Type here if you have a crush on Liv.
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kenny-164 — 11 years ago(May 28, 2014 08:03 AM)
About Liv Ullmann
While everyone is unique, I do perceive her as having quite the unique set of qualities. From her personality to career choices to appearance to what we know of her private life, she does not seem that there is anyone like her.
It's a long list, perhaps starting with being multi-lingual, based on her living in Canada for a time, born to Norwegian parents and mostly raised in Norway, and at some point learning Swedish, to my American ear without accent. Her English is accented, but mildly so. I find it interesting she made her way into Bergman's ensemble of Swedish actors, not that Norway is so different from Sweden. But it is in some ways. I think a result of this life experience is she is adaptive. It certainly can be seen in her acting work.
But that's just the broad background of her experience.
Her personality seems to be one of a highly intelligent person, but one who also exudes a sort of questioning attitude that can be taken as lacking a constant self assurance. I think of the apparently improvised scene in The Passion where in her character as Anna Fromme she talks about meaning and God, and this to me reflects most closely what I think she probably is most like in real life, if you will (and not the rest of her performance in the Passion! - that was a role, quite obviously). Seeking, but with a moral context. Caring about others.
I think she also has a rather particular way of expressing her sexuality. She is neither a prude nor a libertine. No doubt she is passionate, but I also sense a tentativeness, a wariness of complete commitment to a romantic and sexual relationship.
Add in a sense of humor that can be self-deprecating, and in general is soft and not aggressive.
Not that she does not, cannot, have emotional outbursts. She is not after all an angel descended from Heaven. She is a real human being.
Her appearance is also imo unique. Who really looks like her? Neither a classic beauty, like Ingrid Thulin, or so idiosyncratic as to be lacking in elements of classic beauty. Her hair is among her best features, straw colored with reddish highlights, not too thin nor too thick. What incredible eyes, so expressive. A smile, with full and reddish lips, that can hint at the sardonic, but also express true joy. Her nose, her somewhat oval face, are perfect.
At 5'8" she is certainly above average height, but not so tall as to be lanky or far from average in the effect her height has on her movements. Her movements are in fact neither feline nor what I would call excessively athletic. Compared to a virtual contemporary as Diana Rigg, Ms. Rigg would seem to be more deliberate, if a bit more sexual, but I do see a rough comparison between them. Liv was slender, but not too thin, and the rare nude pics of her show her to great advantage.111c
Of course I have been talking about the Liv Ullmann of the sixties and seventies. In fact I think she aged quite well, and remains vibrant.
In her career I would guess there was a middle period where she was unsure where to go with her career, but she has remained relevant picking up on what she has learned in direction. All in all she remains a very impressive person. Certainly one of my top ten film actresses of all time.