Crisis Ingmar BergmanUrban beauty-shop proprietress Miss Jenny arrives in an idyllic rural town one morning to whisk away her eighteen-year-old daughter, Nelly, whom she abandoned as a child, from the loving woman who has raised her. Once in Stockholm, Nelly receives a crash course in adult corruption and wrenching heartbreak.A Ship to India Ingmar BergmanThe hunchbacked sailor Johannes longs to escape his home on a salvage ship helmed by his cruel, drunken father—and so does the captain himself, who is slowly going blind and planning to leave his wife and son for a music-hall performer named Sally. The family begins to unravel when the captain invites Sally to live on the ship, where she and Johannes form a tender connection.Port of Call Ingmar BergmanA sailor falls for a woman at a dance hall but has second thoughts when he learns about her checkered past.Thirst Ingmar BergmanA couple return on a train from a holiday in Sicily. As their relationship sours into acrimony and accusation, flashbacks reveal romantic entanglements on both sides that help explain their current malaise.To Joy Ingmar BergmanTwo violinists playing in the same orchestra fall in love and get married, but they can't get along.Summer Interlude Ingmar BergmanAn accomplished ballet dancer is haunted by her tragic youthful affair with a shy, handsome student.Waiting Women Ingmar BergmanWhile at a summerhouse, awaiting their husbands' return, a group of sisters-in-law recount stories from their respective marriages.Sawdust and Tinsel Ingmar BergmanAging circus performer Albert angers his mistress when he visits his estranged wife, triggering a roundelay of sexual betrayal and emotional anguish.Summer with Monika Ingmar BergmanA girl and boy from working-class families in Stockholm run away from home to spend a secluded, romantic summer at the beach. Inevitably, it is not long before the pair are forced to return to reality.A Lesson in Love Ingmar BergmanA couple deep into their married years seek fresh pastures. David, a gynecologist, falls for one of his patients, while his wife, Marianne, flounces off to Copenhagen to renew her fling with a sculptor.Dreams Ingmar BergmanSusanne, head of a modeling agency, takes her protégée Doris to a fashion show in Göteborg, where Susanne makes contact with a former lover, and Doris finds herself pursued by a married dignitary.Smiles of a Summer Night Ingmar BergmanA trio of couples meet at a country estate for a weekend vacation, but there, under the idyllic summer moonlight, a series of swapping interludes ensues.The Seventh Seal Ingmar BergmanFew films have had as large a cultural impact as Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet). Disillusioned and exhausted after a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight (Max von Sydow) encounters Death on a desolate beach and challenges him to a fateful game of chess. Much studied, imitated, even parodied, but never outdone, Bergman’s stunning allegory of man’s search for meaning was one of the benchmark foreign imports of America’s 1950s art house heyday, pushing cinema’s boundaries and ushering in a new era of moviegoing.SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New, restored high-definition digital transfer with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Introduction by Ingmar Bergman, recorded in 2003 Audio commentary by Bergman expert Peter Cowie A new afterword to the commentary by Cowie Bergman Island (2006), an 83-minute documentary on Bergman by Marie Nyreröd, featuring in-depth and revealing interviews with the director Archival audio interview with Max von Sydow A 1998 tribute to Bergman by filmmaker Woody Allen Theatrical trailer Bergman 101, a selected video filmography tracing Bergman’s career, narrated by Cowie Optional English-dubbed soundtrack New and improved English subtitle translation PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Gary Giddins Stills from The Seventh Seal (Click for larger image) The Seventh Seal Ingmar BergmanFew films have had as large a cultural impact as Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet). Disillusioned and exhausted after a decade of battling in the Crusades; a knight (Max von Sydow) encounters Death on a desolate beach and challenges him to a fateful game of chess. Much studied; imitated; even parodied; but never outdone; Bergman's stunning allegory of man's search for meaning was one of the benchmark foreign imports of America's 1950s art house heyday; pushing cinema's boundaries and ushering in a new era of moviegoing.The Seventh Seal Ingmar BergmanDisillusioned and exhausted after a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight encounters Death on a desolate beach and challenges him to a fateful game of chess.Wild Strawberries Ingmar BergmanTraveling to accept an honorary degree, Professor Isak Borg—masterfully played by veteran director Victor Sjöström (The Phantom Carriage)—is forced to face his past, come to terms with his faults, and make peace with the inevitability of his approaching death. Through flashbacks and fantasies, dreams and nightmares, Wild Strawberries dramatizes one man’s remarkable voyage of self-discovery. This richly humane masterpiece, full of iconic imagery, is a treasure from the golden age of art-house cinema and one of the films that catapulted Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal) to international acclaim.Wild Strawberries Ingmar BergmanWeaving a tapestry of memory and dreams, Ingmar Bergman delves into the past of aged professor Isak Borg, en route to receive an award from his alma mater for a life he no longer understands. Following directly on the heels of his international breakthrough The Seventh Seal, the alternately warm and nightmarish Wild Strawberries cemented Bergman as the leading art-house visionary of his era.Wild Strawberries Ingmar BergmanTraveling to accept an honorary degree, Professor Isak Borg is forced to face his past, come to terms with his faults, and make peace with the inevitability of his approaching death.Brink of Life Ingmar BergmanThree women in a maternity ward reveal their life stories and intimate thoughts to one another.The Magician Ingmar BergmanTHE MAGICIAN (Ansiktet), directed by Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander), is an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of deceit from one of cinema’s premier illusionists. Max von Sydow (The Virgin Spring, The Exorcist) stars as Dr. Vogler, a mid-nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test by a small town’s cruel, eminently rational minister of health, Dr. Vergerus (Wild Strawberries’ Gunnar Bjornstrand). The result is a diabolically clever battle of wits that’s both frightening and funny, shot in rich, gorgeously gothic black and white.The Magician Ingmar BergmanDr. Vogler is a hypnotist, a magician, and the leader of a traveling performance troupe known for their apparently supernatural abilities. When Vogler's show arrives in Stockholm, the skeptical townspeople form a committee determined to disprove the supposedly magical abilities of the troupe.The Devil's Eye Ingmar BergmanA reincarnated Don Juan is sent on assignment from the Devil to seduce a country parson's young daughter, tarnishing her purity and shattering her faith in love.The Virgin Spring Ingmar BergmanWinner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film, Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring is a harrowing tale of faith, revenge, and savagery in medieval Sweden. With austere simplicity, the director tells the story of the rape and murder of the virgin Karin, and her father Töre’s ruthless pursuit of vengeance, set in motion after the killers visit the family’s farmhouse. Starring frequent Bergman collaborator and screen icon Max von Sydow, the film is both beautiful and cruel in its depiction of a world teetering between paganism and Christianity.BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrackAudio commentary from 2005 by Ingmar Bergman scholar Birgitta SteeneNew video interviews from 2005 with actors Gunnel Lindblom and Birgitta PetterssonIntroduction by filmmaker Ang Lee from 2005An audio recording of a 1975 American Film Institute seminar by director Ingmar BergmanAlternate English-dubbed soundtrackPLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film scholar Peter Cowie and screenwriter Ulla Isaksson and the medieval ballad on which the film is based The Virgin Spring Ingmar BergmanAfter brutally attacking a young woman, a group of men unknowing seek food and shelter from her parents, setting the stage for revenge.Through a Glass Darkly Ingmar BergmanWhile vacationing on a remote island retreat, a family's fragile ties are tested when daughter Karin discovers her father has been using her schizophrenia for his own literary ends. As she drifts in and out of lucidity, Karin's father, her husband, and her younger brother are unable to prevent her descent into the abyss of mental illness.The Silence Ingmar BergmanTwo sisters—the sickly, intellectual Ester and the sensual, pragmatic Anna—travel by train with Anna's young son, Johan, to a foreign country that appears to be on the brink of war. Attempting to cope with their alien surroundings, each sister is left to her own vices while they vie for Johan's affection, and in so doing sabotage what little remains of their relationship.Winter Light Ingmar BergmanSmall-town pastor Tomas Ericsson performs his duties mechanically before a dwindling congregation, including his stubbornly devoted lover, Märta. When he is asked to assuage a troubled parishioner's debilitating fear of nuclear annihilation, Tomas is terrified to find that he can provide nothing but his own doubt.All These Women Ingmar BergmanA pretentious music critic visits the summer home of a celebrated cellist, hoping to write a biography. He is stymied by the cellist's "harem," who know just how to play him like an instrument. Having cleverly dealt with the virtuoso's vanity and infantilism, they now toy with his would-be biographer, who appears to want to become the man he is writing about.Persona Ingmar BergmanFamed stage actress Elisabet Vogler suffers a moment of blankness during a performance and the next day lapses into total silence. Advised by her doctor to take time off to recover from what appears to be an emotional breakdown, Elisabet goes to a beach house on the Baltic Sea with only Alma, a nurse, as company. Over the next several weeks, as Alma struggles to reach her mute patient, the two women find themselves experiencing a strange emotional convergence.Hour of the Wolf Ingmar BergmanOn a remote island, a troubled artist feels his mind slipping away from him. Troubled by disturbing visions and paranoid delusions, he and his wife begin to suspect that the haunting memories are the machinations of a bizarre, perverted cult that reside on the other side of the island.Shame Ingmar BergmanFormer musicians Jan Rosenberg and his wife, Eva, have left the city to avoid a civil war and now live on a rural island where they tend a farm. While the situation seems idyllic, the couple's isolation begins to wear on their relationship, and eventually the armed conflict that they've tried to flee arrives on the quiet island in the form of soldiers. Try as they might, Jan and Eva ultimately can't evade either the war or their own marital problems.The Passion of Anna Ingmar BergmanNot long after the dissolution of his marriage and a fleeting liaison with a neighbor, the reclusive Andreas begins an ill-fated affair with the mysterious, beguiling Anna, who has recently lost her own husband and son.The Rite Ingmar BergmanActors Thea, Sebastian, and Hans are sequestered in the offices of Judge Abrahamson, who questions them about the play they have been performing, which has been accused of being obscene. As the judge interviews them separately and together, the three performers work through their considerable psycho-sexual baggage with each other, while collectively laying siege to the sensibilities of their authoritarian interrogator.Fårö Document Ingmar BergmanIngmar Bergman had discovered the bleak, windswept Fårö while scouting locations for Through a Glass Darkly in 1960. Nearly a decade later—and after shooting a number of arresting dramas there and making the island his primary residence—the director set out to pay tribute to its inhabitants.The Touch Ingmar BergmanCries and Whispers Ingmar BergmanCries and Whispers Ingmar BergmanScenes from a Marriage Ingmar BergmanThe Magic Flute Ingmar BergmanThe Serpent's Egg Ingmar BergmanAutumn Sonata Ingmar BergmanFårö Document 1979 Ingmar BergmanMidway through his time in Germany, Bergman returned to Fårö for his second documentary exploration of the remote Swedish island he loved and the socioeconomic realities experienced by those who lived there. Longer, more optimistic, and less ascetic than its predecessor, this film charts a calendar year in the life of the island’s 673 inhabitants, many of whom he observes working tirelessly shearing sheep, thatching roofs, and slaughtering livestock, as well as going about various communal rituals. Distilled from twenty-eight hours of material, Fårö Document 1979 is a lyrical depiction of life’s cyclical nature.From the Life of the Marionettes Ingmar BergmanMade during his self-imposed exile in Germany, Ingmar Bergman’s From the Life of the Marionettes offers a lacerating portrait of a destructive marriage and a complex psychological analysis of a murder. Businessman Peter nurses fantasies of killing his wife, Katarina, until a prostitute becomes his surrogate prey. In the aftermath of the crime, Peter and Katarina’s psychiatrist and others attempt to explain its roots. Jumping back and forth in time, this compelling film moves seamlessly between seduction and repulsion, and the German cast is superb.Fanny and Alexander Ingmar BergmanThrough the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden. Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal) intended Fanny and Alexander as his swan song, and it is the legendary director’s warmest and most autobiographical film, a four-time Academy Award–winning triumph that combines his trademark melancholy and emotional intensity with immense joy and sensuality. The Criterion Collection is proud to present both the theatrical release and the original five-hour television version of this great work. Also included in the box set is Bergman’s own feature-length documentary The Making of “Fanny and Alexander,” a unique glimpse into his creative process.Fanny and Alexander Ingmar BergmanThrough the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden. Ingmar Bergman intended Fanny and Alexander as his swan song, and it is the director’s warmest and most autobiographical film, an Academy Award–winning triumph that combines his trademark melancholy and emotional intensity with immense joy and sensuality. Bergman described Fanny and Alexander as “the sum total of my life as a filmmaker.”Fanny and Alexander Ingmar BergmanThrough the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden. Ingmar Bergman intended Fanny and Alexander as his swan song, and it is the director’s warmest and most autobiographical film, an Academy Award–winning triumph that combines his trademark melancholy and emotional intensity with immense joy and sensuality. Bergman described Fanny and Alexander,presented here in both the theatrical and the five-hour television versions, as “the sum total of my life as a filmmaker.” And in this, the full-length (312-minute) version of his triumphant valediction, his vision is expressed at its fullest.After the Rehearsal Ingmar BergmanWith this spare chamber piece, set in an empty theater, Ingmar Bergman returned to his perennial theme of the permeability of life and art. Lingering after a rehearsal for August Strindberg’s A Dream Play (a touchstone for the filmmaker throughout his career), eminent director Henrik (Erland Josephson) enters into a frank and flirtatious conversation with his up-and-coming star, Anna (Lena Olin), leading him to recall his affair with Anna’s late mother, the self-destructive actress Rakel (Ingrid Thulin). The sharply written and impeccably performed After the Rehearsal, originally made for television, pares away all artifice to examine both the allure and the cost of a life in the theater.Saraband Ingmar BergmanWith his final film, Ingmar Bergman returned to two of his most richly drawn characters: Johan (Erland Josephson) and Marianne (Liv Ullman), the couple from Scenes from a Marriage. Dropping in on Johan’s secluded country house after decades of separation, Marianne reconnects with the man she once loved. Nearby, the widowed musician Henrik (Börje Ahlstedt), Johan’s son from an earlier marriage, clutches desperately to his only child, the teenage Karin (Julia Dufvenius). A chamber piece performed by four wounded characters and suffused with disappointment and forgiveness, Saraband is a generous farewell to cinema from one of its greatest artists.Ingmar Bergman's Cinema Ingmar Bergman |