Ingmar Bergman was 27 years old with a decade of film and stage credits when he had an international hit with the fun loving and light hearted Swedish Musical Smiles of Summer Night. Riding the wave of that success, he swore on a stack of bibles he would shoot his next film in 35 days that summer on a low budget and on the studio lot. The result was a terrifying gothic contemplation of death and existentialism that despite its art house beginnings, took the world by storm in 1957. Join us as we watch Max von Sydow in his breakout role in The Seventh Seal. Works Cited Bergman, Ingmar. Images: My Life in Film. Arcade Publishing, 1995. Bergman on Bergman Chamberlain, David B. “Auteurism” and Film History. Literature / Film Quarterly Vol 10, No. 4 (1982) pp. 266-272 Cowie, Peter. Ingmar Bergman, A Critical Biography. New York. Scribner, 1982. Corliss, Richard and Wolf, William. God, Sex, and Ingmar Bergman. Film Comment. Vol. 19., No. 3., (May-June 1983), pp 13-19. Film Society of Lincoln Center. Kendrick, James. What is the Criterion? The Criterion Collection as an Archive of Film as Culture. Journal of Film and Video Vol. 53, No. ⅔ (Summer / Fall 2001) pp. 124-139. University of Illinois Press. Singer, Irving. Ingmar Bergman, Cinematic Philosopher: Reflections on His Creativity. The MIT Press. 2007. Steen, Brigitta. The Isolated Hero of Ingmar Bergman. Film Comment. Vol. 3 No. 2 (Spring 1965) pp. 68-78. Film Society of Lincoln Center.
