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How did Ingmar Bergman influence Woody Allen’s films?

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Woody Allen speaking into a microphone with hands raised beside his face during a press conference, against a red background. — Woody Allen American director Woody Allen attending a press conference for *Café Society* before the opening of the 69th Cannes film festival, 2016.

The Swedish director Ingmar Bergman is considered perhaps the most significant influence on the work of Woody Allen. This influence is most evident in Allen’s transition from purely comedic films to weighty dramas characterized by dark themes and bleak landscapes.1

Specific examples of this influence include:

Thematic and Stylistic Homage: Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982) was created as an homage to Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night.2
Psychodramatic Approach: Allen explored psychodramatic territory in films such as Interiors and September (1987).2
Collaborations: In his "Bergmanesque" film Another Woman (1988), Allen utilized the expertise of Sven Nykvist, the renowned cinematographer who worked on many of Bergman’s most acclaimed projects.23

Through these efforts, Allen integrated the serious, introspective, and visually austere qualities of Bergman’s cinema into his own body of work.12