Bergman. Bergman’s case is incredibly strong. I have him graded out with 6 masterpieces (in 4 separate decades) which is tied for the most of any director all-time, has north of 20 archiveable films and had a clearly, unique auteur voice (if you’re easily parodied like Bergman -think Wes Anderson SNL skit- or in this case Woody Allen doing his Bergman impression in many films) it’s a sign you have your own cinematic universe and style. He’s both an amazing visual director (The Silence is a superb film with very little dialogue, Cries and Whispers is breathtaking with its use of color) and one of the greatest (if not the greatest) screenwriters of all-time (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and Winter Light, are all 50 of the best screenplays of all-time).
Best film: Persona it’s stronger visually than The Seventh Seal. Bergman already had multiple masterpieces under his belt in 1966 when he made Persona and took wall-art and his photographic achievements to a new stratosphere. The film’s wild narrative can be seen influencing everyone from Bunuel (Obscure Object of Desire) to Lynch (Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive). Sven Nykvist’s work is probably the most beautifully photographed black and white film ever made along with Raging Bull.
Total archiveable films: 21
top 100 films: 3 (Persona, The Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers)
top 500 films: 9 (Persona, The Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers, Fanny and Alexander, Wild Strawberries, Winter Light, The Virgin Spring The Silence, Scenes From a Marriage)
top 100 films of the decade: 10 (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona, Winter Light, The Virgin Spring, The Silence, Hour of the Wolf, Cries and Whispers, Scenes From a Marriage, Fanny and Alexander)
most overrated: Hour of the Wolf is #442 on TSPDT and it doesn’t crack my top 500. For TSPDT it is Bergman’s 7th and I have it is his 10th best but we’re splitting hairs here which ultimately means I don’t think much here from Bergman is overrated if this is my choice for this slot.
most underrated: It’s still Winter Light. I’ve got it at #254 all-time and TSPDT has it at #518 so the consensus underrated this one by hundreds of spots. Maybe the critics’ praise for Paul Schrader’s First Reformed will help shed some light on this Bergman work. Striking to look at (check out this image below- unreal) and it has some of the most first-rate, and darkest/harshest, dialogue back and forths in screen history. The scene where Björnstrand eviscerates Ingrid Thulin is tough to watch.
gem I want to spotlight: Shame. It’s hard to keep track of all the brilliant collaborations (especially in the artistically fertile period of the 1960’s where Bergman has five top 100 films of the decade) with Bergman, his muse Liv Ullman, Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand and dp Sven Nykvist but this one has the distinction of being Bergman’s only one set in the future and/or about the war. 33 minutes in there is the dazzling shot of Bergman’s trademark mise-en-scene blocking using faces as structures- von Sydow is lying flat on the ground and Ullmann’s face is cut in half just above. It’s gorgeous. There’s wonderful war-ravaged set pieces almost like a Rossellini post WW2- neorealism film. The silent, elliptically edited finale in the boat as they wade through dead bodies is brilliant as well. It’s an excellent addition to the Bergman canon.
stylistic innovations/traits: Framing, dialogue (the framing of dialogue and actors- specifically faces), religious filmmaker (certainly among the most thematically serious of auteurs). Like many of the greats who started out and are perhaps known for their work in black and white his work in color is astonishing (Fellini, Kurosawa are among the others who come to mind with Juliet of the Spirits and Ran). Specifically, both Cries and Whispers and Fanny and Alexander are among the 25-30 most beautiful color films ever made. His villain in Fanny and Alexander is also one of the most readily apparent or first to come to mind when I think of the history of cinema. Theology and intellectualism—meditations on God, death and doubt.
top 10
- Persona
- The Seventh Seal
- Cries and Whispers
- Fanny and Alexander
- Wild Strawberries
- Winter Light
- The Virgin Spring
- The Silence
- Scenes From a Marriage
- Hour of the Wolf
By year and grades
| 1951- Summer Interlude | R |
| 1953- Sawdust and Tinsel | HR |
| 1953- Summer With Monika | R |
| 1955- Smiles of a Summer Night | HR |
| 1957- The Seventh Seal | MP |
| 1957- Wild Strawberries | MP |
| 1958- The Magician | R |
| 1960 – The Virgin Spring | MS |
| 1961- Through a Glass Darkly | R |
| 1963- The Silence | MS |
| 1963- Winter Light | MS/MP |
| 1966- Persona | MP |
| 1968- Hour of the Wolf | HR |
| 1968- Shame | R/HR |
| 1969- The Passion of Anna | R |
| 1972- Cries and Whispers | MP |
| 1973- Scenes From a Marriage | MS |
| 1976- Face to Face | R |
| 1978- Autumn Sonata | HR |
| 1982- Fanny and Alexander | MP |
| 2003- Saraband | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
@Drake- What are the new grades for Ingmar Bergman’s films?
@Drake- Have you done any director studies recently?
@Malith – I have not, lots of 2024 films recently – and then the Val Kilmer and Gene Hackman studies
@Malith – what is your favourite Ingmar Bergman film?
I think I mentioned here a while ago that I was putting together lists of the best screenplays and screenwriters. I’ve finally gotten around to it on my site, and I don’t think it’s any surprise who tops the screenwriter list given the page this is on. I’ve got similar lists for cinematography, editing, and film scores coming soon too.
https://scenebygreen.com/2025/01/26/the-100-best-screenplays-of-all-time/
https://scenebygreen.com/2025/02/01/the-50-best-screenwriters-of-all-time/
@DeclanG- thanks for sharing- I’ll check it out
Love your site. In your “By year and grades” profile you have one of Bergman’s films listed as “Winter’s Light”. I’ve seen it as “Winter Light” elsewhere. Not sure what the right title is.
@john – thank you for the kind words about the website. Fixed on the page here. It is “Winter Light”
I finally finished my Bergman study, and it only took me the better half of a year knocking out one film per week with reviews for all that I ended up archiving. No doubt he has changed the way I view cinema, and the power of faces beyond acting alone. I’ve written up my full breakdown on my site: https://scenebygreen.com/2023/10/14/ingmar-bergman-faces-of-faith-and-doubt/
Looking at doing a bit of a shorter one next with Eisenstein (though I guess most directors would be shorter relative to Bergman), and then Fellini after that.
@DeclanG- Really well done – congrats on the study!
My ranking of Bergman`s films that I`ve seen:
1. Persona MP
2. Fanny and Alexander MP
3. The Seventh Seal MP
4. Cries and Whispers MP
5. Wild Strawberries MP
6 Winter Light MP
7. Autumn Sonata MS/MP
8. Scenes from a Marriage MS
9. The Virgin Spring MS
10. The Silence MS
11. Sawdust and Tinsel MS
12. Summer with Monika MS
13. Hour of the Wolf HR/MS
14. Shame HR
15. Through a Glass Darkly HR
16. The Magician R/HR
17. The Passion of Anna R/HR
25 Best Performances
1. Ullmann- Persona
2. B. Andersson- Persona
3. Sjöström- Wild Strawberries
4. Ullmann- Scenes from a Marriage
5. Josephson- Scenes from a Marriage
6. Von Sydow- The Seventh Seal
7. Björnstrand- Winter Light
8. Bergman- Autumn Sonata
9. Malmsjö- Fanny and Alexander
10. H. Andersson- Through a Glass Darkly
11. Thulin- The Silence
12. Ullmann- Cries and Whispers
13. Ullmann- Autumn Sonata
14. Thulin- Winter Light
15. Von Sydow- The Virgin Spring
16. Von Sydow- Hour of the Wolf
17. Björnstrand- The Seventh Seal
18. H. Andersson- Summer with Monika
19. Thulin- Cries and Whispers
20. H. Andersson- Cries and Whispers
21. Ullmann- Shame
22. Von Sydow- Shame
23. Björnstrand- Through a Glass Darkly
24. Wallgren- Fanny and Alexander
25. Ullmann- The Passion of Anna
Great job with this, I’m nearing the end of my Bergman study and will be keen to share my complete thoughts then. It’s a crazy number of masterpieces he’s got under his belt.
@DeclanG- I am following your study closly- wonderful reviews, really good reads.
And about masterpieces, basically every film he has in the top 10 has a good argument to be one.
An excellent list again! Bergman is probably in my top 3 so appreciation of his work always makes my little heart very happy.
My top 10 performances off the top of my head, quite similar to yours:
1) von Sydow, The Seventh Seal
2) Ullmann, Persona
3) Sjostrom, Wild Strawberries
4) Josephson, Scenes from a Marriage
5) B. Andersson, Persona
6) Bjornstrand, Winter Light
7) Ullmann, Scenes from a Marriage
8) H. Andersson, Through a Glass Darkly
9) von Sydow, The Virgin Spring
10) Ullmann, Autumn Sonata (I think her facial expressions push her a tad above Ingrid, although both were strong performances and elevated the film a lot)
Drake, did Hour of the Wolf get upgraded in the recent study? I thought it had some truly impressive imagery and would have it higher than an HR myself after one viewing.
@Harry – It did- but only a half grade- I have it as a HR/MS and have it as that on my 1968 page (sorry this page is so old now). I think I’ve been able to see it 4 times over the years- probably still not enough.
Which version of Scenes from Marriage do you prefer or have seen – miniseries or 2 hr 46 min cut?
@Harry- I have seen both- for this most recent study I saw the miniseries/longer version. The longer version gives more depth and nuance to the characters and the relationship- but the shorter version holds all of the major cinematic highpoints. I’ll continue to alternative versions when seeing it in the future.
@Drake-What version of Apocalypse Now(1979) do you prefer? Theatrical, Redux or Final Cut? Also what do you think about the scene of Brando reading a newspaper to Sheen. That’s the only time we see Brando in sheer day light. I think this scene is only included in the Redux version.
@Malith- Same idea here for me- I alternate them- in 2022 I caught the Redux version again.
Had some time off work over the past month and had the opportunity to watch all 44 Bergman feature films. Really enjoyed it.
My top 15
1. Persona MP
2. The Seventh Seal MP
3. Fanny and Alexander MP
4. Wild Strawberries MP
5. Cries and Whispers MP
6. Winter Light MP
7. The Silence MS
8. The Virgin Spring MS
9. Scenes from a Marriage MS
10. Face to Face MS
11. Hour of the Wolf MS
12. Autumn Sonata MS
13. Through a Glass Darkly HR
14. The Passion of Anna HR
15. Smiles of a Summer Night HR
@LeBron Smith- Good for you- wow, impressive! Thank you for sharing this. Love to see the appreciation for Face to Face here.
@Drake,
I’m sure you are finished with your Bergman study by now.
What did you make of Face to Face this time? Is it a top 5 of the year quality?
@M*A*S*H- Yes, MS grade
I always thought that the film is much more than what people made it sound to be.
Now does that affect Liv Ullmann’s placement on your list because now her resume is unparalleled (if it wasn’t already). This grants her 6 mentions as year’s best. More than any other actress.
@M*A*S*H- I think it still keeps her behind Ingrid overall- but yes, crazy close. Maybe they are 1 and 1A.
Three years after everyone, I’ve finally gotten my hands on the Criterion Bergman Boxset, and Wow, having not seen a single of his films, it’s almost overwhelming how massive Bergman’s career feels !
What should a Bergman newbie like me start with when exploring his filmography ?
@Jeff- my vote would be The Seventh Seal
@Drake – I’m planning on getting to more Bergman soon and was wondering, out of: Through a Glass Darkly, The Passion of Anna and The Magician – did any of these films improve from an R grade during your study and are definitely worth prioritising?
Also in your study did you get the films considered his worst, Serpents Egg and The Rite and if so are they really that bad?
@Harry- Keep us posted when you get to more Bergman. So I believe I saw 36 films and 32 are in the archives. Serpent’s Egg is in the archives- The Rite is not. I think all three of the films you mention previously jumped up a bit- but the biggest jump was Face to Face I believe. My rule of thumb though that I learned long ago though with great auteurs- is to try to see them all. So I mean certainly there are some Bergman films that are more important to see than others- but if you have the time I would see as much as you can get your hands on.
Summer Interlude HR
Sawdust and Tinsel R
Summer With Monika HR
Smiles of a Summer Night HR
The Seventh Seal MP
Wild Strawberries MP
The Magician R
The Virgin Spring MS
Through a Glass Darkly HR
The Silence MS
Winter’s Light MS
Persona MP
Hour of the Wolf MS
Shame HR
The Passion of Anna HR
Cries and Whispers MP
Scenes From a Marriage MS
Face to Face R
Autumn Sonata HR
Fanny and Alexander MS
Saraband HR
Hello Drake. Hope you are doing well.
How did the study go. Have you completed it?
(1) How many Bergman films do you have in the archives now.
(2) Any major developments. I saw that Wild Strawberries is now a MS.
@AP- Thank you for the comment. I’m up through 1980 so far on Bergman. So I think that’s 33 films. 29 of them are in the archives. A whopping 11 (I believe) of them are MS or better so far and that’s with Fanny and Alexander still to go. There were plenty of surprises and even if Wild Strawberries took a little step back, that is the outlier, I was underrating way more of Bergman’s films than I was overrating.
@Drake- is there a way by which you can share the grades you alloted to the movies after your study.
If not here then I follow you on Instagram and you can message them to me.
Get that “MS/” out of there for Winter’s Light! 🙂 Full on Masterpiece
@Meechy – Here’s hoping!
Winter Light was a revelation. I am awestruck by the power of such a seemingly simple set up. I have viewed this once before but wanted to revisit this and Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest (1951) ever since watching First Reformed (2017). Visually it has such incredible stark photography. It is so uncompromisingly bleak.
Gunnar Björnstrand is incredible of course, his character so cynical, self hating, and clearly damaged just like the Ethan Hawke character in First Reformed. Ebert posits that Bergman uses the Björnstrand character to vent his own personal frustrations with his faith. I think he may be on to something here.
I think what really floors me with much of Bergman’s work (I see have only seen a small overall portion although I have seen most of his highest ranked worked aside from Fanny and Alexander (1982) is that he makes films that on the surface would seem to not be cinematic in nature. Yet Bergman can make films which feature a lot of long conversations with little physical action but still find ways to shoot films without long uncinematic stretches.
“there are hundreds of impressive framed/blocked faces in Bergman’s oeuvre”
Here is a great video:
there are hundreds of impressive framed/blocked faces in Bergman’s oeuvre
Huh?
@Pedro – sorry forgot to post video ha
here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK4KO0E5Ze0
@James Trapp- Great share here- excellent video- thank you!
@Drake – makes me excited for deep dive into Bergman, hopefully will get to start within the next couple of months
I’ll be waiting Drake.
I wanted to say that when talking of color in Bergman films, Autumn sonata rarely shows up. It’s a travesty cause it’s color palette is one of the best in cinema history. So Bergman has made many movies set in various seasons “summer” With Monica Or virgin “spring” Or “winter” Light but they were b&w. Autumn sonata is in color and It’s gorgeous. The curtains of Ullmann’s house are orange-ish giving an orange-ish shade to the light. The candles, the dreses. In the famous Piano scene, Ingrid is wearing a shade of redish orange and Ullmann is wearing grey green- wow what a choice. It’s filled with autumn colors and is an amazing movie in general.
So Bergman has my vote for being cinema ‘s best writer period and often his writing and vision work together but here I think the writing and acting surpasses his vision. It’s less of a criticism of his vision here and more of a praise for it’s writing & acting.
It’s year’s best screenplay and best production design not to mention two of years greatest performances. I’ve always liked Ullmann more here maybe because she’s transformed from head to toe (almost unrecognizable) and her monologues always give me chills of DDL’s climactic acting in TWBB. Especially the one in which she talks about her inferiority complex and self hatred. It’s one of the best written characters she is vicious, vindictive, jealous of her mother (proven by the piano scene- the way she asks for her mother’s rendition of the music) but at the same time looking for her approval. She’s framing stories, telling her version of the truth, painting herself as a victim, exaggerating what really happened, in short she is trying to hurt someone who used to hurt her in past. She creates such violence with her words (and she is the same actress who literally drove someone crazy with her silence in Persona). Her carefully calculated vulnerability is so well written and performed.
You said that, you’ll do a Bergman study in winter. Is it about to happen.
I’ll be eagerly waiting for it. 😁😁
@M*A*S*H- I’m going to try to find time. I hope I can- this would be a fun study.
I think this is proof that Bergman did personally invent his famous style of blocking yet I’ll have to look for it myself when I get back into his early 50s films, though I’ve already seen his wondrous Sawdust and Tinsel from this period:
https://imgur.com/a/nF9AjPO
@Zane- solid find here, thank you for sharing
Finally my Bergman study is finished. @Drake now I’ll be eagerly waiting 4 urs. I’ll update my performances list as well. Here is my ranking graded in @Drake’s language:
1. Persona – MP
2. Cries & whispers – MP
3. Wild strawberries – MP
4. The seventh seal – MP
5. Fanny & Alexander – MP
6. Winter light – MP
7. The silence – MP
8. Scene from a marriage – MS/MP
9. Shame – MS
10. Autumn sonata – MS
11. Hour of the wolf – HR/MS
12. Through a glass darky – HR
13. The virgin spring – HR
14. Sawdust & tinsel – HR
15. Face to Face – HR
16. The passion of anna – HR
17. Smiles of a Summer Night
18.The magician
19. Saraband
20.Summer with monica
MOST OVERRATED: the virgin spring
MOST UNDERRATED: Shame
GEM I WANNA SPOTLIGHT: The silence
@MASH- standing ovation! Great work here- what a study!
@Zane- She loves her husband and tries to think like him, feel like him and starts to share his craziness. She thinks that it’s the failure of her love as had she loved him a lesser , she actually would have been able to help him.
Max was every bit her equal, extremely excellent.
I’m don’t care about awards but Ullmann actually won Best actress at national board of review and national society of film critics for this.
@Zane- Few points and remember that you are talking to one of the biggest von sydow admirer alive.
1. The film doesn’t do justice to him at all, he doesn’t gets many shining as during most of his screen time he’s facing away from the camera or it’s a distant shot.
2. He gets 2 major moments; a.)Encounter with the boy while fishing, b.) Encounter with Veronika vogler.
Liv gets many more shining moments. Beginning monologue, ending monologue, paranoid monologue in the woods, her encounter with spirits at the end, the way her demeanor changes when she has read sydow’s dairy, the way she’s drawn into his imagination (I believe that the dinner was his imagination).
I feel wierd commenting only about acting in a bergman film. But in my defense, acting is so integral in his movies unlike say Kubrick or malick and also I’m not fully aware with technical terminology to confidently talk about many technical aspects😅😅. But anyways 2 thoughts:
1. Ingrid thulin in the magician posing as Mr. Aman blew my hair back.
2. Liv ullmann in hour of the wolf.. WALKS AWAY WITH THE MOVIE. Her descent into madness is unexpected and jaw dropping. I forgot that the film was mostly her POV. I’ll be making a list of top 10 monologues in bergman films and her monologue about failure of her love is destined to be there.
…You think Liv Ullmann is better than von Sydow in Vargstimmen? You talk about her descent into madness… it’s not her, he’s the guy who goes insane… what are you even on about actually???
Really great list @Georg. I think Ingrid thulin in winter light is an omission, she’s more than extraordinary in it. I love that you tie many performances.
I had 4 performances tied for #1. But liv in persona had 3 solid praises so I chose her,
1. Her performance is #49 GOAT in premiere magazine’s Top 100 of all time (only bergman performance on list)
2. She’s #28 in Entertainment weekly’s 54 performances that deserved Oscar (ditto).
3. On Hollywood actress’ roundtable 2016 they were asked to pick a performance to be put in a time capsule and Anette Benning chose ullmann in persona and sang her praises.
@M*A*S*H – Ingrid Thulin is incredible in Winter Light. I didn’t mention her, because I thought Björnstrand was slightly better (it’s his character that undergoes the crisis of faith) and since I’d say Thulin is a little better in the Silence. She says more in Winter Light and really breaks herself into pieces for that scene, but in the Silence she wowed me. Her dedication and bravery in that film really shook me up. I agree that her performance in Winter Light would deserve a place in the list, anyhow. And I agree that Liv Ullmann in Persona is probably the finest acting achievement in the Bergman oeuvre. I love Von Sydow and Bibi Andersson, and I can see counter-arguments (I myself am not certain whether it’s Andersson or Ullmann for Persona), but I definitely see Ullmann as hovering above the rest of these extraordinary performances. Bergman was such a genius with actors and he had so much talent to work with, all these lists are from highly to utterly subjective, difficult to make and be happy with, and all the more interesting for it.
@Georg- I Agree with every word you said.
Unpopular opinion, ready to be crucified: Erland Josephson is slightly better than Liv Ullmann in Scenes (this will at least stand until I watch it again).
@Zane- I personally don’t agree but it Makes sense. That’s the beauty of performances in a Bergman film. First, you’ll never find a great solo performance, you’ll always find a bunch of gr8 actors doing gr8 work in a movie. And the quality is so consistent that anyone can choose anything & be absolutely right.
@Zane – Josephson is the unsung hero of the Bergman family of actors. He is so underrated. He is consistent and effective. If anything, it is my impression he always got to play the more level headed Bergman characters. Scenes from a Marriage is probably his best Bergman performance. I can see your giving him the edge over Ullmann, but for me the tie breaker is that final scene. When she says that she’s afraid she never loved anyone and that she’ll never love anyone. Despair, existential angst and anguish on a completely different level, and it’s all in her eyes. He then consoles her, and there is this aftertaste in the end about the subjectivity and quiet selfishness of love, even through it may still be love, but we, as an audience, know that what she said is true for her character ( or at least that’s how I interpreted it – a woman who knew how to care, but wasn’t sure whether she ever truly loved). I think there is a certain power and resonance about Ullmann’s turn in Scenes that is incomparable on several fronts. That said, the fact that in my perception of the film, Josephson is often eclipsed by her, is not to the detriment of his own accomplishment – he is excellent in it, and I see your point, though I tend to disagree with it.
@Georg- you have a natural skill of giving words to our thoughts. Loved what you said about that performance.
I don’t know you’ll be comfortable sharing the information here or not , but are you on Twitter or Instagram. I’d love to talk movies with you.
@M*A*S*H – first and foremost,
Thank you for your kind words. I’m on Twitter, and I actually created the account very recently (since about two weeks). I am quite inactive on it, but seeing your comment here prompted me to look up whether Drake has set up a Twitter account for the Cinema Archives and I pleasantly discovered there is indeed one. I haven’t talked much of cinema on Twitter yet and I’m honestly still wondering how that might go, but for now I’m just taking a look at whatever Criterion or Letterboxd or anything put up there. I don’t mind sharing the Twitter account here. It’s Georg on the Couch (@GeorgCouch)
@ Georg- sorry to bother you but Im not able to find the account you mentioned, I found @TheGeoOnCraft. Is that you? I’ve followed that acount.
@Georg- no worries, found you, followed you!!!!