 Sveriges Radio stipulated that the work had to include a Swedish element . Singer Russell Mael told The National , " At first , we obviously thought of cars and Ikea . I ’ m joking . But the more profound , more lasting idea – being the film fans we are – was Ingmar Bergman . So we hit upon a fantasy situation of him going to Hollywood , which is obviously a lot more universal , too . " Before starting work on the musical , the Mael brothers decided to refresh their memories by looking at Bergman 's films again . " We were both really big film fans in university . At that time unless you only liked foreign film , and hated American ones , you weren ’ t cool " , Ron Mael told The Times . " There was a real kind of seriousness to [ Bergman ] . He actually addressed big things and was able to frame those in really pure , cinematic ways . Now those things are seen as being kind of pretentious . Everyone wants to be seen as though they don ’ t care about the big issues . " Commenting on the suitability of Bergman as the topic of a musical , Russell Mael told a Swedish newspaper , " In a way , he is the least appropriate person for a musical . We like the absurdity of it all . He was such a deep , intense person and the vast majority of his films are about really deep topics . But we did not want to ridicule him , we wanted to do something respectful that Bergman would have been able to appreciate . " 
