'The Touch': Bergman's forgotten masterpiece

Article sample: 

Ingmar Bergman died ten years ago in July. At the time, it felt like the passing of a whole era of filmmaking. In its front page devoted to the 'Master', The Guardian used that stock picture of Bergman – in profile, black and white, wearing a beret. No image better encapsulates the 'serious European auteur' archetype than this. Works such as Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries, 1957), Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal, 1957), Fanny och Alexander (Fanny and Alexander, 1982) and, perhaps most of all, Persona (1966) represent a cinema that distils the complexities of existence into pure and uncompromising drama.

About Senses of Cinema:

Senses of Cinema is an online journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema. We believe cinema is an art that can take many forms, from the industrially-produced blockbuster to the hand-crafted experimental work; we also aim to encourage awareness of the histories of such diverse forms. As an Australian-based journal, we have a special commitment to the regular, wide-ranging analysis and critique of Australian cinema, past and present. Senses of Cinema is primarily concerned with ideas about particular films or bodies of work, but also with the regimes (ideological, economic and so forth) under which films are produced and viewed, and with the more abstract theoretical and philosophical issues raised by film study.