Liv Ullmann @ 70.

Actress and director Liv Ullmann turns 70 today. A few days ago, she wrote an op-ed for the Boston Globe, and she might appreciate it if this is how we begin:

As the global financial and economic crisis continues to throw countless numbers of people out of work, millions of refugee women and girls in developing countries continue to toil at a task that is not only arduous but extremely dangerous: collecting firewood to cook meals for their families.

For thousands of these impoverished women and girls, gathering firewood is more than a vital chore - it is often a matter of life and death. By doing what many of us achieve by simply turning on a stove, refugee women and girls regularly fall victim to rape, assault, theft, exploitation, and even murder....

Updated.

It is time to get beyond firewood. The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children - an organization that I helped found nearly 20 years ago - has begun a worldwide drive to explore alternative fuels and cutting-edge energy technologies, such as clean-burning fuels, fuel-efficient stoves, and solar cookers. Working with UNHCR and the World Food Program, its goal is to reduce the violence by promoting the development of safe alternatives to firewood.

Honors and congrats in German: Andreas Kilb in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Alexandra Stäheli in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung; and Die Welt.

Back in December 2007, the Self-Styled Siren reflected on a passage from Ullmann's autobiography, Changing.

See also: Bergmanorama, Stephan Cox's interview with Ullmann in 2001 for Salon and Wikipedia.

Updates: For Criterion's Current, Peter Cowie recalls the times he's spent with Ullmann - 1968, then 1972, then: "Flash forward to December 2004. The European Film Awards in Barcelona, and a conference on the craft of acting in European cinema. Liv delivers the keynote address - a magnificent, eloquent speech that for months afterward would be cited by actors and critics alike. 'In my profession as an actor,' she said, 'my material is the life I am living and the life I am watching, the life I am reading about and the life I am listening to.'"

"She's truly one of the greatest of them all, and nearly as formidable a director as she is an actress," writes Josef Braun.

Posted by dwhudson at December 16, 2008 5:55 AM