It would be hard for me to list my favorite Bergman. The first film of his I saw was The Virgin Spring and I ended up seeing most of his best: The Naked Night, Smiles of a Summer Night, Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Persona, Shame (which, technically, is a science fiction film), and Cries and Whispers.
I have a special fondness for Let’s Not Talk About All These Women – Bergman’s slapstick comedy, believe it or not. Fairly funny, too.
My college professor actually spent time with Bergman (he was at the world premiere of The Seventh Seal, I believe – in a nearly empty theater; Bergman was not appreciated in Sweden until years later). He told one great story:
Bergman was looking for some bathroom reading material and picked up a newspaper. As he sat down he spotted a headline saying, “Swedish Director Wins Award at Cannes Film Festival.” Bergman thought, “I wonder if it was anyone I know.” And that’s how he learned Smiles of a Summer Night was a prize winner.
He used the award as a way to gain leverage with Svensk Filmindustri to make the films he wanted to make.
Truly, one of the Greats has left us today. I salute you, Mr. Bergman.
At least he lived to see the 50th anniversary of The Seventh Seal. There’s apparently a recently-restored version making the rounds, although the existing Criterion DVD is already of high quality.
One of Bergman’s two great cinematographers, Sven Nyquist, died last September; if Gunnar Fischer (still alive at age 96) believes in the “Rule of Threes” he must be getting pretty nervous round about now.
Of course it’s a parody. One of the commenters at IMDb wrote, “Years later when I was working with Sven Nykvist on ‘Only You’ I mentioned to him that I had seen “The Dove” and asked him if he had. He smiled and told me that he had and that Ingmar Bergman had seen it too and loved it!”
The Seventh Seal never did much for me, even though it’s his most famous film. I’ve seen a few dozen of his movies. My favorite is Wild Strawberries, even though I don’t remember it very well. For some reason, Winter Light is the movie I can remember in the most detail. I suppose that says something.
Max Von Sydow has a small role in Wild Strawberries, not the lead. You’re thinking of director-turned-actor Victor Sjöström, who was fifty years older than Von Sydow.
I mean “mentioned” as “a Bergman movie I like to point out as particularly good”. - Thanks for pointing it out though, I admit I missed the title in said post.
