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Shortly after the filming of Persona, the rumors began. She and Bergman gave out the news that they enjoyed an "extraordinarily fine relationship." Late this year, the Stangs divorced, and Ullman—and her daughter Linn—moved into the $100,000 house Bergman recently built on Sheep Island, scene of The Shame. On occasion, they can also be spied upon in their town house in Stockholm's expensive residential suburb, Deer Garden. Guarding his privacy with zeal, Bergman has only once publicly ventured an opinion about the woman who has played a major role in his last three films—and in his life. "As in photography, Liv is a complete commentary unto herself," he maintains. "Besides I am in love with her—creatively and personally."
Silly Woman. He is not alone. "She's one of the most talented actresses around," says Björnstrand. "A little like Ingmar—full of health, vitality, humor." To Von Sydow, Ullman has "a rare ability to express emotions in front of a camera in a very pure way, very directly. It is something I have rarely seen." To the National Society of Film Critics in the U.S., she was a brilliant actress in the year's best film, Persona; to international audiences, she is the latest Scandinavian beauty who—like Garbo or Ingrid Bergman or Ingrid Thulin—manages to convey a mind beneath the skin.
Next year, Ullman will star in a non-Bergman film, Jan Troell's two-part The Immigrants and The Emigrants, to be filmed in Sweden, Canada and the U.S. But, though there have been other offers from both European and American film makers, Ullman shows no inclination to be far from her companion. During the making of The Shame, he directed her to move closer to a flaming house. "Burning things were flying over my head," she recalls. "I tried to get a little out of the way from the house. Bergman shouted, 'Don't be so scared, silly woman!' and I hated him for days." You were caught, she was asked, between the fire on one side and Bergman on the other? "Yes," she replied. "And of course I chose Bergman."