Steamy Couples II | Ingrid Bergman to Rossellini: "I only know how to say 'ti amo' in Italian"

**This article is part of a special summer series focused on legendary (sometimes a bit cursed) movie couples.

"Dear Mr. Rossellini: I saw your films Rome, Open City and Paisà , and I enjoyed them immensely. If you need a Swedish actress who speaks English very well, who hasn't forgotten German, who doesn't understand French well, and who only knows how to say "ti amo" in Italian, I'm willing to make a film with you .

It could be a fan letter, but the words came from the hand of Ingrid Bergman , who in 1948 wrote this surprising letter to the director of Rome, Open City (1945), offering to work with him, unaware at that moment that they would both live one of the most controversial love stories in cinema. The Swedish director was not even beginning her film career, but had already won an Oscar in 1944 for Gaslight and starred in numerous hits before sending that letter ( Casablanca, The Bells of Santa Maria, and Joan of Arc, to name a few). Roberto Rossellini , meanwhile, was busy leading the Italian Neorealist movement in what remained of his country, turned into ruins after the Second World War. Bergman loved his work and admired him deeply, even though they had never met.

"They were both married," David Felipe Arranz, a philologist, journalist, and professor, as well as the author of several books on cinema, explains to this newspaper. "Their first collaboration took place in Stromboli, the Land of God (filmed in 1959), where their romance began, amid the harsh conditions of the Italian volcanic island. At the time, Bergman was with the Swedish dentist Petter Lindström, with whom he had a daughter, Pia, and Rossellini with Marcella De Marchis. Bergman saw in Rossellini a European creative genius in contrast to the superficial Hollywood glitterati, while Rossellini was fascinated by Bergman's beauty and talent." "I fell in love with him because he was so unique," the actress would recall. " I had never met anyone like him, so free ."

"Ingrid Bergman saw in Roberto Rossellini a European creative genius in contrast to the superficial glitter of Hollywood."

In Stromboli, Bergman played Karin , a Lithuanian exile in Italy who escaped from a concentration camp and married a prisoner of war ( Mario Vitale ) she met on the other side of the camp fence. Her adaptation to Stromboli (the island to which her husband belongs) is traditional and complicated, and she is treated with hostility by the locals. As was typical in Neorealism, amateur actors and locals played various roles in the film, and the film was shot on the eponymous island, complete with its active volcano (which even erupted during filming, although no one was hurt).

At the time, Bergman had an image as an impeccable and perfect actress. However, everyone who shared the set with her was very clear that the director and the Casablanca actress were falling in love. "In 1949, when it became public that Bergman was pregnant by Rossellini (with his son Roberto), the scandal erupted," explains Arranz. "Bergman left Lindström, and the press and the public, especially in the United States, condemned her: she was branded an adulteress and was even denounced in the US Senate , which led to her temporary exile from Hollywood."

Despite this, the couple married in 1950, after divorcing their respective partners. Bergman was the worst off: Rossellini wouldn't allow her to return to the United States, and her former husband, Lindström, wouldn't allow their daughter Pia to go to Italy, so he spent several years without being able to see her. Professionally, however, Rossellini and she got along well: in 1952 they released the post-neorealist drama Europa '51 , starring Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini, and Giuletta Masina , wife of fellow director Federico Fellini . In 1954, their last films together, The Journey to Italy and Fear, were released.

"Controversy dogged them for years," Arranz notes. "They had three children: Roberto (born in 1950) and twins Isabella and Isotta (born in 1952). But Rossellini was very controlling on the set, and Bergman , who was accustomed to creative freedom in Hollywood , ended up clashing with him."

"In the mid-1950s, the relationship began to deteriorate: rumors of infidelity on the part of the filmmaker with the screenwriter Sonali Das Gupta mortally wounded the marriage. In 1957, the director was invited to India to make a documentary about the emerging country after independence. There he would begin a new relationship with the screenwriter, causing a scandal very similar to the one he had with Bergman. They divorced that year, and Bergman returned to Hollywood. Let's say that the love between Bergman and Rossellini was a mixture of passion, sacrifice and conflict , subjected to great external pressure," he notes.

When they divorced, Rossellini, who had always been extremely jealous and did not allow her to work with other directors ("I didn't feel comfortable in the role of the man whose wife brings home the money ," he once said), accepted the divorce, although he made two conditions: that she neither return to the United States nor remarry. Of course, Bergman ignored her (she soon began a relationship with the Swedish theater producer Lars Schmidt ). They had problems over custody of their children, but Hollywood welcomed the Swede with open arms, like a true prodigal daughter who had once again found the path to righteousness. She regained her standing with Anastasia (1956), alongside Yul Brynner, that fairy tale based on Romanov that earned her a second Oscar, collected by Cary Grant. Bergman was in Paris and learned of her award while listening to the radio.

Ingrid Bergman returned to Hollywood as the prodigal son. She regained her status with "Anastasia" (1956), which she filmed alongside Yul Brynner.

The Swedish actress was able to reconcile with her daughter Pia during a time in Paris , where the young woman saw her "in a different light" and (re)cognized her again. Bergman would go on to win a third Oscar, for Supporting Actress, for Murder on the Orient Express in 1957. Rossellini, for his part, would become a prominent influence on future generations of directors around the world (and particularly in Italy). Their work is still acclaimed today, and we recently saw their daughter, Isabella, nominated for Supporting Actress for the first time in her career, at the age of 72, for her quietly complex performance in Conclave . The couple never cut ties, despite initially having custody issues.

It was Ernest Hemingway (Bergman's unconditional friend, who supported her even in her worst moments) who summed up the relationship between the Italian and the Swedish woman very well. When everyone had left her aside in Hollywood, the writer of Paris was a party She wrote her a heartwarming letter: "You are a great actress, and great actresses always have problems sooner or later. Don't worry, it's never been of any use . If you really love Roberto, give him our love. I think we live in the worst times in history. But he is our only life." On the front pages of newspapers, she also wisely defended her friend: "Why all the stupidity? She'll have a child, all right. So what? Women have them. I am proud of her and I am happy. She loves Roberto, and Roberto loves her , and they want a child. We should congratulate her instead of condemning her."