
Ingmar Bergman, the man I believe to be the finest director in the history of cinematic art, died Monday at the age of 89.
Bergman was unquestionably the most successful and influential film director to come out of Scandanavia. His chiefly celebrated offerings are "The Seventh Seal" and "Wild Strawberries", both released in 1957. Over the course of his career, Bergman directed over 60 feature films and 30 international television releases. Of these TV releases, nearly all were full scale films released over successive weeks, including his classic relationship dramas, "Fanny and Alexander", "Scenes From a Marriage", and his final film "Saraband" released only last year.
Bergman had the unique gift of pulling the most compelling performances out of his actors. Max Von Siddow, Erland Josephson, Elizabeth Taylor, Ingrid Bergman, David Carradine, Bibi Anderson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Victor Sjöström, Bengt Ekerot, Harriet Andersson, and the incomparable Liv Ullman, each related the precious opportunity to work with such a patient and careful director, as a high point in their career. His long time cinematographer described his gift thus, "His camera loved the faces of his actors so completely, that you are held captive to their words or to anticipate them with an overwhelming depth of feeling, unnatural even to this art."
His film that has most deeply impacted my life is his 1962 film, "Winter Light" which depicts a minister in profound spiritual crisis following the suicide of a member of his congregation to whom he could express neither faith nor hope, himself doubting the reality of God in a cruel and terrible world. Interestingly, Bergman's own personal struggle with accepting God, which works its way to the surface of everything he works on, consistently strengthens my own faith and testimony. Though fraught with doubt and sometimes floundering in despair, his message to me is clearly an optimistic one, seemingly celebrating the staggering beauty of even the darkest, saddest moments of life and the glorious flaws of our fellow human creatures.
Other films I can widely recommend to you are Saraband, Autumn Sonata (starring Ingrid Bergman in her native language), Smiles of a Summer Night, Through a Glass Darkly, To Joy, While the City Sleeps, The Passion of Anna, Karin's Face and Cries and Whispers.

Thanks to Ingmar Bergman for every moment of beauty and truth you've helped me to lay hold on.






















