The transpositions of a filmmaker—Ingmar Bergman at home and abroad

Abstract Ingmar Bergman’s cinema has been distributed around the world to varied, constantly evolving public response. In this 1998 essay, Birgitta Steene assesses data collected from film viewers in five countries – Brazil, France, India, Sweden, and the United States – to ultimately illuminate a complex transcultural circulation process comprised of three stages that are discussed at length: transmittance, annexation, and assimilation. Through this process, distributors and marketers frame work for audiences who claim it according to perceived differences and familiarities before finally assimilating it into their particular, individual world views. This study exemplifies a practicable approach not just to Bergman Studies but the transnational dissemination of art and media generally.