Ingmar Bergman Centennial: THE MAGICIAN

Director: Ingmar Bergman

1958, Sweden, 101

Screenwriter: Ingmar Bergman

Cast: Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson.

 

(Ansiktet) With The Magician, an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of deceit that doubles as a symbolic self-portrait, Bergman proved himself to be one of cinema’s premier illusionists. Max von Sydow stars as Dr. Vogler, a nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test in Stockholm by the cruel, eminently rational royal medical adviser Dr. Vergérus. The result is a diabolically clever battle of wits that’s both frightening and funny, shot in rich, gorgeously gothic black and white.

“Reflects Bergman’s understanding of the cinema as an illusion that can reveal the deepest recesses of the human experience.” – James Kendrick,