RIP Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007)

Legendary film director Ingmar Bergman has passed away...

Bergman died at his home in Faro, Sweden, according to the Swedish, media citing his daughter Eva Bergman. A cause of death wasn’t immediately known.



Portions of The Associated Press article:

...Through more than 50 films, Bergman’s vision encompassed all the extremes of his beloved Sweden: the claustrophobic gloom of unending winter nights, the gentle merriment of glowing summer evenings and the bleak magnificence of the island where he spent his last years.

Bergman, who approached difficult subjects such as plague and madness with inventive technique and carefully honed writing, became one of the towering figures of serious filmmaking.

He was “probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera,” Woody Allen said in a 70th birthday tribute in 1988.

Bergman first gained international attention with 1955’s “Smiles of a Summer Night,” a romantic comedy that inspired the Stephen Sondheim musical “A Little Night Music.”

“The Seventh Seal,” released in 1957, riveted critics and audiences. An allegorical tale of the medieval Black Plague years, it contains one of cinema’s most famous scenes — a knight playing chess with the shrouded figure of Death.

“I was terribly scared of death,” Bergman said of his state of mind when making the film, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the best picture category.

The film distilled the essence of Bergman’s work — high seriousness, flashes of unexpected humor and striking images...

...“I don’t watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry ... and miserable. I think it’s awful,” Bergman said [in a 2004 interview]...

Go here for more about Bergman...

The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, the telefilm The Magic Flute, and the Academy Award winning Through a Glass Darkly from 1961 are my favorite Bergman films...But he had countless other gems... A true visionary and master to the craft of filmmaking. Imagine the humility of the man--someone of his talent--thought his work was "awful"...Rest Easy.