BTXXX 1958: The Magician

The Magician (Ansiktet). Ingmar Bergman. 1958. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★.

We’ve now reached the point where a Bergman film can be immediately identified by just looking at any random frame from his movies, so I guess we’ve gone past the “early” bit of his career.

It’s all so programmatically present in this one: All the characters being metaphors for Bergman’s own life (Bergman’s both the tortured artiste Vogler and the huckster selling the artistiness here, I think?); the religious affectations; the stylised repartee…

I mean, it’s brilliant, but…

This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.

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