Like Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, some actresses can get too close to their directors and go up in flames. This was certainly the case with Liv Ullmann (she was born in Tokyo, by the way), who met Ingmar Bergman in the mid 1960s on the set of "Persona." Bibi Anderson was the lead — at the time involved in an affair with Bergman, she warned the 25-year-old Ullmann to be wary of the 46-year-old director's advances.
By the time the film was finished, Bergman and Ullmann were living together on the island of Fårö, partway into a tumultuous five-year affair (they were both married to others at the start) that ended with Ullmann packing up and leaving for Hollywood with their young daughter. Throughout the years, their relationship morphed from a towering fire of passion to heated, abusive arguing and finally to an enduring friendship.
Unlike Icarus, Ullmann lived to tell the tale and rise like a phoenix from the ashes of her love. In "Liv & Ingmar," Ullmann takes her place in front of the camera to recount some of the incidents that made up 50 years spent around one of the greatest cinema masters of the 20th century.