Ingmar Bergman

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Images

Max von Sydow as Antonius Block and Bengt Ekerot as Death play chess outdoors in a scene from Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal, with a wagon in the background.

Ingrid Thulin and Victor Sjöström in Wild Strawberries

Max von Sydow and Birgitta Valberg in a dramatic outdoor scene from The Virgin Spring, with Valberg holding and kissing a young woman's face as von Sydow looks on.

Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann in character, standing close together by a lit candle, in a scene from Cries and Whispers (1972) directed by Ingmar Bergman.

Silhouetted figures holding hands in a line across a hilltop, performing the dance of death in the final scene of Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal.

Max von Sydow and Harriet Andersson in Through a Glass Darkly

Max von Sydow and Birgitta Pettersson in The Virgin Spring

At a Glance

Ingmar Bergman summary

Quizzes

Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).

Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia

Related Questions

How did Carl-Anders Dymling help launch Ingmar Bergman’s film career?
How did Ingmar Bergman become involved with theatre while he was a student?
How did Ingmar Bergman explore marriage in his films of the 1950s?
How did Ingmar Bergman portray loneliness and vulnerability through his filmmaking style?
How did Ingmar Bergman use fragmented storytelling in his films?
How did Ingmar Bergman’s father’s work as a Lutheran pastor influence his films?
How did Sven Nykvist’s cinematography contribute to Ingmar Bergman’s films?
How did Victor Sjöström contribute to Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries?
How did religious art in Swedish churches affect Ingmar Bergman’s visual style?
How does Smiles of a Summer Night differ from many of Ingmar Bergman’s darker films?
What honours did Ingmar Bergman receive from the Swedish Academy of Letters and the Japan Art Association?
What inner conflicts are explored in Persona?
What role did Svensk Filmindustri play in producing Ingmar Bergman’s films?
What themes about aging are explored in Wild Strawberries?
When and where was Ingmar Bergman born?
When was Ingmar Bergman’s memoir The Magic Lantern published?
Where did Ingmar Bergman get his first full-time job as a theatre director?
Which Academy Award did Through a Glass Darkly win?
Which August Strindberg play did Ingmar Bergman direct in 1941?
Which Ingmar Bergman films earned Sven Nykvist Academy Awards for cinematography?
Which Stockholm theatre did Ingmar Bergman direct at during his career?
Which actors were part of Ingmar Bergman’s regular group of performers?
Which actress played the concert pianist in Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata?
Which film was Ingmar Bergman’s first as both writer and director?
Which issues did Ingmar Bergman explore in his earliest films?
Which subjects did Ingmar Bergman study at Stockholm University?
Which three films make up Ingmar Bergman’s religious trilogy of the 1960s?
Who directed Hets after Ingmar Bergman wrote its screenplay?
Who played the aged main character in Wild Strawberries?
Why did Fårö become an important setting in Ingmar Bergman’s work?
Why did Ingmar Bergman’s film career pause in 1951?
Why did Ingmar Bergman’s films often focus on people searching for moral standards?
Why is Ingmar Bergman considered a total filmmaker?
Why is The Seventh Seal described as a medieval morality play?
Why should Ingmar Bergman’s films not be treated as an objective portrait of Swedish life?
Why was Smiles of a Summer Night a major international breakthrough for Ingmar Bergman?
Why was The Touch significant in Ingmar Bergman’s career?
Why was the screenplay for Hets important to Ingmar Bergman’s early career?
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External Websites

BBC - The ï¿½greatest film-maker who ever livedï¿½
Official Site of Ingmar Bergman
BFI - Where to begin with Ingmar Bergman
Turner Classic Movies - Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007)
Senses of Cinema - Ingmar Bergman
Harvard Film Archive - Darkness Unto Light. The Cinema of Ingmar Bergman
ABC listen - Soundproof - Ingmar Bergman's silent voices

Britannica Websites

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Ingmar Bergman - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Ingmar Bergman

Swedish screenwriter and director

Also known as: Ernst Ingmar Bergman

Written by

John Russell Taylor

Art Critic, The Times (London); Film Critic, 1962–73. Professor of Cinema, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1972–78. Author of Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear: Some Key Film-Makers...

John Russell Taylor

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Ingmar Bergman (born July 14, 1918, Uppsala, Sweden—died July 30, 2007, Fårö) was a Swedish film writer and director who achieved world fame with such films as Det sjunde inseglet (1957; The Seventh Seal); Smultronstället (1957; Wild Strawberries); the trilogy Såsom i en spegel (1961; Through a Glass Darkly), Nattsvardsgästerna (1963; The Communicants, or Winter Light), and Tystnaden (1963; The Silence); and Viskningar och rop (1972; Cries and Whispers). He is noted for his versatile...

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