Enduring Ingrid: Ingrid Bergman and Casablanca

Today, I want to talk about the enduring legacy of one of Hollywood's greatest, most fearless actresses through one of the most popular movies of all time: the great Ingrid Bergman and Casablanca. 

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This is my entry for the fifth Wonderful Ingrid Bergman Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema. Make sure you click through and read all of the fantastic entries this weekend!

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Ingrid was already a star by the time she made Casablanca, renowned in her native Sweden and a rising star in Hollywood. But when she lit up the screen as Ilsa Lund, she set the bar higher. Torn between an old lover in Humphrey Bogart's Rick and her Resistance-fighter husband Victor, Ingrid imbues the part with warmth and mystery. 

By the time she boards the plane in the end, on her way to America where she and Victor can continue their fight, we know that she'll never forget Rick or their love affair, for they'll always have Paris. When Humphrey tells her, "Here's looking at you, kid," I swoon every time. 

I've had the fortune of seeing Casablanca on the big screen twice, and tucked into a seat in an old movie theatre (Art Deco-style decor and all), it's even more romantic than watching at home. 

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In her memoirs, Ingrid Bergman: My Story, she says that filming Casblanca wasn't as wonderful as what ended up on the screen. She revealed that the script was still in flux as they were filming, to the point that nobody knew if Ilsa would end up with Rick or Victor, and she was advised to play it down the middle so they could edit the picture either way. She and Humphrey Bogart didn't really get along (which seems to be a common thread, from what I've read, where he was either prickly or misunderstood by his cast mates); and she was more worried about securing the role of Maria in For Whom The Bell Tolls behind the scenes. 

Casablanca boosted Ingrid's career and made her one of the most famous actresses in the world. Following her success in this Oscar-winning movie, she went on to make For Whom the Bell Tolls, Gaslight, Spellbound, Notorious, and other classics. 

She would win an Oscar in 1944 for Gaslight, another touching portrayal of a woman receiving subtle yet significant mental abuse at the hands of her husband (gaslighting is now a term for convincing someone that their reality is imagined or exaggerated). 

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Ingrid's career stalled in the United States in the '50s when it was revealed that she'd been having an extramarital affair with Italian director Robert Rossellini. She was pregnant with his child, denounced on the floor of the US Senate, and television hosts refused to book her on their shows. The senator from Colorado said, "Out of her ashes may come a better Hollywood." 

But Ingrid wasn't down for long. She and Roberto had three children together: Roberto, Jr, Ingrid and Isabella. She continued to make films in Europe. And in 1956, she won a second Oscar for Anastasia. By the end of the decade, she'd made a triumphant return to Hollywood (to present the Oscar for Best Picture to the producers of The Bridge on the River Kwai) and received a standing ovation. 

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What I love about Ingrid's acting style is how natural it is, and how easy it is for her to slip into her characters, like putting on someone else's skin. And for all of the mudslinging, she lived her life the way she wanted, and rose above. While US Senators were denouncing her (while curiously not saying anything about any relative bad behaviour on the part of male stars), she was raising a young family in Rome. 

When she came back to Hollywood in the late '50s, it was on her terms. She split her career between Hollywood and European films for the rest of her life, and won a third Oscar (only Katharine Hepburn has more wins than her, and she's tied with Meryl Streep currently) for Murder on the Orient Express in 1978. 

Ingrid was a natural gem in Hollywood. Do yourself a favour: watch as many of her films as you can. You won't be disappointed.