06/04/2005

The Norwegian actress turned filmmaker will receive the Crystal Globe for her outstanding artistic contribution to the world cinema at the next Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (1-9 July) which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

On the footsteps of previous film personalities such as John Boorman, Michael Douglas, Milos Forman, Morgan Freeman or Carlos Saura who received the prize since 1995, Liv Ullmann will attend the festival where three of her films will be screened in her honor: the documentary Liv Ullmann – Scenes from a Life directed by Edvard Hambro and narrated by Woody Allen, the 1969 classic Norwegian film Ann Magritt directed by Arne Skouen, and Ullmann’s own adaptation of Sigrit Undset’s novel Kristin Lavransdotter (1995). Both feature films will be shown as part of Karlovy Vary’s "Nature and landscape in Norwegian cinema" section.

Almost four decades ago, Liv Ullmann started her career as an actress with Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece Persona (1966). And it was in Bergman’s last feature film Saraband [+see also:
trailer
film profile] released theatrically in France last December, that Ullmann last showed all her acting talent. Her debut as a director was in 1992 with Sofie, followed by Kristin Lavransdotter (1995), and two films scripted by Ingmar Bergman: Private Confessions (1996) and Faithless (2000). She is now working on three new scripts including a screen adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.