The World of Cinema — What Is True Happiness? Ingrid Bergman Speaks of Her Happiness

Ingrid Bergman speaks of her happiness

Here is Ingrid, eight years after her marriage, looking back on the past and giving her own opinion on this important subject.

The wide fame Ingrid Bergman has won in recent years has earned her, by right, the title of "the new Greta Garbo." She came to the United States in 1939 under contract to the director David O. Selznick to play the heroine in the film Intermezzo with the late Leslie Howard... And after five years there, she was hailed as the first actress in the world, being then twenty-nine years of age.

People supposed that Ingrid, in attaining this eminence and this triumph, had reached the summit of her hopes and the fullness of her happiness... But the truth is that she was not happy: in her home she constantly felt emptiness and desolation, and wondered at herself without ever arriving at an answer to her question: "Why am I not happy?"

The happiness to which the world-famous star Ingrid Bergman refers is in truth a happiness hard to attain, but not impossible; for the love Roberto and Ingrid bear their children is enough to make happiness hover in the air of their home...

She had the deepest respect for her husband, a dentist, who spent most of his hours in the operating room or bent over some study... A noble, gallant man, in whom Ingrid could find no fault... but his time was precious... and it was not hers... Hers was only her little girl "Pia" — she was her one consolation.

How did she come to know Rossellini? — By 1948 Ingrid's fame had covered the world, and her income was enormous; yet she remained modest and beloved of the crowds — but after her performances in "Arch of Triumph" and "Joan of Arc" she was no longer satisfied with her acting, and grew severe in calling herself to account...

By chance she attended Roberto Rossellini's film "Paisà," and was greatly taken with this director.

Ingrid said of it: "I had no idea at all about this man — whether he was young or middle-aged, short or tall, fair or dark... but I could judge his power to portray the tragedies of men in war... and I resolved in my inmost soul to work with him, whatever it might cost me... I wrote to him frankly of my wish, and introduced myself simply; I remember telling him that I had a good command of four languages — Swedish, English, French, and German — but that of Italian I knew nothing except the words 'I love you.' Yet Rossellini did not answer my letter!"

"The days passed, and in the autumn of 1948, when I had just finished making a film in England, there came a knock at my door one evening — and the knocker was none other than Rossellini himself, carrying a contract for me."

Then chance brought them together again in Paris, and once more in America, before Ingrid began working with him in Italy on the film "Stromboli." It was then that the story began of Ingrid's great love for this handsome Italian director, and she began to feel that she was living a new life in the shadow of this man — a life pulsing with a happiness she had never known before. Only then did Ingrid perceive the immense lack from which she had been suffering in her married life...

Ingrid's second marriage — Rossellini's love swept over Ingrid until she could find no meaning in happiness without him... Then came her secret marriage, over which Europe and America buzzed, and which cost Ingrid much of her popularity and of the public's love for her... After her marriage to Rossellini we find her living in Rome a soft and pleasant life, bearing him three children — a boy and two girls — and enjoying with him the utmost happiness this world affords, but for one bitterness that kept gnawing at the mother's heart: her longing for her firstborn, "Pia," who had stayed with her father in America and refused to know her mother or to go to her... But for this deep pain and longing, nothing would have kept Ingrid's happiness from being truly "complete."

And the star went on along the road of artistic glory, always forward, advancing from triumph to triumph, until last year her film "Anastasia" was shown, for which Ingrid received the Oscar award for 1956. Then she flew to America for the first time since her marriage, to receive the award in person and to accept the congratulations of admirers, who were not long in forgetting what she had done and in forgiving her for deserting her husband for the sake of the young director she loved...

In America Ingrid made no attempt to reach her daughter, despite her great longing for her — and she returned to Rome to be reunited with her family. And what a happy surprise it was, carrying Ingrid to the very summit of her happiness, when she received a telegram from her daughter "Pia" announcing that she was coming to her... She was afterward in Paris, performing the American play "Tea and Sympathy." The meeting took place in Paris — a warm meeting, in which tears of joy were shed. And here is Ingrid today — having tasted the meaning of complete happiness — living with her family a pleasant and prosperous life.