FILM 1476: FANNY AND ALEXANDER
TRIVIA: The part of Bishop Edvard
Vergérus was written by Ingmar
Bergman with Max von Sydow
in mind. When the screenplay was completed, von Sydow was contacted about
playing the role, which would have been his first in a Bergman film since The Touch (1971). Von
Sydow was willing and, in fact, very excited about playing the role. However,
Bergman was not aware of this, since von Sydow was in Los Angeles at the time,
and could only be reached through his agent who, acting in what he perceived as
von Sydow's interest, told Bergman and his producers that von Sydow would only
play the role if he could have a percentage of the film's profits, in addition
to his salary. The producers, already stretched to their financial limits, of
course balked, and told the agent that, sadly, there could be no such
compromise, and began looking for other actors to play the pivotal part. By the
time von Sydow had learned why his beloved role had been taken from him, Jan Malmsjö had already
been cast as the Bishop, and von Sydow lost his chance to star in what would
later be known to be Bergman's "last film" (although he would play
key roles in The Best
Intentions (1992) and Private
Confessions (1996), both written by Bergman). Von Sydow was furious
about the incident, and, by certain accounts, still harbours a bitter grudge
about it to this day.
Ingmar Bergman's first
draft of the script, completed in 1979, consisted of about 1,000 handwritten
pages.
At the time, the largest film ever
made in Sweden (with 60 speaking parts and over 1200 extras) and the most
expensive, with a budget of $6 million.
Famous Swedish song-and-dance man Jan Malmsjö, who is
playing the evil bishop Vergerus, thought it was strange that director Ingmar Bergman approached
him for a role very much different from anything he had done. He asked Bergman
about it, who replied: "Well, I sense some hidden dark and evil streaks
inside you, Jan. You have it, I have it, all of us have."
After playing Alexander, Bertil Guve decided not to
pursue a career in acting. He is now a doctor of economics.
Director Ingmar Bergman suffered
serious bouts of hypochondria during shooting, and imagined he had gotten both
testicular and stomach cancer at the same time.
Although she is an eponymous character,
Fanny isn't mentioned in the theatrical version of the film until nearly an
hour into its running time. Conversely, in the television version, her name is
the first word spoken.
Peter Stormare makes an
uncredited appearance as one of the men helping Isak with the trunk.
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