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When Halfdan Ullmann T\u00f8ndel was 9 years old, he became aware that his grandfather was a world-famous director: the Swedish master Ingmar Bergman.<\/p>\n
Filled with pride, he boasted about it to his substitute teacher, but he was soon overwhelmed with shame and decided to never mention it again. \u201cI just felt so bad bragging about it, because I can\u2019t take credit for him being my grandfather,\u201d he said in a recent video interview from Oslo.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, T\u00f8ndel, 35, can now gloat about his own movie accomplishments. His first feature, \u201cArmand,\u201d in U.S. theaters Friday, won the Camera d\u2019Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year and was shortlisted for the best international feature film Oscar, representing Norway.<\/p>\n
A tense moral thriller with dashes of magical realism, \u201cArmand\u201d stars Renate Reinsve (of \u201cThe Worst Person in the World\u201d fame) as Elisabeth, an actress and mother summoned to her 6-year-old son\u2019s school after the boy is accused of inappropriate behavior.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Elisabet, in turn, is the name of the actress character in Bergman\u2019s intriguing 1966 drama \u201cPersona\u201d (played by T\u00f8ndel\u2019s grandmother Liv Ullmann), a coincidence T\u00f8ndel attributed to a subconscious connection. Yet T\u00f8ndel did consciously include a shot in \u201cArmand\u201d that\u2019s an Easter egg reference to Bergman, he said. He prefers to keep the brief homage a secret so audiences can discover it on their own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
T\u00f8ndel said he cherished the memories of the childhood summers he spent with Bergman at the director\u2019s estate in F\u00e5r\u00f6, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. It was a \u201cchildhood paradise,\u201d T\u00f8ndel recalled, where he watched Charlie Chaplin films with his grandfather in Bergman\u2019s movie theater.<\/p>\n
Because the memories were so strong, T\u00f8ndel said, he refused to watch Mia Hansen-L\u00f8ve\u2019s 2021 film \u201cBergman Island,\u201d which is set on F\u00e5r\u00f6. \u201cI probably wouldn\u2019t like it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like somebody made a film in your house and you didn\u2019t know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
As he grew older, T\u00f8ndel tried to get as far away as possible from filmmaking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt felt like it had been done quite well in the family, so why should I do it?\u201d he said. Instead, T\u00f8ndel studied psychology and then economics, but neither seemed like a right fit, he said. Eventually a journalism course in which he made short films brought him back to cinema.<\/p>\n
Once T\u00f8ndel enrolled in a proper film school, the reluctant director finally felt as if he\u2019d found his place, he said. For T\u00f8ndel, the process of making movies is akin to a mindfulness practice that allows him to feel present. But in order to carve his own way, he hid his family ties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t use my surname in film school,\u201d he said. \u201cAs far as I know, nobody knew who I was the grandchild of until, like, the third year. It was quite important for me just to be myself and not be seen through the \u2018grandchild of Bergman\u2019 thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bergman died when T\u00f8ndel was 17, long before T\u00f8ndel became serious about cinema. \u201cI didn\u2019t discuss Tarkovsky with my grandfather when I was 10 years old,\u201d he said, laughing. Now, he wished he could talk to him, not as a grandfather, but as a fellow filmmaker.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
To prevent himself from being influenced as he honed his own cinematic voice, T\u00f8ndel didn\u2019t start watching Bergman\u2019s vast filmography until he turned 30, just a few years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
That choice also preserved the distinction between his relationship with Bergman as the grandfather who held him in his arms and stimulated his imagination with stories of witches and ghosts, and the venerated director the world knows through his films.<\/p>\n
Speaking about Bergman isn\u2019t particularly enjoyable for T\u00f8ndel, who\u2019s had to balance his desire to honor and respect his lineage while pushing to be seen as an independent entity.<\/p>\n