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In response to the recent death of Ingmar Bergman, the Chicago Cinema Forum has organized a Bergman marathon (Chicagoist termed it a “crash course in Bergman”) to be held at the Chopin Theatre this coming weekend. Included will be the local premiere (two screenings) of a recent three-part, three-hour documentary about Bergman made for Swedish TV and screenings of five major Bergman features: 16-millimeter prints of Sawdust and Tinsel (1953), The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), and Persona (1966), and a DVD projection of the 188-minute version of Fanny and Alexander (1982), a Bergman miniseries that was the last thing he ever shot on film.
Having more recently seen the second part of the Bergman documentary being shown, devoted exclusively to Bergman’s prodigious career as a theater director–which I would argue (and Bergman himself maintained) is more important than his career as a filmmaker–I can strongly recommend it as an eye-opener. And if I had to recommend only one film to see by Bergman, I’d probably pick Persona–though I hasten to add, with some embarrassment, that I still haven’t seen Fanny and Alexander, which many regard as Bergman’s masterpiece, and which I’m planning to catch up with this weekend.
