What is your favourite Ingmar Bergman movie?

ryanciara

What is your favourite Ingmar Bergman movie?

Right Turn Clyde

ryanciara wrote: »

What is your favourite Ingmar Bergman movie?

I've only seen two so far. Wild Strawberries and Persona. I'd have to say the former. I enjoyed Persona but I spotted what was happening after about 30 minutes. It was still very powerful though, and Bibi Andersson is smokin' hot in it.*









* This isn't the high-brow contribution you were hoping for.

Looper007

Wild strawberries (my favourite Bergman film), Fanny and Alexander, The Virgin Spring, Autuman Sonata and Through a Glass Darkly.

Only Kubrick and Kurosawa made better films for me. Bergman was the man even his lesser efforts are better most director's best efforts.

Manco

Persona for me!

charlie_says

Persona was hauntingly beautiful and engaging.

The only other Bergman film I have seen (that I know of) is the Seventh Seal, which is excellent but I preferred Persona.

Looper007

Manco wrote: »

Persona for me!

Persona the ultimate Art House film and along with the seventh seal it's his most well known work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2swm-M31y-4

Great documentary on the making of one of his lesser known works Hour of the wolf.
All his films are up on Youtube to view if you haven't seen all his work.

johnny_ultimate

My internal list of favourite films tends to change all the time as I watch and discover more and more great films. But Persona has been rocking it with a couple of others at the top for years now and ain't budging anytime soon.

Watching it for the first time, soon after Bergman's death in fact, hit me like a goddamn brick in the face. I'd only seen Seventh Seal before that, but Persona was a revelation. The sheer intensity of the performances from Andersson and Ullman (two faces made for close ups). The stark beauty of Nykvist's photography - shadows, symmetry, claustrophobia. The way Bergman communicates his themes as much through visuals and a startling soundscape as much as he does through the script. But what a script - the monologue describing a fateful trip to the beach is one of the most evocative and erotic in all of cinema. When I watched it first, I'm not in the slightest bit exaggerating that it single-handedly changed my perception of what film can and should be.

Also love how my appreciation for it grew as I watched more of Bergman's films. The Silence of God 'trilogy' is vital IMO, as it enhances and illuminates so many of the subtleties in Persona to the point where I'd be tempted to call them a four film series. The opening montage is basically a summary of Bergman's career to that point, and what follows is the grand statement and visionary work that defines one director's greatest creative period (even though many great films were to follow).

I love many other Bergman films dearly - Seventh Seal, Saraband, Wild Strawberries, Autumn Sonata, the faith films etc... I like everything of his I've seen except for The Serpent's Egg, which really is like a parody of a Bergman film. But Persona is in a league of its own not only in Bergman's filmography, but cinema itself.

Gamayun

I've owned Persona on DVD for a while now and haven't got around to watching it, however after reading this thread I definitely will soon.

The Faith Trilogy of Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light and The Silence are all great, as is Wild Strawberries.

I like The Virgin Spring too, I'm a sucker for films set around that time and liked the folk element.

The Magician, Sawdust and Tinsel and Hour of the Wolf I enjoyed but wouldn't rave about.

Summer Interlude, Summer with Monika and Shame are all fine films but didn't really grab me.

The Seventh Seal is my personal favourite though as it was one of the first non-hollywood style films that I ever watched. I was probably aged around eight or so and my Dad was watching it, and really made an impression on me. I discovered it again in my late teens and I've seen it about five times in total. It's a much parodied film but it's my favourite Bergman, the settings, visuals and themes all appeal to me (though Jof's dreadful lute-miming is annoying!).

crybaby

I have only seen a couple of them but I'll always have a soft spot for Summer Interlude

shazzerman

Hour of the Wolf is usually underrated when it comes to naming Bergman's best, in my opinion. I would place it ahead of The Seventh Seal. The Bergman films I keep returning to are (in order of greatness):
1. Persona
2. Winter Light
3. Wild Strawberries
4. Fanny and Alexander
5. Through a Glass Darkly
6. Hour of the Wolf
7. The Virgin Spring
8. The Seventh Seal