Bergman's favourites
by aheristos | created - 27 Apr 2016 | updated - 27 Apr 2016 | Publicwith quotes by him
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1. The Outlaw and His Wife (1918)
Not Rated | 72 min | Drama
A stranger comes to work at widow Halla's farm.
Director: Victor Sjöström | Stars: Victor Sjöström, Edith Erastoff, John Ekman, Nils Aréhn
Votes: 2,089
Getting to know Victor Sjöström – first through his pictures, and then by meeting him in person – was to me a tremendous personal experience. It all began very early with The Phantom Carriage. I must have been around 12, 13. It made a very deep impression on me. I was deeply shaken by that film. Not that I understood it or anything. I rather think I was struck by its enormous cinematographic power. It was an entirely emotional experience. I can still remember it. I remember certain sequences, certain scenes that made an enormous impression on me.
2. The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Not Rated | 107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
On New Year's Eve, the driver of a ghostly carriage forces a drunken man to reflect on his selfish, wasted life.
Director: Victor Sjöström | Stars: Victor Sjöström, Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg, Astrid Holm
Votes: 14,071
Getting to know Victor Sjöström – first through his pictures, and then by meeting him in person – was to me a tremendous personal experience. It all began very early with The Phantom Carriage. I must have been around 12, 13. It made a very deep impression on me. I was deeply shaken by that film. Not that I understood it or anything. I rather think I was struck by its enormous cinematographic power. It was an entirely emotional experience. I can still remember it. I remember certain sequences, certain scenes that made an enormous impression on me.
3. The Last Laugh (1924)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama
An aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, Emilie Kurz
Votes: 15,193 | Gross: $0.09M
I guess I have a certain weakness for silent films from the second half of the 1920s, before cinema became infected by sound. At this time, cinema was creating its own language. There was Murnau and The Last Laugh, with [Emil] Jannings, a film told exclusively with images, with extraordinary dynamism and fantastic sensuality in its visual choices, superbly directed. Then Murnau made Faust and eventually his masterpiece Sunrise. Three astonishing works, which tell us that Murnau — at the same time as [Erich von] Stroheim in Hollywood — was well engaged in the process of creating a largely original and autonomous language. I have many favorites among German movies of this period.
4. Faust (1926)
Not Rated | 107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
The demon Mephisto wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man's soul.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard
Votes: 16,608
I guess I have a certain weakness for silent films from the second half of the 1920s, before cinema became infected by sound. At this time, cinema was creating its own language. There was Murnau and The Last Laugh, with [Emil] Jannings, a film told exclusively with images, with extraordinary dynamism and fantastic sensuality in its visual choices, superbly directed. Then Murnau made Faust and eventually his masterpiece Sunrise. Three astonishing works, which tell us that Murnau — at the same time as [Erich von] Stroheim in Hollywood — was well engaged in the process of creating a largely original and autonomous language. I have many favorites among German movies of this period.
5. Sunrise (1927)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing
Votes: 53,809 | Gross: $0.54M
I guess I have a certain weakness for silent films from the second half of the 1920s, before cinema became infected by sound. At this time, cinema was creating its own language. There was Murnau and The Last Laugh, with [Emil] Jannings, a film told exclusively with images, with extraordinary dynamism and fantastic sensuality in its visual choices, superbly directed. Then Murnau made Faust and eventually his masterpiece Sunrise. Three astonishing works, which tell us that Murnau — at the same time as [Erich von] Stroheim in Hollywood — was well engaged in the process of creating a largely original and autonomous language. I have many favorites among German movies of this period.
6. The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924)
Not Rated | 183 min | Drama, Romance
A drunkard priest who has been cast out by his community struggles to atone and regain his honour and dignity.
Director: Mauritz Stiller | Stars: Lars Hanson, Sven Scholander, Ellen Hartman-Cederström, Mona Mårtenson
Votes: 1,379
7. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Passed | 114 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz
Votes: 60,590 | Gross: $0.02M
When asked if he liked Dreyer’s films: “Yes, in a protesting way. [S]ome of his pictures have infected me. But in a very strange way, he has always been an amateur. Like Antonioni.”
8. The Circus (1928)
Passed | 72 min | Comedy, Family, Romance
The Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Al Ernest Garcia, Harry Crocker
Votes: 36,008
From a MoMA profile: “Every year on his birthday (Bastille Day), Bergman screened Chaplin’s melancholy masterpiece The Circus for family and friends. The guy wasn’t all existential angst. Sometimes, he could enjoy an inept tightrope walker with his pants falling down being attacked by a barrel of monkeys. Was this funny, or a metaphor for life?”
9. Pépé le Moko (1937)
Not Rated | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A wanted gangster is both king and prisoner of the Casbah. He is protected from arrest by his friends, but is torn by his desire for freedom outside. A visiting Parisian beauty may just tempt his fate.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Jean Gabin, Gabriel Gabrio, Saturnin Fabre, Fernand Charpin
Votes: 8,065 | Gross: $0.15M
As for international influences, Bergman explains to [Jan] Aghed by way of a story about French critical snobbery that he is not nearly as indebted to the universally beloved Jean Renoir as he is to Julien Duvivier and Michel Carné,who seem considered by all but him to be less figures.
10. Hotel du Nord (1938)
83 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
On the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisian Hôtel du Nord, a nearly fatal gunshot separates a dejected young couple. But, amid a sad but beautiful panorama of lively characters, love has the final say. Can life be a fairy tale?
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty
Votes: 3,230
As for international influences, Bergman explains to [Jan] Aghed by way of a story about French critical snobbery that he is not nearly as indebted to the universally beloved Jean Renoir as he is to Julien Duvivier and Michel Carné,who seem considered by all but him to be less figures.
11. Port of Shadows (1938)
Not Rated | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a foggy, French port city.
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Brasseur
Votes: 9,950 | Gross: $0.03M
As for international influences, Bergman explains to [Jan] Aghed by way of a story about French critical snobbery that he is not nearly as indebted to the universally beloved Jean Renoir as he is to Julien Duvivier and Michel Carné,who seem considered by all but him to be less figures.
12. Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
Not Rated | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Jean Gabin, Jacqueline Laurent, Arletty, Jules Berry
Votes: 8,266 | Gross: $0.03M
As for international influences, Bergman explains to [Jan] Aghed by way of a story about French critical snobbery that he is not nearly as indebted to the universally beloved Jean Renoir as he is to Julien Duvivier and Michel Carné,who seem considered by all but him to be less figures.
13. Rashomon (1950)
Not Rated | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura
Votes: 180,236 | Gross: $0.10M
A French critic cleverly wrote that ‘with Autumn Sonata Bergman does Bergman.’ It is witty but unfortunate. For me, that is. I think it is only too true that Bergman (Ingmar, that is) did a Bergman… I love and admire the filmmaker Tarkovsky and believe him to be one of the greatest of all time. My admiration for Fellini is limitless. But I also feel that Tarkovsky began to make Tarkovsky films and that Fellini began to make Fellini films. Yet Kurosawa has never made a Kurosawa film. I have never been able to appreciate Buñuel. He discovered at an early stage that it is possible to fabricate ingenious tricks, which he elevated to a special kind of genius, particular to Buñuel, and then he repeated and varied his tricks. He always received applause. Buñuel nearly always made Buñuel films.
14. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,202
15. Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
A young priest taking over the parish at Ambricourt tries to fulfill his duties even as he fights a mysterious stomach ailment.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Claude Laydu, Nicole Ladmiral, Jean Riveyre, Adrien Borel
Votes: 12,702
Robert Bresson (with the exception of Mouchette and Diary of a Country Priest) and Carl Theodor Dreyer, Akira Kurosawa after Rashomon and Luchino Visconti after La Terra Trema hold small place in his cosmology.
16. Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)
Not Rated | 83 min | Comedy
Monsieur Hulot comes to a beachside hotel for a vacation and accidentally, but good-naturedly, causes havoc.
Director: Jacques Tati | Stars: Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud, Micheline Rolla, Valentine Camax
Votes: 20,251
I have seen Les Vacances de M. Hulot (Mr. Hulot’s Holiday) countless times. I sit and wait for the parts I enjoy. These can be whole sequences, great moments or just details.
17. The Road (1954)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama
A care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani
Votes: 66,536
We were supposed to collaborate once, and along with Kurosawa make one love story each for a movie produced by Dino de Laurentiis. I flew down to Rome with my script and spent a lot of time with Fellini while we waited for Kurosawa, who finally couldn’t leave Japan because of his health, so the project went belly-up. Fellini was about to finish Satyricon. I spent a lot of time in the studio and saw him work. I loved him both as a director and as a person, and I still watch his movies, like La Strada and that childhood remembrance – what’s that called again? (The interviewer has also seen the movie several times, but just now the title slips his mind. Bergman laughs delightedly.) Bergman: Great that you’re also a bit senile! That pleases me. (Later the same day, several hours after the interview, the phone rings.) Bergman: ‘AMARCORD!'
18. La Dolce Vita (1960)
Not Rated | 174 min | Comedy, Drama
A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux
Votes: 78,125 | Gross: $19.52M
We were supposed to collaborate once, and along with Kurosawa make one love story each for a movie produced by Dino de Laurentiis. I flew down to Rome with my script and spent a lot of time with Fellini while we waited for Kurosawa, who finally couldn’t leave Japan because of his health, so the project went belly-up. Fellini was about to finish Satyricon. I spent a lot of time in the studio and saw him work. I loved him both as a director and as a person, and I still watch his movies, like La Strada and that childhood remembrance – what’s that called again? (The interviewer has also seen the movie several times, but just now the title slips his mind. Bergman laughs delightedly.) Bergman: Great that you’re also a bit senile! That pleases me. (Later the same day, several hours after the interview, the phone rings.) Bergman: ‘AMARCORD!'
19. Psycho (1960)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Votes: 717,572 | Gross: $32.00M
I think he’s a very good technician. And he has something in Psycho, he had some moments. Psycho is one of his most interesting pictures because he had to make the picture very fast, with very primitive means. He had little money, and this picture tells very much about him. Not very good things. He is completely infantile, and I would like to know more — no, I don’t want to know — about his behaviour with, or, rather, against women. But this picture is very interesting.
20. La Notte (1961)
Not Rated | 122 min | Drama
A day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti, Bernhard Wicki
Votes: 24,007 | Gross: $0.04M
“He’s done two masterpieces, you don’t have to bother with the rest. One is Blow-Up, which I’ve seen many times, and the other is La Notte, also a wonderful film, although that’s mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Il Grido, and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade… He concentrated on single images, never realizing that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don’t feel anything for L’Avventura, for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress.”
21. Blow-Up (1966)
Not Rated | 111 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A fashion photographer unknowingly captures a death on film after following two lovers in a park.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle
Votes: 67,584
“He’s done two masterpieces, you don’t have to bother with the rest. One is Blow-Up, which I’ve seen many times, and the other is La Notte, also a wonderful film, although that’s mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Il Grido, and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade… He concentrated on single images, never realizing that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don’t feel anything for L’Avventura, for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress.”
22. Raven's End (1963)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
An aspiring young writer lives in a bleak working class block in the late 1930s.
Director: Bo Widerberg | Stars: Thommy Berggren, Keve Hjelm, Emy Storm, Ingvar Hirdwall
Votes: 1,735
From Bergman’s website: “That is his masterpiece, an impeccable film.”
23. Andrei Rublev (1966)
R | 189 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life, times and afflictions of the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer St. Andrei Rublev.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolay Grinko, Nikolay Sergeev
Votes: 57,003 | Gross: $0.10M
Suddenly, I found myself standing at the door of a room the keys of which had, until then, never been given to me. It was a room I had always wanted to enter and where he was moving freely and fully at ease. I felt encouraged and stimulated: someone was expressing what I had always wanted to say without knowing how. Tarkovsky is for me the greatest, the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.
24. My Sister, My Love (1966)
97 min | Drama, Romance
Jacob returns home to Sweden after four years in Paris. Charlotte, his sister, plans to marry Baron Alsmeden, which arouses Jacob's jealousy. He flirts with Ebba to take revenge on his sister. Old suppressed feelings awaken between them.
Director: Vilgot Sjöman | Stars: Bibi Andersson, Per Oscarsson, Jarl Kulle, Tina Hedström
Votes: 555
From a Criterion interview: “The camera and voyeurism are closely related to each other, but there are very few cinematic instances where the theme of the camera as voyeur has been developed. When I made my first love scene in my first film, I suddenly felt like a voyeur. I hadn’t thought of that before. This is part of the director’s profession. I told Bergman about this experience and he said, ‘Yes, you certainly are a voyeur. And you have a big camera which is catching it for you so that you can look at it over and over again.'
25. The Emigrants (1971)
PG | 151 min | Drama, History
Småland, Sweden, mid-19th century. A farming family struggle with their rocky, unyielding land, and decide to embark on the arduous journey to new hope in America.
Director: Jan Troell | Stars: Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg, Sven-Olof Bern
Votes: 7,451 | Gross: $1.16M
26. Edvard Munch (1974 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 210 min | Biography, Drama, History
This biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch focuses on the influences that shaped his art, his devastating affair with a married woman that will haunt him for the rest of his life
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Geir Westby, Gro Fraas, Kerstii Allum, Eric Allum
Votes: 3,373 | Gross: $0.04M
A work of genius.
27. A Respectable Life (1979)
102 min | Documentary
About a couple of friends in Stockholms drug world.
Director: Stefan Jarl | Stars: Kenneth 'Kenta' Gustafsson, Gustav 'Stoffe' Svensson, Eva Blondin, Patric Gustafsson
Votes: 1,233
From Jarl’s website: “According to Ingmar Bergman, documentary filmmaker Stefan Jarl definitively ‘belongs to the small circle of extremely talented madmen who have enriched Swedish cinema.'” Additionally, “One of the last great samurai who unyieldingly fights for ideals and convictions. In our ‘heavy industry’ there aren’t many like him.”
28. The Conductor (1980)
101 min | Drama, Music
A violinist in a provincial Polish orchestra, whose husband is the director of the ensemble, on a visit to the U.S., ties up with the world-renowned symphony conductor. As it turns out, he ... See full summary »
Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: John Gielgud, Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Seweryn, Jan Ciecierski
Votes: 687
29. Marianne & Juliane (1981)
106 min | Drama
Two sisters both fight for women's rights. Juliane is a journalist and Marianne a terrorist. When Marianne is jailed, Juliane feels obligated to help her despite their differing views on how to live.
Director: Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Jutta Lampe, Barbara Sukowa, Rüdiger Vogler, Doris Schade
Votes: 2,615
30. My Life as a Dog (1985)
Unrated | 101 min | Drama, Comedy
In the late '50s, young Ingemar learns a lot about life and himself when he is sent away from his sick mother to live with his aunt and uncle in a town full of eccentrics.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Anton Glanzelius, Tomas von Brömssen, Anki Lidén, Melinda Kinnaman
Votes: 22,521 | Gross: $8.35M
31. The Celebration (1998)
R | 105 min | Drama
At Helge's 60th birthday party, some unpleasant family truths are revealed.
Director: Thomas Vinterberg | Stars: Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Paprika Steen
Votes: 93,772 | Gross: $1.65M
From an interview with Vinterberg: “I was having issues with my script for It’s All About Love, so I called Ingmar Bergman and we ended up talking about everything but the script. He said, ‘Well, Festen is a masterpiece, so what are you going to do now?'”
32. Show Me Love (1998)
Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.
Director: Lukas Moodysson | Stars: Alexandra Dahlström, Rebecka Liljeberg, Erica Carlson, Mathias Rust
Votes: 55,383 | Gross: $0.17M
From a Moodysson profile: “Ingmar Bergman pronounced it ‘a young master’s first masterpiece.'”
33. Traffic (2000)
R | 147 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A conservative judge is appointed by the President to spearhead America's escalating war against drugs, only to discover that his teenage daughter is a crack addict. Two DEA agents protect an informant. A jailed drug baron's wife attempts to carry on the family business.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jacob Vargas
Votes: 219,625 | Gross: $124.12M
“Among today’s directors I’m of course impressed by Steven Spielberg and Scorsese, and Coppola, even if he seems to have ceased making films, and Steven Soderbergh — they all have something to say, they’re passionate, they have an idealistic attitude to the filmmaking process. Soderbergh’s Traffic is amazing. Another great couple of examples of the strength of American cinema is American Beauty and Magnolia.”
34. American Beauty (1999)
R | 122 min | Drama
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley
Votes: 1,209,840 | Gross: $130.10M
“Among today’s directors I’m of course impressed by Steven Spielberg and Scorsese, and Coppola, even if he seems to have ceased making films, and Steven Soderbergh — they all have something to say, they’re passionate, they have an idealistic attitude to the filmmaking process. Soderbergh’s Traffic is amazing. Another great couple of examples of the strength of American cinema is American Beauty and Magnolia.”
35. Magnolia (1999)
R | 188 min | Drama
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 328,203 | Gross: $22.46M
“Among today’s directors I’m of course impressed by Steven Spielberg and Scorsese, and Coppola, even if he seems to have ceased making films, and Steven Soderbergh — they all have something to say, they’re passionate, they have an idealistic attitude to the filmmaking process. Soderbergh’s Traffic is amazing. Another great couple of examples of the strength of American cinema is American Beauty and Magnolia.”
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