(Glenn Kenny’s article appeared in The New York Times, 11/1.)
This year marks the centennial of Ingmar Bergman’s birth. The Swedish playwright, theater director and filmmaker, who died in 2007, remains one of the most praised and, to a certain extent, most misunderstood 20th-century artists. The praise stems from his cinematic mastery and treatment of profound themes; the misunderstanding, from the conventional wisdom that because Bergman treated profound themes, his work must be a slog.
But Bergman was a gripping storyteller. You could even call him an entertainer. The German director Margarethe Von Trotta makes that clear in the opening of her new documentary, “Searching for Ingmar Bergman,” in which she breaks down the opening scene of Bergman’s 1957 classic “The Seventh Seal.” This picture, she says, both engrossed her as a viewer and made her want to be a filmmaker. Her analysis reveals the formal elements that make the oft-parodied “Seal” so potent.
Photo: The New York Times
