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Trivia / Fanny and Alexander

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  • Acting in the Dark: To encourage a more natural performance from his young lead actor, Ingmar Bergman specifically didn't tell Bertil Guve what the film was about and what was going to happen in it.
  • Dawson Casting: The story takes place during a span of two years from 1907 to 1909. Alexander is supposed to be 10 years old when the events of the film commence. In real life the young actor Bertil Guve was 11 years old. However Alexander has grown and is 12 years old in the final scenes. This means that by the time the production had wrapped after a six month shooting schedule, Bertil Guve was approximately 12 years old coinciding with his character's age. Played straight with Pernilla Allwin who plays his little sister, even though she's actually five days older than Guve.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Peter Stormare appears as one of the young men that helps Isak Jacobi spirit away the children from the Bishop's house. Stormare would become Bergman's protigé and act in his theatrical productions, most notably as Hamlet.
  • Hostility on the Set: Ingmar Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist had a big falling-out during shooting, since Nykvist wanted to attend his ex-wife's funeral and Bergman wouldn't allow him to leave the set.
  • Playing Against Type: Famous Swedish song-and-dance man Jan Malmsjö, who is playing the evil bishop Vergerus, thought it was strange that 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."
  • Real-Life Relative: Ingmar Bergman cast some of his real-life children, including Mats Bergman as Isak's nephew Aron, and Anna Bergman as Hanna Schwartz; Linn Ullmann was to play Alexander's older sister Amanda, but when Linn's school refused to give her a break for production, her father cut the character. His ex-wife Käbi Laretei was cast as an aunt.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Originally, Fanny and Alexander were planned to have a big sister, Amanda, two years older than Alexander, but the character was left out of the film. She does, however, appear in a book based on the screenplay.
    • The part of Bishop Edvard Vergérus was written 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". Von Sydow was furious about the incident, and, by certain accounts, still harbours a bitter grudge about it until his death.
    • Liv Ullmann was originally offered the role of Emilie Ekdahl but turned it down. Bergman was very upset and told Ullmann that she'd "lost her birthright".
    • Bergman had Ingrid Bergman in mind when he wrote the role of Helena Ekdahl, grandmother of Fanny and Alexander. The role eventually went to Gunn Wållgren.
  • Write What You Know: The screenplay was semi-autobiographical, attempting to portray Bergman's fondest memories in what he called a "happy and privileged" childhood. His recollections of his grandmother's home were a particular inspiration. He commented on his boyhood:
    It was difficult to differentiate between what was fantasy and what was considered real. If I made an effort, I was perhaps able to make reality stay real. But, for instance, there were ghosts and specters. What should I do with them? And the sagas, were they real?
    • He also recalled receiving his own magic lantern at age 10, from his aunt; in his autobiography, he described it as personally significant, and previously depicted a magic lantern in Cries and Whispers.
    • With respect to the Ekdahl home, Bergman envisioned his real-life grandmother's Uppsala residence as a model. She had one apartment in the residence, whereas the other apartment belonged to Erik Bergman and his family.
  • Write Who You Know:
    • Bergman's relationship with his sister Margareta during their shared childhood is depicted through the character Fanny.
    • Bergman based Bishop Edvard Vergérus on his father, who was a Lutheran pastor and also raised in a family of women. The story Alexander tells of being sold to a circus resembles one Ingmar had told as a boy, and he was accosted by Erik much as Edvard lectures Alexander.

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