Bergman is revered as one of the world's great directors

Liv Ullmann, the Norwegian actress and muse of famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, has said he will not make another film after his current project, Sarabande.

Ullmann, in London for a special screening of Bergman's 1974 classic Scenes from a Marriage, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she believed the forthcoming TV film would be "the last thing ever".

"The last day, the way he was, and the way he said goodbye, he didn't only say goodbye because the film was over. He said goodbye in a way I knew meant 'this is the last time I leave a film set as a film director'," Ullmann told the programme.

Ullmann, 63, is the star of the two-hour Swedish TV film which has finished filming but is still in production.

Bergman, now 84, is one of the most revered directors in cinema history, best known for the medieval epic The Seventh Seal and the US hit Cries and Whispers.

'Gift'

Ullmann, who had a relationship with the director for five years and had a daughter, Linn, with him, has had a career inextricably linked to Bergman's

She said: "Sometimes it annoys me, more so it makes me feel very, very proud. I feel I have been given the gift of being the best of friends with Ingmar Bergman, and having the best of professional relationships."

Ullmann said she enjoyed working on Bergman's films, and said they were a lot lighter than the director's reputation for depressive film-making.

Liv Ullmann said Sarabande would be Bergman's last film

She said: "All the films I have done with Ingmar Bergman have been the most entertaining and fun film sets ever.

"We have practical jokes, we laugh and we gossip," she added.

The pair had remained close despite their personal relationship breaking up.

Bergman said in a 1972 interview with the BBC that he drew on personal experiences for his films, which often dwelled on communication breakdowns and darker emotions.

Ullmann said she had hoped he might change when she lived with him for five years on a Swedish island.

"If I was having breakfast and he was telling me about his nightmares I thought 'oh my God, I'm going to be in that film soon'."