LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ingmar Bergman: Seventh Seal
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Ingmar Bergman, who has died aged 89, was an undisputed colossus of world art cinema. From the 1940s into the 21st century, he directed more than 60 films, wrote even more and created some, like The Seventh Seal (1956-57), Wild Strawberries (1957) and the autobiographically inspired Fanny and Alexander (1982), that were stunningly successful. He astonished people with his willingness to recognise cruelty, death and, above all, the torment of doubt.
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Before he died this summer at 89, Ingmar Bergman directed over 60 films, many of which are considered among the greatest in the international cinematic canon. His big themes included love and betrayal, sanity and madness, sex and death. But his movies could ... be filled with music and humor, as in his adaptation of Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute. That 1975 film will be shown this weekend along with his bleak masterwork, The Seventh Seal (1957) and The Magician (1958), a satirical tale of deception starring the brilliant Max Von Sydow as a 19th century Swedish mesmerist.
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Swedish director Ingmar Bergman achieved lasting fame with his dark films portraying themes of religious and psychological doubt, alienation and isolation. His 40 movies are considered the work of a distinguished master. They include The Seventh Seal (1957) and the trilogy of Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light and The Silence (1961 - 63).
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Bergman's obsession with death continued in 1957's brilliant Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries), starring Victor Sjöström as an aging professor reminiscing about the disappointments which tainted his life. After the somewhat slight Nära Livet (Brink of Life), Bergman helmed 1958's Gothic comedy Ansiktet (The Magician), a stunning return to form. The medieval setting of The Seventh Seal reappeared in 1960's Jungfrukällan (The Virgin Spring), a controversial essay on rape which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It was followed later that same year by Djävulens öga (The Devil's Eye). The outstanding Såsom i en Spegel (Through a Glass Darkly) was the next step in Bergman's evolution, marking the beginning of his "chamber" style of photography -- essentially, a penchant for extreme close-ups designed to highlight the nuances of his actors' faces to underscore a scene's psychological intensity. It ... opened his so-called "religious trilogy," a series of films exploring crises of faith, which also included 1962's Nattvardsgästerna (Winter Light) and 1963's Tystnaden (The Silence).
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At the beginning of Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film The Seventh Seal, the figure of Death stands on a rocky beach and presents himself to a knight just returned from the Crusades. Death is entirely cloaked and hooded in black, in stark contrast to his doughy white face. The image is still one of the most haunting pictures ever put on a movie screen.
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Bergman started his film career as a screenwriter before moving into directing. His first major movie as a director was Fängelse (1949; The Devil’s Wanton, 1962). He received international notice for the comedy Sommarnattens leende (1955; Smiles of a Summer Night, 1957). In 1957 Bergman released two psychological films, Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries, 1959) and Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal, 1958). The Seventh Seal, in which a 14th-century knight (played by Max von Sydow) battles Death in a game of chess, is considered one of the classic films in cinematic history.
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