Sat, Sept 29 / 7 pm
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
1958, Sweden, 101 min
Swedish with English subtitles
Introduced by Ross McMillan.
Ingmar Bergman’s The Magician is an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of deceit from one of cinema’s premier illusionists. Max von Sydow stars as Dr. Vogler, a nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test in Stockholm by the cruel, eminently rational royal medical adviser Dr. Vergérus. The result is a diabolically clever battle of wits that’s both frightening and funny, shot in rich, gorgeously gothic, black and white.
Background: Ross McMillan is a Winnipeg actor, playwright and theatre director who discovered the movies of Ingmar Bergman in 1989 and has admired them ever since.
In particular, Bergman’s “The Magician” provoked an epiphany about the nature of art.
No name is more synonymous with the postwar explosion of international art-house cinema than Ingmar Bergman, a master storyteller who startled the world with his stark intensity and naked pursuit of the most profound metaphysical and spiritual questions. This year is the centenary of Ingmar Bergman, who has proven to be, from any perspective, one of the most important film directors of the last century. These eight films are his most challenging, thought provoking, stringent, emotional documents in a career which spanned 50 years. All of these films have recently been restored in new digital formats by Janus Films and are currently touring North America. Curated by Rory Runnells and Winnipeg Film Group Cinematheque. Special thanks to Rory Runnells and Susan Algie.
Twilight Room of The Soul: The Universe of Ingmar Bergman is generously sponsored by George Toles, Kate, Ron and Jennifer Robinson, and Jonathan Walter.
Generously sponsored by William F. White International and IATSE 856.
