Ingmar Bergman is the Oscar-winning Swedish auteur who helped bring international cinema into the American art houses with his stark, brooding dramas. But how many of his titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at 25 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1918 in Uppsala, Sweden, Bergman started off as a screenwriter before moving into directing. His early hits “Summer with Monika” (1953), “Sawdust and Tinsel” (1953) and “Smiles of a Summer Night” (1955) helped make him a favorite amongst American audiences hungry for world cinema.
He hit his stride in 1957 with a pair of noteworthy titles: “Wild Strawberries” and “The Seventh Seal.” Both films dealt with the absence of God and the inevitability of mortality — the former concerning an aging professor (Victor Sjostrom) coming to terms with his life, the latter focusing on a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) playing a game of chess with Death (Bengt Ekerot...
Born in 1918 in Uppsala, Sweden, Bergman started off as a screenwriter before moving into directing. His early hits “Summer with Monika” (1953), “Sawdust and Tinsel” (1953) and “Smiles of a Summer Night” (1955) helped make him a favorite amongst American audiences hungry for world cinema.
He hit his stride in 1957 with a pair of noteworthy titles: “Wild Strawberries” and “The Seventh Seal.” Both films dealt with the absence of God and the inevitability of mortality — the former concerning an aging professor (Victor Sjostrom) coming to terms with his life, the latter focusing on a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) playing a game of chess with Death (Bengt Ekerot...
- 7/8/2023
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
One of the great pleasures of yesteryear filmmaking was Hollywood's unshakable belief in the power of movie stars. This was especially true in the 1960s when Baby Boomers came of age and clamored for films that reflected their rambunctious, rock-and-roll taste. The studios, run by aging/dying moguls, were caught flat-footed. To stay afloat, they leaned on old favorites and newcomers who cut a classically dashing figure. Method acting might've been all the rage, but viewed on a big, flickering screen, process practitioners like Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Warren Beatty looked the matinee-idol part.
Clint Eastwood was a breed apart. He was familiar to U.S. moviegoers due to his portrayal of Rowdy Yates on the CBS TV Western "Rawhide," but that familiarity cut both ways. His lean build, chiseled facial features, and labored emoting belonged to a different era. It wasn't until he teamed up with Sergio Leone...
Clint Eastwood was a breed apart. He was familiar to U.S. moviegoers due to his portrayal of Rowdy Yates on the CBS TV Western "Rawhide," but that familiarity cut both ways. His lean build, chiseled facial features, and labored emoting belonged to a different era. It wasn't until he teamed up with Sergio Leone...
- 12/28/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
When I was in college, a professor of mine credited two films with birthing modern European arthouse cinema: Federico Fellini's "8 1/2" and Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal." Their black-and-white cinematography aside, the two movies couldn't be more different from one another. Where Fellini's meta-fictional comedy is a series of relentlessly moving images full of zest and zeal, Bergman's historical drama is a somber period piece, his camera typically static as it fixates on the faces of the film's weary travelers. "8 1/2" is a surreal celebration of life in all its disorder; "The Seventh Seal" is a dour meditation on the existential conundrum of religious faith.
Yes, I just quoted the Swedish Chef from "Muppets Most Wanted." I only steal from the best, after all.
"The Seventh Seal" came together at a turning point in Bergman's career. He had only just gotten his first real taste of...
Yes, I just quoted the Swedish Chef from "Muppets Most Wanted." I only steal from the best, after all.
"The Seventh Seal" came together at a turning point in Bergman's career. He had only just gotten his first real taste of...
- 8/23/2022
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
Stage and screen acting legend Max Von Sydow, who starred in The Seventh Seal and appeared in The Exorcist, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Flash Gordon, and Game of Thrones, died on March 8 at the age of 90, according to Variety.
“It is with a broken heart and with infinite sadness that we have the extreme pain of announcing the departure of Max von Sydow,” his wife, the producer Catherine Brelet, said in a statement.
Von Sydow made his Hollywood debut as Jesus in the 1965 Biblical epic The Greatest Story Ever Told. This gave him the authority to observe “if Jesus were alive today and saw what they are saying in his name, he would never stop throwing up” in Woody Allen’s 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters. Von Sydow had the power to compel Satan as Father Merrin in William Friedkin’s 1973 horror classic The Exorcist and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), directed by John Boorman.
“It is with a broken heart and with infinite sadness that we have the extreme pain of announcing the departure of Max von Sydow,” his wife, the producer Catherine Brelet, said in a statement.
Von Sydow made his Hollywood debut as Jesus in the 1965 Biblical epic The Greatest Story Ever Told. This gave him the authority to observe “if Jesus were alive today and saw what they are saying in his name, he would never stop throwing up” in Woody Allen’s 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters. Von Sydow had the power to compel Satan as Father Merrin in William Friedkin’s 1973 horror classic The Exorcist and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), directed by John Boorman.
- 3/9/2020
- by John Saavedra
- Den of Geek
Ingmar Bergman would’ve celebrated his 101st birthday on July 14, 2019. The Oscar-winning Swedish auteur helped bring international cinema into the American art houses with his stark, brooding dramas. But how many of his titles remain classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 25 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1918 in Uppsala, Sweden, Bergman started off as a screenwriter before moving into directing. His early hits “Summer with Monika” (1953), “Sawdust and Tinsel” (1953) and “Smiles of a Summer Night” (1955) helped make him a favorite amongst American audiences hungry for world cinema.
SEEOscar Best Director Gallery: Every Winner In Academy Award History
He hit his stride in 1957 with a pair of noteworthy titles: “Wild Strawberries” and “The Seventh Seal.” Both films dealt with the absence of God and the inevitability of mortality — the former concerning an aging professor (Victor Sjostrom) coming to terms with his life,...
Born in 1918 in Uppsala, Sweden, Bergman started off as a screenwriter before moving into directing. His early hits “Summer with Monika” (1953), “Sawdust and Tinsel” (1953) and “Smiles of a Summer Night” (1955) helped make him a favorite amongst American audiences hungry for world cinema.
SEEOscar Best Director Gallery: Every Winner In Academy Award History
He hit his stride in 1957 with a pair of noteworthy titles: “Wild Strawberries” and “The Seventh Seal.” Both films dealt with the absence of God and the inevitability of mortality — the former concerning an aging professor (Victor Sjostrom) coming to terms with his life,...
- 7/14/2019
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Author: Euan Franklin
Anyone experienced with Bergman’s better-known films associate him with death, mortality, and the irrelevance of religion. In his most recognised film The Seventh Seal, Death is personified by Bengt Ekerot in a pitch-black cloak – but we can almost see Bergman’s face under that hood, casting a gloomy presence within his sumptuous oeuvre.
But in the ‘70s, these existential themes loosened in his work and he became more optimistic (to the criticism of some). In 1971, the year Ekerot died, Bergman’s 31st film The Touch opened to bad box-office takings and a poor response from critics – Roger Ebert claimed it was “a movie that no one liked that much”. I’m going to be controversial and say that, despite its issues, I like The Touch.
In a small medieval town in Sweden, a place where everyone knows everyone, happily-married Karin (Bibi Andersson) visits her mother in...
Anyone experienced with Bergman’s better-known films associate him with death, mortality, and the irrelevance of religion. In his most recognised film The Seventh Seal, Death is personified by Bengt Ekerot in a pitch-black cloak – but we can almost see Bergman’s face under that hood, casting a gloomy presence within his sumptuous oeuvre.
But in the ‘70s, these existential themes loosened in his work and he became more optimistic (to the criticism of some). In 1971, the year Ekerot died, Bergman’s 31st film The Touch opened to bad box-office takings and a poor response from critics – Roger Ebert claimed it was “a movie that no one liked that much”. I’m going to be controversial and say that, despite its issues, I like The Touch.
In a small medieval town in Sweden, a place where everyone knows everyone, happily-married Karin (Bibi Andersson) visits her mother in...
- 1/16/2018
- by Euan Franklin
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Lang’s mysterious silent melodrama from 1921 is a parable about love and death that captivates with its ambition, enigma and sophistication
The only response to this 1921 silent movie by Fritz Lang, now restored and rereleased, is a kind of amazement – at its ambition, its enigma, its combination of innocence and sophistication. As so often with early cinema and silent cinema, you see the kinship with fable and fairy story, but also find yourself suspecting that it is somehow silent cinema that is truly aware of the medium’s possibilities; these seem to elude the more evolved, yet earthbound realist cinema that comes later.
Destiny is a parable fantasy: a young woman (Lil Dagover) is horrified when her fiance (Walter Janssen) is led away by the implacable figure of Death (Bernhard Goetzke) who has recently bought a plot of land that he has turned into a walled garden for his captured souls.
The only response to this 1921 silent movie by Fritz Lang, now restored and rereleased, is a kind of amazement – at its ambition, its enigma, its combination of innocence and sophistication. As so often with early cinema and silent cinema, you see the kinship with fable and fairy story, but also find yourself suspecting that it is somehow silent cinema that is truly aware of the medium’s possibilities; these seem to elude the more evolved, yet earthbound realist cinema that comes later.
Destiny is a parable fantasy: a young woman (Lil Dagover) is horrified when her fiance (Walter Janssen) is led away by the implacable figure of Death (Bernhard Goetzke) who has recently bought a plot of land that he has turned into a walled garden for his captured souls.
- 6/8/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
And here we are. The day after Easter and we’ve reached the top of the mountain. While compiling this list, it’s become evident that true religious films just aren’t made anymore (and if they are, they are widely panned). That being said, religious themes exist in more mainstream movies than ever, despite there being no deliberate attempts to dub the films “religious.” Faith, God, whatever you want to call it – it’s influenced the history of nations, of politics, of culture, and of film. And these are the most important films in that wheelhouse. There are only two American films in the top 10, and only one of them is in English.
courtesy of hilobrow.com
10. Andrei Rublev (1966)
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
A brutally expansive biopic about the Russian iconographer divided into nine chapters. Andrei Rublev (Anatoly Solonitsyn) is portrayed not as a silent monk, but a motivated artist working against social ruin,...
courtesy of hilobrow.com
10. Andrei Rublev (1966)
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
A brutally expansive biopic about the Russian iconographer divided into nine chapters. Andrei Rublev (Anatoly Solonitsyn) is portrayed not as a silent monk, but a motivated artist working against social ruin,...
- 4/21/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
The 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival continues to expand, with newly added appearances by legendary stars at screenings of some of their most memorable films, including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan, Barrie Chase, Polly Bergen,Coleen Gray, Theodore Bikel and Norman Lloyd, as well as producer Stanley Rubin, Clara Bow biographer David Stenn, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) film collections manager Katie Trainor and director Nicholas Ray’s widow, Susan Ray. In addition, TCM’s Essentials Jr. host and Saturday Night Live star Bill Hader will present screenings of Shane (1953) and The Ladykillers(1955).
And The Film Forum’s Bruce Goldstein will present a special screening of Frank Capra’s The Donovan Affair (1929), complete with live voice actors and sound effects to replace the film’s long-lost soundtrack.Mel Brooks is slated to talk about his comedy The Twelve Chairs (1970). Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan...
And The Film Forum’s Bruce Goldstein will present a special screening of Frank Capra’s The Donovan Affair (1929), complete with live voice actors and sound effects to replace the film’s long-lost soundtrack.Mel Brooks is slated to talk about his comedy The Twelve Chairs (1970). Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan...
- 3/13/2013
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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By Raymond Benson
Once again The Criterion Collection digs into master director Ingmar Bergman’s vault and brings us his exquisite, enigmatic film from 1958, The Magician (originally titled The Face in the UK; in fact, the Swedish title, Ansiktet, means “Face”).
Set sometime in the 1800s, the story concerns a traveling magic and medicine show called “Vogler’s Magnetic Health Theater.” The troupe consists of Vogler (Max von Sydow), the mute magician of the picture’s title, his “ward,” Mr. Aman (Ingrid Thulin in disguise, although it’s no surprise that the character is a woman), Tubal (Ake Fridell), who acts as manager/spokesman, and the inscrutable Granny (Naima Wifstrand), an old witch who dabbles in love potions. Picked up along the road is an alcoholic actor, Spegel (Bengt Ekerot, who was memorable as Death in The Seventh Seal).
Before the company...
By Raymond Benson
Once again The Criterion Collection digs into master director Ingmar Bergman’s vault and brings us his exquisite, enigmatic film from 1958, The Magician (originally titled The Face in the UK; in fact, the Swedish title, Ansiktet, means “Face”).
Set sometime in the 1800s, the story concerns a traveling magic and medicine show called “Vogler’s Magnetic Health Theater.” The troupe consists of Vogler (Max von Sydow), the mute magician of the picture’s title, his “ward,” Mr. Aman (Ingrid Thulin in disguise, although it’s no surprise that the character is a woman), Tubal (Ake Fridell), who acts as manager/spokesman, and the inscrutable Granny (Naima Wifstrand), an old witch who dabbles in love potions. Picked up along the road is an alcoholic actor, Spegel (Bengt Ekerot, who was memorable as Death in The Seventh Seal).
Before the company...
- 10/19/2010
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
My introduction to classic foreign cinema began with three films you would suspect most anyone would begin with: Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. It probably comes as no surprise I instantly fell in love with all three films as well as all three directors. So, when it was revealed a Bergman film I wasn't at all familiar with was coming to Criterion Blu-ray it certainly was exciting. Not to mention it's a Bergman film with Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Bengt Ekerot and Bibi Andersson. All of which are Bergman regulars, which only added to my anticipation.
The film centers on a traveling magic show referred to as 'Vogler's Magnetic Health Theater'. Max von Sydow plays the magician Vogler who's brought under question by a small town police chief and medical examiner, disbelieving they are true magicians.
The...
The film centers on a traveling magic show referred to as 'Vogler's Magnetic Health Theater'. Max von Sydow plays the magician Vogler who's brought under question by a small town police chief and medical examiner, disbelieving they are true magicians.
The...
- 10/12/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
With vampires all the rage and a cinema smitten with mind-bending narratives built around the generic staple of the “unreliable narrator,” what better time is there to have a look at Czech director Jaromil Jires’ provocative 1970 cult film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders?
First coming to the world’s attention with his 1963 debut feature The Cry (exhibited at Cannes), a film of documentary realism and social criticism that displeased his native government, Jires found his talents put on hold as Czechoslovakia’s state-supported film industry turned down script after script he subsequently submitted for production. It wasn’t until 1968 that Jires reappeared on the scene with The Joke, adapted from the novel by Milan Kundera as an ambitious drama attacking totalitarianism.
I’ve yet to see either of those films, but based on what I discovered with Valerie, I’d be eager to explore more of his works. While...
First coming to the world’s attention with his 1963 debut feature The Cry (exhibited at Cannes), a film of documentary realism and social criticism that displeased his native government, Jires found his talents put on hold as Czechoslovakia’s state-supported film industry turned down script after script he subsequently submitted for production. It wasn’t until 1968 that Jires reappeared on the scene with The Joke, adapted from the novel by Milan Kundera as an ambitious drama attacking totalitarianism.
I’ve yet to see either of those films, but based on what I discovered with Valerie, I’d be eager to explore more of his works. While...
- 8/23/2010
- by Movies Unlimited
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
Chicago – What more is there to write about “The Seventh Seal”? Dozens of scholars more renowned than myself have already examined virtually every shot of the film. It has been dissected and discussed in dozens of languages and continues to be one of the most influential pieces of work in the history of its medium. The new Criterion Blu-Ray edition makes it clear why.
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0 Since it won the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival, “The Seventh Seal” has become a world-renowned masterpiece of cinematography and symbolism. Writing again about its significance in the history of film would be merely repetitive. Instead, let’s look at the remarkable edition that Criterion has released for it.
Death played by Bengt Ekerot and Antonius Block, the knight played by Max von Sydow
Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection
In case there are some of you out there completely unfamiliar with “The Seventh Seal,...
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0 Since it won the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival, “The Seventh Seal” has become a world-renowned masterpiece of cinematography and symbolism. Writing again about its significance in the history of film would be merely repetitive. Instead, let’s look at the remarkable edition that Criterion has released for it.
Death played by Bengt Ekerot and Antonius Block, the knight played by Max von Sydow
Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection
In case there are some of you out there completely unfamiliar with “The Seventh Seal,...
- 6/23/2009
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Writer/Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cinematographer: Gunnar Fischer
Starring: Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Bengt Ekerot, Gunnar Björnstrand
Studio/Run Time: Svensk Filmindustri, 96 mins.
Knight plays chess with Death; Woody Allen, Conan, Bill & Ted take notes
It’s fitting that for Criterion’s sterling new edition of The Seventh Seal—a pillar of world cinema ever since its release in 1957—the troubled brow of Antonious Block (a role that made Max von Sydow into a star) graces the cover, rather than the portentous silhouette of Death (Ekerot). Long-standing comedic shorthand for art-house existential seriousness (see Monty Python, Conan anniversary shows or Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, etc.), the emphasis shifts back to the haggard solitary figure of Block and his mortal question: what is the meaning of life? Amid black plagues, witch hunts, passion plays and bawdy songs, the knight (and Bergman himself) digs deep into such dark ages and finds a kernel of affirmation.
Cinematographer: Gunnar Fischer
Starring: Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Bengt Ekerot, Gunnar Björnstrand
Studio/Run Time: Svensk Filmindustri, 96 mins.
Knight plays chess with Death; Woody Allen, Conan, Bill & Ted take notes
It’s fitting that for Criterion’s sterling new edition of The Seventh Seal—a pillar of world cinema ever since its release in 1957—the troubled brow of Antonious Block (a role that made Max von Sydow into a star) graces the cover, rather than the portentous silhouette of Death (Ekerot). Long-standing comedic shorthand for art-house existential seriousness (see Monty Python, Conan anniversary shows or Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, etc.), the emphasis shifts back to the haggard solitary figure of Block and his mortal question: what is the meaning of life? Amid black plagues, witch hunts, passion plays and bawdy songs, the knight (and Bergman himself) digs deep into such dark ages and finds a kernel of affirmation.
- 6/16/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
ngmar Bergman didn't shoot The Seventh Seal on Fårö Island, the wintry Baltic Sea redoubt where the great Swedish filmmaker lived for decades, but he could have. Surf washing over rocky beaches, gusty landscapes that support only the most austere human settlements—it's a backdrop that seems right for Bergman, and Fårö and the film are both all about it.
Criterion's DVD re-release of the deadly-serious The Seventh Seal, a (perhaps the) primary example of mid-century haute cinéma, arrives from a remote place: a far-flung corner of Sweden, yes, but also an era when Death (Bengt Ekerot, as a grim-faced, black-robed ghoul) could play chess against a questing knight (the impossibly blond Max von Sydow) and film characters meditated on God, the afterlife, and other Big Questions without so much as a hint of a smirk.
It might be the most-watched Swedish film ever made, which is why it's nice...
Criterion's DVD re-release of the deadly-serious The Seventh Seal, a (perhaps the) primary example of mid-century haute cinéma, arrives from a remote place: a far-flung corner of Sweden, yes, but also an era when Death (Bengt Ekerot, as a grim-faced, black-robed ghoul) could play chess against a questing knight (the impossibly blond Max von Sydow) and film characters meditated on God, the afterlife, and other Big Questions without so much as a hint of a smirk.
It might be the most-watched Swedish film ever made, which is why it's nice...
- 6/16/2009
- Interview Magazine
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