How to Watch Ingmar Bergman Films

One of the most renowned film directors of the 20th century, Ingmar Bergman explored human relationships in 62 films. This Swedish filmmaker won praise from critics and audiences for films like "The Seventh Seal," "Fanny and Alexander" and "Scenes from a Marriage." Although Bergman's films certainly contained happy moments, they concentrated on the darker aspects of life and love.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Look for allegories about life and death, love and loss. The most famous image in a Bergman film is that of a chess game between Death (portrayed as a black-robed, white-faced man) playing a chess game against a knight on a beach.
2. Identify Bergman's usual cast of actors. Actress Liv Ullman, his creative muse and companion in the late 1960s, Max Von Sydow and Bibi Andersson appeared in many of his most famous films. Ullman garnered an Academy Award nomination for Bergman's film "Face to Face" in 1976.
3. Notice that Bergman created strong female characters. "Cries and Whispers" concerns two sisters who care for their other sister on her deathbed. "Persona" starred Liv Ullman and Bibi Andersson in a highly stylized film about a nurse and her patient.
4. Follow the themes for each of Bergman's films. They include "Silence," which explores the dichotomy between the cerebral and the physical, "Through a Glass Darkly," which deals with schizophrenia and "Wild Strawberries" about a doctor reevaluating his life while on a car trip with his daughter.
5. Consider the fact that Ingmar Bergman relied on intuition to script and direct his films. Many of the actors occasionally improvised the dialogue, sometimes overriding the original dialogue in the script.