpg|thumb|With Mario Vitale in ''[[Stromboli (1950 film)|Stromboli]]'' (1950)]]
[[File:Casa_di_Bergmann_&_Rosellini.JPG|thumb|The house in [[Sicily]] where Bergman and Rossellini lived together during the filming of ''Stromboli'']]
''[[Stromboli (1950 film)|Stromboli]]'' was released by Italian director [[Roberto Rossellini]] on 18 February 1950.<ref>{{Cite web |title=AFI{{!}}Catalog |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27090-STROMBOLI?sid=32f692a7-13ee-4439-adb4-e54970866771&sr=10.347265&cp=1&pos=0 |access-date=17 October 2020 |website=catalog.afi.com}}</ref> Bergman had greatly admired two films by Rossellini. She wrote to him in 1949, expressing her admiration and suggesting that she make a film with him. As a consequence, she was cast in ''Stromboli''. During the production, they began an affair, and Bergman became pregnant with their first child.<ref name="Bondanella">Bondanella, Peter E. ''The Films of Robert Rossellini'', Cambridge University Press (1993)</ref>{{rp|18}}

This affair caused a huge scandal in the United States, where it led to Bergman being denounced on the floor of the [[United States Senate]]. On 14 March 1950, Senator [[Edwin C. Johnson]] insisted that his once-favorite actress "had perpetrated an assault upon the institution of marriage", and went so far as to call her "a powerful influence for evil".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Stern |first=Marlow |date=21 November 2015 |title=When Congress Slut-Shamed Ingrid Bergman |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/21/when-congress-slut-shamed-ingrid-bergman |work=The Daily Beast}}</ref> "The purity that made people joke about Saint Bergman when she played Joan of Arc," one writer commented, "made both audiences and United States senators feel betrayed when they learned of her affair with Roberto Rossellini." [[Art Buchwald]], permitted to read her mail during the scandal, reflected in an interview, "Oh, that mail was bad, ten, twelve, fourteen huge mail bags. 'Dirty whore.' 'Bitch.' 'Son of a bitch.' And they were all Christians who wrote it."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmetz |first=Aljean |title=Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of ''Casablanca'' – Bogart, Bergman, and World War II |publisher=Hyperion |year=1992 |isbn=978-1-56282-761-8 |location=New York |page=118}}</ref>

[[Ed Sullivan]] chose not to have her on his show, despite a poll indicating that the public wanted her to appear.<ref name="Sullivan">{{Cite web |date=7 July 1957 |title=Steve Allen: The Mike Wallace Interview |url=http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/allen_steve_t.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924031645/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/allen_steve_t.html |archive-date=24 September 2015 |access-date=5 November 2015 |website=Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin}}</ref> However, [[Steve Allen]], whose show was equally popular, did have her as a guest, later explaining "the danger of trying to judge artistic activity through the prism of one's personal life".<ref name="Sullivan"/> Spoto notes that Bergman had, by virtue of her roles and screen persona, placed herself "above all that". She had played a nun in ''[[The Bells of St. Mary's]]'' (1945), and a virgin saint in ''[[Joan of Arc (1948 film)|Joan of Arc]]'' (1948). Bergman later said, "People saw me in ''Joan of Arc'', and declared me a saint. I'm not. I'm just a woman, another human being."<ref name="Spoto">Spoto, Donald. ''Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman'', HarperCollins (1997), p. 300.</ref> As a result of the scandal, Bergman returned to Italy, left her first husband, and went through a publicized divorce and custody battle for their daughter. Bergman and Rossellini were married on 24 May 1950.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smit |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5rU6O_490gC&q=Rossellini&pg=PA90 |title=Ingrid Bergman: The Life, Career and Public Image |date=12 October 2012 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9781476600598}}</ref>

In the United States, the film ''Stromboli'' was a [[box office bomb]] but did better overseas, where Bergman and Rossellini's affair was considered less scandalous. In all, RKO lost $200,000 on the picture.<ref name="jewell">{{Cite book |last=Jewell |first=Richard B. |title=Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures |date=2016 |publisher=University of California |isbn=9780520289673 |page=98}}</ref> In Italy, it was awarded the Rome Prize for Cinema as the best film of the year.<ref name="dagrada">Dagrada, Elena. "A Triple Alliance for a Catholic Neorealism: Roberto Rossellini According to Felix Norton, Giulio Andreotti and Gian Luigi Rondi." ''Moralizing Cinema: Film, Catholicism, and Power.'' Eds. Daniel Biltereyst and Daniela Treveri Gennari. Routledge, 2014.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=13 March 1950 |title='Stromboli' Gets Prize As Best Italian Film |page=5 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> The initial reception in America, however, was very negative. [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' opened his review by writing: "After all the unprecedented interest that the picture ''Stromboli'' has aroused—it being, of course, the fateful drama which Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini have made—it comes as a startling anticlimax to discover that this widely heralded film is incredibly feeble, inarticulate, uninspiring and painfully banal." Crowther added that Bergman's character "is never drawn with clear and revealing definition, due partly to the vagueness of the script and partly to the dullness and monotony with which Rossellini has directed her."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |author-link=Bosley Crowther |date=16 February 1950 |title=The Screen In Review |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=28}}</ref>

The staff at ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' agreed, writing,
{{blockquote|Director Roberto Rossellini purportedly denied responsibility for the film, claiming the American version was cut by RKO beyond recognition. Cut or not cut, the film reflects no credit on him. Given elementary-school dialog to recite and impossible scenes to act, Ingrid Bergman's never able to make the lines real nor the emotion sufficiently motivated to seem more than an exercise ... The only visible touch of the famed Italian director is in the hard photography, which adds to the realistic, documentary effect of life on the rocky, lava-blanketed island. Rossellini's penchant for realism, however, does not extend to Bergman. She's always fresh, clean and well-groomed.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=15 February 1950 |title=Stromboli |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |page=13}}</ref>}}

''[[Harrison's Reports]]'' wrote: "As entertainment, it does have a few moments of distinction, but on the whole it is a dull slow-paced piece, badly edited and mediocre in writing, direction and acting."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=18 February 1950 |title='Stromboli' with Ingrid Bergman |journal=[[Harrison's Reports]] |page=26}}</ref> [[John McCarten]] of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' found that there was "nothing whatsoever in the footage that rises above the humdrum", and felt that Bergman "doesn't really seem to have her heart in any of the scenes."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=McCarten |first=John |date=25 February 1950 |title=The Current Cinema |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |page=111}}</ref> [[Richard L. Coe]] of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' lamented, "It's a pity that many people who never go to foreign-made pictures will be drawn into this by the Rossellini-Bergman names and will think that this flat, drab, inept picture is what they've been missing."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Coe |first=Richard L. |date=16 February 1950 |title=All That Fuss, and The Thing Is Dull |page=12 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>
[[File:Europa '51.JPG|thumb|Bergman as Irene Girard in ''Europa '51'']]

Recent assessments have been more positive. Reviewing the film in 2013 in conjunction with its DVD release as part of [[The Criterion Collection]], [[Dave Kehr]] called the film "one of the pioneering works of modern European filmmaking."<ref name="kehr">{{Cite web |last=Kehr |first=Dave |date=27 September 2013 |title=Rossellini and Bergman's Break From Tradition |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/movies/homevideo/ingrid-bergman-in-3-rossellini-films-from-criterion.html |access-date=2 June 2018 |website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> In an expansive analysis of the film, critic Fred Camper wrote of the drama, {{blockquote|Like many of cinema's masterpieces, ''Stromboli'' is fully explained only in a final scene that brings into harmony the protagonist's state of mind and the imagery. This structure...suggests a belief in the transformative power of revelation. Forced to drop her suitcase (itself far more modest than the trunks she arrived with) as she ascends the volcano, Karin is stripped of her pride and reduced — or elevated — to the condition of a crying child, a kind of first human being who, divested of the trappings of self, must learn to see and speak again from a personal "year zero" (to borrow from another Rossellini film title).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Camper |first=Fred |date=2000 |title=Volcano Girl (film analysis and review) |url=http://www.fredcamper.com/Film/Rossellini.html |access-date=31 December 2007 |website=Chicago Reader}}</ref>}}

The [[Venice Film Festival]] ranked ''Stromboli'' among the 100 most important Italian films ("[[100 film italiani da salvare]]") from 1942 to 1978. In 2012, the [[British Film Institute]]'s ''[[Sight & Sound]]'' critics' poll also listed it as one of the 250 greatest films of all time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stromboli, Terria di Dio (1950) |url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/film/4ce2b6b6d8bc6 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120820045845/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/film/4ce2b6b6d8bc6 |archive-date=20 August 2012}}</ref>

In 1952, Rossellini directed Bergman in ''[[Europa '51]]'', where she plays Irene Girard who is distraught by the sudden death of her son.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Europe '51 |url=https://www.criterion.com/films/28108-europe-51 |access-date=17 October 2020 |website=The Criterion Collection}}</ref> Her husband played by [[Alexander Knox]] soon copes, but Irene seems to need a purpose in life to assuage her guilt of neglecting her son.<ref name="Mermelstein">{{Cite news |last=Mermelstein |first=David |date=18 December 2013 |title=A Rossellini-Bergman Boxed Set From Criterion Is Reviewed |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |url=https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304355104579234011374340976.html |access-date=18 October 2020 |issn=0099-9660}}</ref>

Rossellini directed her in a brief segment of his 1953 documentary film, [[We, the Women|''Siamo donne'' (''We, the Women'')]], which was devoted to film actresses.<ref name="Bondanella"/>{{rp|18}} His biographer, Peter Bondanella, notes that problems with communication during their marriage may have inspired his films' central themes of "solitude, grace, and spirituality in a world without moral values".<ref name="Bondanella"/>{{rp|19}} In December 1953, Rossellini directed her in the play ''[[Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher|Joan of Arc at the Stake]]'' in Naples, Italy. They took the play to Barcelona, London, Paris and Stockholm.<ref name="Leamer2"/> Her performance received generally good reviews.<ref name=":0"/>

Their following effort was ''[[Viaggio in Italia]] (Journey to Italy)'' in 1954. It follows a couple's journey to Naples, Italy to sell an inherited house. Trapped in a lifeless marriage, they are further unnerved by the locals' way of living.<ref name=Mermelstein/> According to John Patterson of ''The Guardian'', the film started The French New Wave.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Patterson |first=John |date=6 May 2013 |title=Journey To Italy: the Italian film that kickstarted the French New Wave |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/06/journey-to-italy-roberto-rossellini |access-date=17 October 2020 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> [[Martin Scorsese]] picked this film to be among his favorites in his documentary short in 2001. On 17 February 1955, ''Joan at the Stake'' opened at the Stockholm Opera House. The play was attended by the prime minister and other theatrical figures in Sweden. ''Swedish Daily'' reported that Bergman seems vague, cool and lacking in charisma. Bergman was hurt by mostly negative reviews from the media of her native land. Stig Ahlgren was the most harsh when he labelled her a clever businesswoman, not an actress. "Ingrid is a commodity, a desirable commodity which is offered in the free market."<ref name=":0"/> Another effort they released that year was ''[[Joan of Arc at the Stake|Giovanna d'Arco al rogo (Joan of Arc at the Stake)]]''.<ref name="Weedman">{{Cite web |last=Weedman |first=Christopher |date=3 May 2000 |title=Melodramatic Postwar Confessions: Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini's La Paura (1954) – Senses of Cinema |url=https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2015/cteq/la-paura-roberto-rossellini/ |access-date=18 October 2020}}</ref>
[[File:Ingrid Bergman - 1954.JPG|thumb|upright=.9|Bergman in [[Fear (1954 film)|''La Paura'' (''Fear'')]] (1954)]]
Their final effort in 1954 was [[Fear (1954 film)|''La Paura'' (''Fear'')]], based on a play by Austro-Jewish writer Stefan Zweig's 1920 novella ''Angst'' about adultery and blackmail.<ref name= Weedman/> In ''Fear'', Bergman plays a businesswoman who runs a pharmaceutical company founded by her husband ([[Mathias Wieman]]). She is having an affair with a man whose ex-lover turns up and blackmails her. The woman demands money, threatening to tell her husband about the affair if Bergman doesn't pay her off. Under constant threats, Bergman is pressed to the point of committing suicide.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Brody |first=Richard |date=14 August 2015 |title=The Genius of Ingrid Bergman |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/24/a-life-of-her-own |access-date=18 October 2020 |magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref>

Rossellini's use of a Hollywood star in his typically "neorealist" films, in which he normally used non-professional actors, provoked some negative reactions in certain circles.{{Vague|date=October 2020}}<!-- Which "negative reactions"? Which "circles"? --> Rossellini, "defying audience expectations[,]...employed Bergman ''as if'' she were a nonprofessional," depriving her of a script and the typical luxuries accorded to a star (indoor plumbing, for instance, or hairdressers) and forcing Bergman to act "inspired by reality while she worked", creating what one critic calls "a new cinema of psychological introspection".<ref name=Bondanella/>{{rp|98}} Bergman was aware of Rossellini's directing style before filming, as the director had earlier written to her explaining that he worked from "a few basic ideas, developing them little by little" as a film progressed.<ref name=Bondanella/>{{rp|19}} Rossellini then was accused of ruining her successful career by taking her away from Hollywood, while Bergman was seen as the impetus for Rossellini abandoning the aesthetic style and socio-political concerns of Neo-Realism.<ref name= Weedman/>

While the movies Bergman made with Rossellini were commercial failures, the films have garnered great appreciation and attention in recent times. According to Jordan Cronk in his article reviewing the movies, their work has inspired a beginning of a modern cinematic era. Rossellini's films during the Bergman era ponder issues of complex psychology as depicted by Bergman in films like ''Stromboli'', ''Europa '51'' and ''Journey to Italy''.<ref name="Cronk">{{Cite web |last=Cronk |first=Jordan |date=5 October 2013 |title=Review: 3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman on Criterion Blu-ray |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/3-films-by-roberto-rossellini-starring-ingrid-bergman/ |access-date=18 October 2020 |website=[[Slant Magazine]]}}</ref> The influence of Bergman and Rossellini's partnership can be felt in the movies by [[Godard]], [[Fellini]] and [[Antonioni]] to, more recently, [[Abbas Kiarostami]] and [[Nuri Bilge Ceylan]].<ref name=Cronk/> David Kehr from ''The New York Times'' commented that their films now stand among the pioneering works whose influence can be felt in European modern filmmaking.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kehr |first=Dave |date=27 September 2013 |title=Rossellini and Bergman's Break From Tradition (Published 2013) |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/movies/homevideo/ingrid-bergman-in-3-rossellini-films-from-criterion.html |access-date=18 October 2020 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>