Bearing the subtitle "Painfully Connected," Akolkar’s examination of the 42-year-long relationship is told from Ullmann’s point of view and captures the many highs and lows of their tumultuous time together. Through a collage of sound and image from the timeless Bergman-Ullmann films—they made 12 together, including such towering classics as Persona and Scenes from a Marriage—as well as behind-the-scenes footage, still photographs, passages from Ullmann’s book Changing and excerpts from Bergman’’s love letters to his lead actress, a candid and humane picture emerges of what can truly be called a love story.
This beautifully shot documentary offers an intimate look at the famous director/star romance… Late in the film, Ullmann admits to occasionally resenting the fact that, after all these years, people still can’t talk to her without asking what it was like to work with Ingmar Bergman. The director once consolingly insisted that such questions tacitly acknowledged her own gifts as well: ’You are my Stradivarius,’ he told her. Liv & Ingmar is only concerned with the art the two left behind in this sense, as an outgrowth of their intense offscreen relationship…"—John DeFlore,
