Ingmar Ernst Bergman

The Profile

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter, widely regarded as one of cinema’s most influential auteurs. His films often explore faith and doubt, death, identity, and the strain of human relationships through psychologically intense drama.

Publicly verifiable: born 1918, died 2007; Swedish director/screenwriter; active from the 1940s into the 2000s; internationally known for films including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona, and Fanny and Alexander.

Across 19 reviews (mostly 5/5), Bergman emerges as a "Master" of rigorous, psychologically surgical cinema: death, faith, love, and silence recur as obsessions. Reviewers highlight experimental form (notably Persona), chamber dramas (the God/Silence trilogy), and strong autobiographical undercurrents. Key themes: incommunicability, the mask vs the self, religious doubt, cruelty and compassion, and the effects of war on human relations.