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''The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman'' is the 22nd album by American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
group
Sparks, released in August 2009. The duo's first work in the radio musical genre, the album is built around an imaginary visit to
Hollywood by Swedish film director
Ingmar Bergman in the mid-1950s. Its storyline focuses on the divides between European and American culture, between art and commerce. Unlike other Sparks albums, the work is conceived as a single piece, to be listened to as a whole, rather than a collection of stand-alone songs.
The work was commissioned by
Sveriges Radio Radioteatern, the
radio drama
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
department of Sweden's national radio broadcaster. First released in the Swedish broadcast version in August 2009, with an English-language version following in November 2009, it features a cast of Swedish and American actors and a variety of musical styles ranging from
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
to
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
and
pop. The album's recording was a collaborative effort – while the music and English vocals were recorded by Sparks in the United States, the album's Swedish vocals were recorded by Sveriges Radio in Stockholm, and then sent to the Maels via an
FTP server. The album and its ambitious dramatic concept received favourable reviews and spawned both a live show and plans to turn it into a film.
Background
Sparks produced the album, their first in this genre, after it was commissioned as a radio musical by Sweden's national broadcasting service,
Sveriges Radio.
The project was proposed to Sparks by Marie Wennersten of SR Radioteatern, the station's radio drama department. Wennersten had become a Sparks fan after watching the duo perform in Sweden in 2004: "I had never seen such energy and love from the audience. I thought the Södra Theatre was going to take off and fly away. I wrote to the Sparks fansite and thanked them for the experience."
Wennersten subsequently travelled to Los Angeles as a journalist, to attend and report on another Sparks concert.
By that time, the idea of a collaboration had formed in her mind: "I always dreamed of dragging them into the radio world."
Wennersten contacted Sparks when Jasenko Selimovic, the head of SR Radioteatern, decided that the station would produce a number of new musicals.
She thought Sparks would be suitable for the format: "They are a bit extravagant; they have a larger-than-life quality, and above all, they make music that is colourful enough for it not to feel like you miss a visual component."
Sparks were initially somewhat surprised by the invitation to write a musical for Swedish radio, and were hesitant to take on the project.
However, after several months of persuasive effort from Wennersten, via e-mail and telephone, they decided to accept the challenge.
"We originally thought of it as a side project between albums, but once we started working on it, it took on a bigger life," Sparks have said.
"As Americans we have almost abandoned radio drama and it was truly exhilarating for us to work in a medium where the imagination of the listener is so integral a part of the work. Aside from our love of Bergman, we have a love of Orson Welles and his use of the medium of radio was something that inspired us in this work."
Sveriges Radio stipulated that the work had to include a Swedish element.
[ Singer ]Russell Mael
Russell Craig Mael (born October 5, 1948) is an American singer best known as the lead singer for the band Sparks which he formed in 1971 with his elder brother Ron Mael. Mael is known for his wide vocal range, in particular his far-reaching ...
told '' The National'', "At first, we obviously thought of cars and Ikea. I'm joking. But the more profound, more lasting idea – being the film fans we are – was Ingmar Bergman. So we hit upon a fantasy situation of him going to Hollywood, which is obviously a lot more universal, too." Before starting work on the musical, the Mael brothers decided to refresh their memories by looking at Bergman's films again. "We were both really big film fans in university. At that time unless you only liked foreign film, and hated American ones, you weren't cool", Ron Mael
Ronald David Mael (born August 12, 1945) is an American musician, songwriter, composer and record producer. He is the keyboard player and principal songwriter in the band Sparks which he founded with vocalist, occasional songwriter and younger ...
told ''The Times''. "There was a real kind of seriousness to ergman He actually addressed big things and was able to frame those in really pure, cinematic ways. Now those things are seen as being kind of pretentious. Everyone wants to be seen as though they don't care about the big issues." Commenting on the suitability of Bergman as the topic of a musical, Russell Mael told a Swedish newspaper, "In a way, he is the least appropriate person for a musical. We like the absurdity of it all. He was such a deep, intense person and the vast majority of his films are about really deep topics. But we did not want to ridicule him, we wanted to do something respectful that Bergman would have been able to appreciate."
In writing a musical about film making in Hollywood, Sparks were also informed by their own past film projects. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they had spent six years trying to get their film ''Mai, the Psychic Girl
is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuya Kudō and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from March 1985 to April 1986, with its chapters collected in six ' ...
'' produced. Based on a Japanese manga series, the film was at one time supposed to be directed by Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...
. Although the music had been completed, the film failed to materialise, an experience that coloured their portrayal of the studio head in ''The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman''. Earlier, Sparks had worked with French director Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati (; born Jacques Tatischeff, ; 9 October 1907 – 5 November 1982) was a French mime, film-maker, actor and screenwriter. In an ''Entertainment Weekly'' poll of the Greatest Movie Directors, he was voted the 46th greatest of all time ...
on ''Confusion'', another film project that remained uncompleted. Having had numerous meetings with Tati over the course of a year, they were aware that, like other great European directors, Tati had been wooed by Hollywood: "He showed me a letter from Paramount", Ron Mael recalled. "He said: 'Oooh! They take me to Hollywood and they have a limousine for me.' But it was kind of mocking of the whole similar situation to our fantasy Bergman thing. He could see Hollywood for what it was."
Sveriges Radio gave Sparks free rein to develop the project: "Once we got the basic concept approved, we were able to work according to our own ideas. SR asked us to be as faithful to our own vision as possible." In the end, Sparks felt it had been "a perfect project. It forced us out of our comfort zone. And it has proved to be a safer way to achieve creative success than any other in the history of Sparks."
Storyline
The musical's storyline explores the divisions between art and commerce and between European and American culture, dichotomies that have also shaped much of Sparks' own career. Described as a "dark fairy tale" by Stephen Dalton in ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' – "''The Wizard of Oz'' meets ''The Truman Show'', with a light sprinkling of ''Life On Mars''" – it is based on imaginary events in the career of Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman.
The story is set in the mid-1950s, shortly after Bergman's award win at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival for ''Smiles of a Summer Night
''Smiles of a Summer Night'' ( sv, Sommarnattens leende) is a 1955 Swedish comedy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was shown at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. In 2005 ''TIME'' magazine ranked it one of the 100 greatest films s ...
''. After his return to Stockholm, Bergman feels compelled to go to a cinema and watch a Hollywood blockbuster movie. As he exits the cinema, he inexplicably finds himself transported to Hollywood, where a limo driver is waiting to take him to a film studio. The studio's executives, who give Bergman a lavish welcome, are desperate to entice him to stay in Hollywood and make movies for them, the American way: "We're not hicks, but we must deliver kicks."
The studio bosses have booked a hotel room for Bergman, complete with a "Hollywood Welcoming Committee" – a hooker they hope will persuade him to accept their offer – and a limo shuttles Bergman from meeting to meeting. Visiting "The Studio Commissary", he is brought face to face with the many European directors who went to make films in Hollywood: Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hol ...
, Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
, F. W. Murnau
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter.
He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at th ...
, Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...
, Josef von Sternberg, and Alfred Hitchcock, all apparently happy to work in Hollywood: "Alfred Hitchcock, bless his soul, there chomping on a dinner roll, ''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' done twice, in Hollywood, done twice as nice". Bergman is tempted by the prospect of secure funding for his film projects and feels he "must not be hasty" in rejecting the proposal.
The story develops into a Kafkaesque
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typi ...
nightmare as Bergman, besieged by autograph hunters, finally decides that Hollywood is not for him. Unable to get an international line to call Sweden, he tries to escape on foot, pursued by hotel staff, police cars and helicopters "like an actor in a bad, big-budget Hollywood action film". He evades his captors and reaches the seashore, where he prays for deliverance and at last meets the angelic figure of Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic ch ...
, who guides him "home to somewhere monochrome, but somewhere you will be a certain kind of free". A circular plot device concludes and resolves the fantasy.
Production
Recording
A cast of Swedish and American actors contributed to the recording. While Sparks recorded the music in the United States, Wennersten oversaw the recording of the Swedish voice artists in Stockholm. Translation of the lyrics was also handled in Sweden: "Since I do not speak Swedish, I will never know how they managed," Russell Mael said, expressing his appreciation for the efforts of everyone involved to translate the tone and spirit of the Maels' original text into Swedish lyrics. Sparks and Wennersten communicated mainly via an FTP server, with Sparks sending Wennersten their musical material, and Wennersten sending the edited Swedish voice recordings back to Sparks. Sparks were very pleased with the results of the collaboration and the fact that Swedish actor Jonas Malmsjö, playing Bergman, had starred in several Bergman productions, enabling him to bring this personal experience to his portrayal of Bergman.
Style
The album mixes a variety of musical styles, from classical piano and opera, with full orchestral backing, to polka, vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
, jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
, pop and rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
, and features both song and spoken-word elements. Singer Russell Mael's falsetto vocals remain a prominent feature, while Ron Mael makes his vocal debut in the roles of the limo driver and Hollywood tour guide. Besides Jonas Malmsjö providing Bergman's voice, Elin Klinga
Elin Karin Klinga (born 13 August 1969) is a Swedish actress who took part in several of Ingmar Bergman's late stage productions. As a student Klinga attended the Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm. One of Bergman's favourite actresses, sh ...
, one of Bergman's favourite actresses in the latter stages of his career, appears in the role of Greta Garbo. Sparks drummer Tammy Glover
Tammy Glover is a television producer, film producer, and musician. She served as the VP of Production for Comedy Central from 2007 to 2011, Senior Vice President of Production for FremantleMedia and is currently the Head of Physical Production f ...
appears as The Hollywood Welcoming Committee, while opera singer Rebecca Sjöwall plays a Hollywood actress.
Structurally, the album is not a collection of stand-alone songs, but a 64-minute piece of music composed of 24 plot-driven subsections. The music references the band's own discography at various points, evoking echoes of their earlier records – "sly winks to fans, each with their favourite era of Sparks in mind". The BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
review stated that the album was "steeped in the same arch humour and orchestral sweep that guided the likes of 2006's ''Hello Young Lovers'' and last year's ''Exotic Creatures of The Deep''", blending "jaunty songs and rib-tickling tangents with a coherent narrative".
Releases
The Swedish broadcast version of the musical, containing both Swedish and English lyrics, had its world première on 14 August 2009, when it was performed at a special event in Stockholm's
Södra Theatre and broadcast on Sveriges Radio's
P1 channel.
An exclusive edition of 1,000 CDs was released by SR Records, the Sveriges Radio record label, at the same time.
The band later released an English version of the work on their own Lil' Beethoven label, initially only available as a double
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...
and digital download.
BBC 6 Music and presenter
Stuart Maconie
Stuart Maconie (born 13 August 1961) is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, and critic working in the field of pop music and popular culture. He is currently a presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music where, alongside Mark ...
hosted the English version's première in London on 28 October 2009, followed by a Q&A session with the Mael brothers.
In 2022, a remaster of the English album was issued on double vinyl, CD and digital as part of the "21st Century Sparks" collection on
BMG. It entered the UK Independent Albums Chart at no. 7 and the UK Vinyl Albums top 40 at 36.
Reception
The album has been well received by critics.
Simon Price
Simon Price (born 25 September 1967) is a British music journalist and author. He is known for his weekly review section in ''The Independent on Sunday'' and his book ''Everything (A Book About Manic Street Preachers)''.
Career Writer
Pric ...
in ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' called it "an engrossing and enriching piece" when listened to as a whole.
Craig Carson in ''
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
'' commented that the Sparks' "wry humor and willingness to experiment with different formats continue to stretch the limits of pop music in ways many other acts simply do not attempt. The band continually seem able and willing to explore just about anything – they remain musicians blessedly apart from the herd."
Daryl Easlea, writing for ''
Record Collector
''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide.
History The early years
The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches ba ...
'', commented in a similar vein: "Only Sparks could do this. A 64-minute 24-song cycle commissioned for Swedish radio about Ingmar Bergman.
..Obscure, of course – delightfully warm, naturally; it underlines Sparks' greatness and importance."
Commenting on the portrayal of Bergman, Easlea stated, "Swedish actor Malmsjö plays Bergman with all the appropriate detached paranoia"; he concluded his review by awarding the album a full five stars.
''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' said it was "a very Sparksian undertaking – painstaking and slightly ludicrous – to make a musical about an art-house film director, with a very complicated plot, for the radio (even Rick Wakeman's ''King Arthur on Ice'' had something to look at)." It said the orchestral arrangements by Ron Mael were "great, actually, recalling the skyscraper bustle of Bernstein and the triumphant fanfares of Michael Nyman", and stated that "the central concept – pursue your own idea of art, regardless of whether anyone will buy it – seems to be their rule of thumb, too. And you can't knock that."
The review by Stephen Dalton, also in ''The Times'', found the "modernist musical backdrop" dominated by "electro-orchestral fragments" "less seductive" and, "despite plenty of arch and witty lyrics", regretted the scarcity of "memorable melodies or fully realised songs".
Dalton concluded that the work was "not wholly successful, perhaps, but still an alluringly barmy and glamorous affair", and a "fascinating folly from two enduringly inventive oddballs".
The BBC review stated fans hoping for "a fresh suite of crisp new Sparks songs" might be disappointed because "there are no tunes without the tale attached", but added that "luckily, the tale is a good one": the story of Hollywood corruption "is told masterfully, and builds to a dramatic conclusion that both condemns Hollywood and satirises its conventions with rapier-sharp wit."
Dave Simpson in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' said the piece, "best experienced as a whole", was "not an idle fantasy, and emerges as a fascinating and powerful discourse on the struggle between art and commerce, and the destructive power of celebrity", calling the musical "a bold, major work – as compelling and original as anything in their sporadically brilliant career."
David Quantick
David Quantick (born 14 May 1961) is an English novelist, comedy writer and critic, who has worked as a journalist and screenwriter. A former freelance writer for the music magazine '' NME'', his writing credits have included ''On the Hour'', '' ...
in ''
The Word'' commented that "musically, ''Seduction'' is awe-inspiring in the way the Maels perfectly meld their current style – intense, repetitive beats and melodies (there's even a bit of squelching techno here) and caustic, snappy lyrics – with the demands of an actual musical."
He called the album an "amazing record", a "commissioned piece that not only does what it's been asked to do, but transcends the brief and creates a genuinely exciting piece of music in its own right."
Andy Gill in ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' gave ''The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman'' a maximum rating of five stars and included the record among his 20 albums of the year: "Sharply scripted, with that sly, knowing touch so typical of Sparks, it's also scored with scrupulous intelligence, the arrangements drawing on a range of apt influences, from Kurt Weill to jazz, pop and rock, and the orchestrations ingeniously duplicitous, wistful and sinister, as the action dictates. It may well turn out to be the pinnacle of Sparks' career, and certainly has an ambition well beyond the usual remit of popular culture."
Musical and film versions
Sparks said in October 2009 that they were planning to turn the album into a live show and were in talks with Canadian film director
Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer, and film editor of both features and short films, as well as an installation artist, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since completing his first film i ...
about a film version of the musical.
They confirmed in a September 2010 interview on
Michael Silverblatt
Michael Silverblatt (born August 6, 1952) is a literary critic and American broadcaster who hosted '' Bookworm'', a nationally syndicated radio program focusing on books and literature, from 1989 to 2022.
''Bookworm'' is broadcast by Los Angeles ...
's ''Bookworm'' show that Maddin and actor
Jason Schwartzman
Jason Francesco Schwartzman (born June 26, 1980) is an American actor and musician.
Schwartzman made his film debut in Wes Anderson's 1998 film '' Rushmore'', and has gone on to appear in six other Anderson films: '' The Darjeeling Limited'' (2 ...
were on board, and that they were in the process of seeking funding for the project.
The world premiere of the live musical took place on 25 June at the 2011
Los Angeles Film Festival
The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...
, starring Ron and Russell Mael from Sparks, Maddin, Finnish actor
Peter Franzén
Peter Vilhelm Franzén (born 14 August 1971) is a Finnish actor, author, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for his role as King Harald Finehair in ''Vikings'' (2016–2020).
Personal life
Franzén was born in Keminmaa, north Finland. ...
as Bergman,
Ann Magnuson as
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic ch ...
, with
Rebecca Sjöwall,
Katie Puckrik
Katie Puckrik (born July 12, 1962) is an American broadcaster and newspaper columnist. Born in Virginia, Puckrik is best known for hosting British youth magazine shows '' The Word'' and '' The Sunday Show'' in the 1990s. She also created and ...
, and
Tammy Glover
Tammy Glover is a television producer, film producer, and musician. She served as the VP of Production for Comedy Central from 2007 to 2011, Senior Vice President of Production for FremantleMedia and is currently the Head of Physical Production f ...
reprising their roles from the album. Other actors included Nina Sallinen, Jacob Sidney,
Dean Menta
Dean Menta (born July 23 1966) is an American music editor and composer living in Los Angeles, California.
Biography
In 1995, Dean Menta became involved in the band DUH and appeared on their second album ''The Unholy Handjob''. Menta went on t ...
, and Sal Viscuso.
Showcased at the festival to attract investor interest in the film project, the performance at the
John Anson Ford Amphitheatre
The John Anson Ford Theatre is a music venue in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The 1,200-seat outdoor amphitheater is situated within the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. Located in a County regional pa ...
featured Maddin reading stage directions from the film's screenplay.
In 2017, the Mael Brothers said they had discussed developing the musical as an animated feature film with director
Joseph Wallace, who created the music video for their track "
Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)". Russell Mael mentioned the idea again in a 2020 ''
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quietu ...
'' interview, saying that the puppet animation format might be very beautiful and lend itself to portraying the story's fantastical, action-based finale.
He added that working with the narrative format of ''The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman'' had led them to write the ''
Annette Annette may refer to:
Film and television
* '' Walt Disney Presents: Annette'', 1950s television series
* ''Annette'' (film), a 2021 musical film
Other
* Annette (given name), list of people with the name
* Annette Island, Alaska
* Tropical Stor ...
'' musical, which by then had turned into an actual film directed by
Leos Carax
Alex Christophe Dupont (born 22 November 1960), best known as Leos Carax (), is a French film director, critic and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was '' Boy Meets Girl'' (198 ...
, starring
Adam Driver
Adam Douglas Driver (born November 19, 1983) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award; making him one of few performers nominated ...
and
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard (; born 30 September 1975) is a French actress, film producer, singer, and environmentalist who is widely known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions.
She has received ...
– a development Sparks were very happy about.
In the liner notes to the 2022 re-issue, Ron Mael restated their ambition to make a stop motion feature with Wallace, adding: "The use of "widescreen and technicolor" as descriptions of a purely aural work are terms we would now like to apply in a more literal way to a film. Here's hoping."
Track listing
Note: The digital downloads were released as single tracks with a duration of 64:32 (Swedish broadcast version) and 64:33 (English version).
Personnel
Composed, written, and produced by Ron Mael and Russell Mael.
;Cast
*
Russell Mael
Russell Craig Mael (born October 5, 1948) is an American singer best known as the lead singer for the band Sparks which he formed in 1971 with his elder brother Ron Mael. Mael is known for his wide vocal range, in particular his far-reaching ...
– studio chief; policeman 1 and 2
*
Ron Mael
Ronald David Mael (born August 12, 1945) is an American musician, songwriter, composer and record producer. He is the keyboard player and principal songwriter in the band Sparks which he founded with vocalist, occasional songwriter and younger ...
– limo driver; Hollywood tour guide
* Marcus Blake – autograph hound; Woody
* Tammy Glover – Hollywood Welcoming Committee; Gerry
* Saskia Husberg – interpreter
*
Elin Klinga
Elin Karin Klinga (born 13 August 1969) is a Swedish actress who took part in several of Ingmar Bergman's late stage productions. As a student Klinga attended the Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm. One of Bergman's favourite actresses, sh ...
–
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic ch ...
* Marie-Chantal Long –
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
announcer
*
Jonas Malmsjö –
Ingmar Bergman
* Steve McDonald – hotel concierge
*
Steven Nistor – hotel doorman
*
Katie Puckrik
Katie Puckrik (born July 12, 1962) is an American broadcaster and newspaper columnist. Born in Virginia, Puckrik is best known for hosting British youth magazine shows '' The Word'' and '' The Sunday Show'' in the 1990s. She also created and ...
– hotel operator
*
Rebecca Sjöwall – Hollywood starlet
* Jim Wilson – first A.D.; autograph hound
Musicians
* Ron Mael – keyboard
* Russell Mael – vocals
* Jim Wilson – guitar
*
Dean Menta
Dean Menta (born July 23 1966) is an American music editor and composer living in Los Angeles, California.
Biography
In 1995, Dean Menta became involved in the band DUH and appeared on their second album ''The Unholy Handjob''. Menta went on t ...
– guitar
* Marcus Blake – bass
*
Tammy Glover
Tammy Glover is a television producer, film producer, and musician. She served as the VP of Production for Comedy Central from 2007 to 2011, Senior Vice President of Production for FremantleMedia and is currently the Head of Physical Production f ...
– drums
*
Steven Nistor – drums
SR production staff
* Marie Wennersten – producer and director for Swedish recording
* Magnus Lindman – translations
* Sabina von Greyerz – SR Records project manager
Charts
References
External links
*
''The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman''on Sparks's ''
MySpace'' blog
* (2 parts)
Interviewwith Sparks on the movie project and upcoming musical performance at the LA Film Festival,
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman, The
2009 albums
Sparks (band) albums
Concept albums
2009 radio dramas
Swedish radio dramas
2009 musicals
Ingmar Bergman
Rock operas