Ingrid Bergman’s struggle against breast cancer
50 years ago, matters concerning to the women’s health represented an attack to the public morality. The censorship and the primitivism of the treatments for fatal illnesses like the breast cancer, worsen the suffering of women around the world in situation of physical vulnerability.
Breast cancer is the evil tumor that more strikes women. The disease gained notoriety when stroke famous celebrities as the actress Ingrid Bergman, which life was tragically marked by the struggle of nine years against the infirmity that culminated in her death.
Ingrid Bergman discovered a lump in the breast in 1973, at 58 years old. The muse of Casablanca had been just casted for Murder in The Express Orient. In 1974, Ingrid left the clinic in London after, under anesthesia, receive from the doctor the diagnosis of breast cancer.
The illness got worst in 1977, by the time of the making of Autumn Sonata, Ingmar Bergman’s movie in which the Swedish actress plays one her most remarkable roles. The remove of the right breast left Ingrid with lymphedema in her arm, impairing her range of movement. In her autobiography, My Story, she says: “Doctor came and I could read his face as an open book. I felt sorry for him, because it must be a terrible job tell women they were maimed.”
Decades after her mother’s death, actress Isabella Rosselini came to public for the first time to reveal the anguish and the suffering to which family was submitted in seeing the talented muse succumb to the pain of illness. “Mama suffered from breast cancer for nine years and the last three years, when my brother and sisters took turns to be with her in London, were very difficult”, she told Telegraph. “The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, she had an enormous [tumour on her] right arm and was very depressed with the fear of being unable to act.”
A LIFE OS RISKS
As the other sorts of cancer, the causes of breast cancer are uncertain. The development of the illness is comprehended from risk factors, like the familiar historical (women with first degree relatives who had cancer before 50 years old are more vulnerable), the premature menstruation (before 11 years old), the late menopause (after 55 years old), the first motherhood after 30 years old and the increase in age. There are also changeable risk factors, like the excessive consume of alcohol.
Biographer Laurence Leamer described Bergman as “a hard-drinking, hard-smoking woman”. The actress revealed that she didn’t practice physical exercises and used to eat until four ice creams a day. “I do everything they say you shouldn’t. I eat and drink what I like. I stay up late.”
“Mother was very Swedish, practical, direct and down-to-earth,” said Rossellini. “She always told the truth, so when an interviewer asked, ‘Who’s your favourite designer?’ she replied, ‘I don’t buy designer clothes, they’re too expensive.’ Everyone was stupefied, it was blasphemy!” Such a free spirit chafed at Hollywood’s determination to categorise its actors. “Everyone was a symbol: the gangster, the femme fatale. Cary Grant always played Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart played Jimmy Stewart. Mother was typecast as the ingénue, but she was very adventurous and wanted to find more ways of making art.”
SWEDISH DIVA’S INTENSITY BROKE BOUNDARIES
On the contrary of what one might think, Ingrid Bergman continued to act. Her last appearance was in A Woman Called Golda (1981), biographical short-series that tells the story of the Prime Minister Golda Meir, still on nowadays the only women to ever occupy a feature place in the Israeli govern.
To live Golda, Ingrid travelled to Israel and didn’t tell anybody she was ill. Conserving the lively of youth, the actress used to stay long hours on the set being making up to turn on “a little woman known for her genius rather than her beauty”.
“It was perfect for mother, who was only ever interested in investigating how many stories you could tell and how many characters you could play,” said Rossellini. “I love that she was able to do what she loved until the very end. No other actress worked in so many languages and styles, all over the world, and with such great talents. She is so much a part of the history of film.”
For A Woman Called Golda, Ingrid Bergman, three-time Oscar winner, was honored posthumously with Emmy and Golden Globe awards. The actress passed away on August 19th, 1982, on the day of her 67th birthday. In one of her last interviews, she declared: “I’d like to live my life in the most intense way, until the last possible moment. At some point, you have to make up with the adversary circumstances… you have to submit. Submission is part of life.”
Originally published at imperioretro.blogspot.com.
