Ingmar Bergman

It has taken me a while, but I have finally got around to watching and studying some of the work of Ingmar Bergman. In recent weeks, I have watched three of his most renowned films.

First to receive my attention was "Wild Strawberries" from 1957. This follows an ageing professor on a road journey to a ceremony, where he is to be presented with an award. Despite his professional and academic accomplishments, the professor appears to have alienated many people, and to have become estranged from relatives and the world at large.

As the road trip progresses, the professor encounters people and places which cause him to re-evaluate things, coming to terms with his past, and finding some peace with the present. His faith in human nature is partially restored.

With understated but well-judged acting performances, this is ultimately an uplifting movie.

Next on my list was "Hour Of The Wolf", released in 1968, and starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman as a couple living on a remote and windswept island.

The couple are overtaken by a series of bizarre events and personal encounters.

This is more the type of movie which the public at large would associate with Bergman, and it is indeed quite bleak, this quality being accentuated by the location. This is probably not a film to be watched with the lights off!

Most recently I watched "The Seventh Seal", one of Bergman's landmark releases, again from 1957.

A rumination on death and faith, the work stars Max von Sydow as a knight returning from the Crusades, to be confronted by a country ravaged by the plague.

The film opens with the legendary scene on a beach, featuring the game of chess between Death and the von Sydow character.

As the knight and his companions travel inland, they are confronted by various manifestations of the plague, and against this backdrop Bergman examines the contradictions surrounding death and faith, and the varying ways in which humans address them.

"The Seventh Seal" is one of those films which one probably needs to view several times over, in order to fully absorb the multi-layered messages. On my first viewing, I found myself turning over in my mind various interpretations of each scene or piece of dialogue. I kept asking myself - does my interpretation actually correspond with what the director was really seeking to convey?

The film alternates between the sinister and the optimistic, with the latter providing some relief following the grim but compelling former.

"The Seventh Seal" is by no means an easy film to watch, but it is thought-provoking and in many respects inspiring.