Ingmar Bergman

The Ghost Sonata relates the adventures of a young student, who idealizes the lives of the inhabitants of a stylish apartment building in Stockholm. He makes the acquaintance of the mysterious Jacob Hummel, who helps him to find his way into the apartment, only to find that it is a nest of betrayal and sickness. The world, the student learns, is hell and human beings must suffer to achieve salvation.

Reuniting the characters of Johan and Marianne three decades after "Scenes from a Marriage," "Saraband" follows Marianne’s visit to her reclusive ex-husband, where she finds him locked in a destructive conflict with his troubled son Henrik and Henrik’s musically gifted daughter Karin. Told as an intimate chamber drama, the film explores love, resentment, forgiveness, and the inescapable pull of family bonds.

Set in 1920, The Image Makers depicts a private screening at Svensk Filmindustri, where silent-era director Victor Sjöström presents scenes from his adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf’s The Phantom Carriage. As the Nobel Prize–winning author watches alongside cinematographer Julius Jaenzon and young actress Tora Teje, tensions emerge between generations, genders, and artistic roles, exposing the emotional costs behind creation.

In 1925, eccentric inventor and Franz Schubert devotee Carl Åkerblom is confined to a psychiatric ward in Uppsala after attempting to murder his fiancée. Obsessed with death, music, and the future of cinema, he joins forces with a fellow patient to create a “living talkie,” an experimental film performance with live-spoken dialogue. As the project unfolds, art, madness, and mortality collide in a tragicomic reflection on creativity and human frailty.

This short television work stages two performers reading excerpts from the Swedish Government’s Cultural Commission report (SOU 1995:84). Using largely unaltered bureaucratic language, the piece transforms the official text into a restrained satire of cultural policy and administration.

Set in the offices of the Swedish film industry, this television drama stages a fictional encounter between Georg af Klercker, a marginalized silent-film director, and Charles Magnusson, the producer who once controlled his fate. Through their conversation, memories of early Scandinavian cinema and unresolved professional grievances resurface as af Klercker seeks the possibility of returning to filmmaking.

The young wine god Dionysus returns to his native town of Thebes after having established his cult in the east. In his entourage, he has a run of Bacchantes. Semele, his mother, was distrusted by her family when she claimed that Zeus was the father of her child. Dionysus has come to restore her, revealing his divinity, and require proper worship of the Theban legion.

This television production captures Ingmar Bergman’s stage adaptation of Yukio Mishima’s Madame de Sade, set in France from 1772 to the aftermath of the French Revolution. While the Marquis de Sade remains imprisoned, six women—including his wife Renée—debate his actions, reputation, and meaning, revealing conflicting views on devotion, morality, and power.

This short film assembles still photographs from Ingmar Bergman’s personal family albums, concentrating on portraits of his mother, Karin, from childhood through adulthood. The images are arranged in chronological order and set to a piano score by Käbi Laretei, with no spoken narration.

Middle-aged schoolteacher Viveka and her husband Sune enter a marriage marked by devotion and increasing strain. As Viveka’s jealousy and religious anxiety intensify into paranoid delusions, Sune becomes progressively entangled in her condition, transforming their relationship into a shared psychological collapse.

Filmed for television, this production adapts Molière’s Dom Juan (or The Feast with the Statue), following the final days of the libertine Dom Juan Tenorio as he seduces, deceives, and provokes those around him. His servant Sganarelle serves as a constant companion and observer, accompanying Dom Juan toward the reckoning implied by the play’s statue motif.

Shot during the making of Fanny and Alexander, this feature-length documentary presents extended behind-the-scenes material from rehearsals and filming sessions, with Bergman at work staging scenes and directing performances. The film focuses on the practical process of production, including collaboration with the principal cast and key crew members such as cinematographer Sven Nykvist and on-set documentarian Arne Carlsson.

Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She is the lead in his new production of Strindberg's A Dream Play. She talks of her hatred for her mother, now dead, an alcoholic actress, who was Vogler's star and lover.

This television adaptation presents Molière’s comedy The School of Wives, centering on Arnolphe, an older bachelor who plans to marry his young ward, Agnès, believing her innocence will ensure his control. His scheme is disrupted when Agnès falls in love with the younger Horace, setting off a series of deceptions and confrontations that undermine Arnolphe’s authority.

As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

An account of the events before and after a murder committed by a disturbed businessman in a strained marriage, and what led him to perform such a shocking act.

Returning to Fårö a decade after his earlier documentary, Ingmar Bergman records the daily lives of farmers, fishermen, and families living on the island. Structured around the four seasons, the film documents labor, communal routines, and reflections on how life on Fårö has changed since the late 1960s.

This behind-the-scenes documentary follows the production of Autumn Sonata, capturing rehearsals, filming sessions, and discussions during the shoot. The film presents extended observational footage of the working process led by Ingmar Bergman and the principal cast and crew.

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

In 1923 Berlin, following the suicide of his brother, an American acrobat struggles to survive while facing unemployment, depression, alcoholism, and the social decay of Germany during the Weimar Republic.

This short dance film presents four women moving within a narrow, enclosed room to music by Claudio Monteverdi. Conceived as a dance play rather than a ballet, the performers embody recurring female roles passed down across generations, including figures identified as damned souls, death, and a child compelled into the same patterns.

A psychiatrist temporarily separated from her family begins to experience severe psychological distress while working at a mental hospital and returning to her childhood home. As her professional responsibilities and personal relationships intersect, she undergoes a breakdown that forces her to confront long-suppressed memories and fears. (Note: This entry refers to the 1976 theatrical feature film (approximately 135 minutes), created by condensing and re-editing the four-part Swedish television miniseries originally produced the same year.)

The Queen of the Night enlists a handsome prince named Tamino to rescue her beautiful kidnapped daughter, Princess Pamina, in this screen adaptation of the beloved Mozart opera. Aided by the lovelorn bird hunter Papageno and a magical flute that holds the power to change the hearts of men, young Tamino embarks on a quest for true love, leading to the evil Sarastro's temple where Pamina is held captive.

Johan and Marianne are married and seem to have it all. Their happiness, however, is a façade for a troubled relationship, which becomes even rockier when Johan admits that he's having an affair. Before long, the spouses separate and move towards finalizing their divorce, but they make attempts at reconciling. Even as they pursue other relationships, Johan and Marianne realize that they have a significant bond, but also many issues that hinder that connection.

This television film records Ingmar Bergman’s Copenhagen stage production of Molière’s The Misanthrope, presented as a guest performance at the Royal Danish Theatre. The play centers on Alceste, a man who rejects social hypocrisy and flattery, whose rigid principles are tested by his love for the socially adept Célimène.

As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so immersed in their own psychic pains that they are unable to offer her the support she needs.

A Swedish housewife begins an adulterous affair with an American archaeologist, unaware of his emotional scars as a Holocaust survivor; consequently, their relationship will be painfully difficult.

Shot on the island of Fårö, this documentary presents interviews with local inhabitants as they discuss work, family life, and the conditions of living in a sparsely populated rural community. Bergman documents generational differences and practical concerns surrounding farming, fishing, education, and migration as the island confronts social and economic change.

A recently divorced man and an emotionally devastated widow begin a love affair.

Called to court on obscenity charges, a theatre troupe are forced to expose their neuroses and inner psychological torments.

In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.

While vacationing on a remote German island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.

Eight vignettes on a variety of topics, including a baby growing up, Charlie Chaplin, Birgit Nilsson, the racing track at Le Mans, erotic cleanliness, French literature, and a black woman in a cupboard in the neighborhood of Farsta near Stockholm.

This short film consists of 16mm home-movie footage recorded by Ingmar Bergman during the first two years of his son Daniel’s life, beginning shortly before his birth and continuing through early childhood. The material was edited by Bergman as an independent segment for inclusion in the 1967 Swedish anthology film Stimulantia.

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.

Pretentious critic Cornelius is writing a biography on a famous cellist and to do some research he stays in the cellist's house for a few days. He doesn't manage to get an interview with the man, but by talking to all the women who live with him, he comes to learn a lot about the musician's private life none the less. Cornelius then decides to use this information to blackmail the cellist into performing a composition that he, Cornelius, has written.

Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester, her sister Anna and Anna's young son, Johan, check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.

A television adaptation of August Strindberg’s A Dream Play, the film follows Agnes, the daughter of the god Indra, as she descends to Earth to witness the conditions of human existence. Through a succession of loosely connected scenes, she encounters individuals from different walks of life, with events unfolding according to dream logic rather than linear narrative.

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

Karin hopes to recover from her recent stay at a mental hospital by spending the summer at her family's cottage on a tiny island. Her husband, Martin, cares for her but is frustrated by her physical withdrawal. Her younger brother, Minus, is confused by Karin's vulnerability and his own budding sexuality. Their father, David, cannot overcome his haughty remoteness. Beset by visions, Karin descends further into madness.

Don Juan is sent from Hell to Earth with a mission: to seduce a virgin in order to spoil her pure wedding. The mission becomes frantic when Don Juan falls in love for the first time in centuries.

Devout Christians Töre and Märeta send their only daughter, the virginal Karin, and their foster daughter, the unrepentant Ingeri, to deliver candles to a distant church. On their way through the woods, the girls encounter a group of savage goat herders who brutally rape and murder Karin as Ingeri remains hidden. When the killers unwittingly seek refuge in the farmhouse of Töre and Märeta, Töre plots a fitting revenge.

An elderly gentleman lives alone in a well-appointed residential building, spending his days in habitual routines with neighbors and family. When his former wife—who left years earlier with their child—moves into the apartment above him, long-suppressed tensions resurface, leading to a series of charged encounters.

A traveling magician and his troupe arrive in a Swedish town in the 1840s, where their act is scrutinized by local authorities and a skeptical medical official. Their stay leads to a series of confrontations that test the boundaries between performance, belief, and deception.

Structured as six interconnected episodes, Rabies depicts cruelty as a contagious force: each character, wounded or humiliated, passes that violence on to another. Filmed for Swedish television, Ingmar Bergman’s adaptation of Olle Hedberg’s morality play presents human behavior as a relentless chain of transferred suffering.

This intimate chamber drama, set in a maternity ward, follows the emotional crises of three women as they grapple with motherhood.

A playful television adaptation of a Renaissance sex comedy in which two Venetian women compete for the attentions of a charming outsider during carnival. Deliberately theatrical and stylized, the film reflects Bergman’s interest in farce and performance.

A short documentary capturing behind-the-scenes footage from the production of Wild Strawberries, offering a glimpse of Ingmar Bergman at work with his cast and crew during the making of one of his most celebrated films.

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

A young woman faces an arranged marriage imposed by her aunts as the hour of her suitor’s arrival approaches. Adapted for television from Hjalmar Bergman’s one-act play, the film uses intimate staging and close observation to explore coercion and quiet despair.

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

Early in the 20th century, middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman and his young wife, Anne, have still not consummated their marriage, while Fredrik's son finds himself increasingly attracted to his new stepmother. To make matters worse, Fredrik's old flame Desiree makes a public bet that she can seduce him at a romantic weekend retreat where four couples convene, swapping partners and pairing off in unexpected ways.

Two women—a fashion executive and her young model—experience parallel romantic disappointments during a trip to Gothenburg, exposing generational differences in desire, illusion, and emotional endurance. A transitional work in Ingmar Bergman’s mid-1950s cinema.

After fifteen years of marriage and mutual infidelity, a couple on the brink of divorce unexpectedly confront their unresolved love during a journey to Copenhagen. Blending farce with emotional reflection, the film is Ingmar Bergman’s first sustained venture into marital comedy.

A number of complicated relationships develop between a circus ringmaster, his estranged wife and his lover.

One summer day, two teens begin a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.

The four wives of four brothers share stories of their marriages as they wait for their husbands in a small, secluded cottage.

During a brief summer vacation, a lonely woman recalls her first love thirteen years earlier.

A story of two married refugees from the dictatorship; their quiet life in a new free country is impossible due to the husband's dark secret.

A young orchestra violinist’s fear of mediocrity and drive for artistic success strain his marriage to a fellow musician. Told largely in flashback and shaped by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the film examines ambition, love, and loss in early Ingmar Bergman.

A fractured portrait of desire and isolation, following a failing marriage and parallel stories of emotional entrapment as memories surface during a train journey through postwar Europe. Told through flashbacks and multiple narrative threads, the film signals Ingmar Bergman’s emerging mature style.

A filmmaker sets out to create the greatest film in history, but finds out that human abilities have limits.

A suicidal factory girl, just out of reformatory school and anxious to escape her overbearing mother, falls in love with a sailor who can't forgive her past.

In postwar Sweden, a gifted young pianist’s life is transformed after a tragic accident leaves him blind. Struggling with bitterness, isolation, and the loss of his former world, he finds unexpected support and companionship from a compassionate young woman who helps him rebuild his sense of purpose. As their relationship deepens over the years, both must confront questions of pride, class, and emotional vulnerability in order to move forward.

Returning home after seven years at sea, a sailor relives his youth aboard a salvage ship dominated by his abusive father, recalling love, betrayal, and the desire to escape. Told in flashback, the film explores family conflict, longing, and moral reckoning in an early milestone of Ingmar Bergman’s career.

A young couple, penniless, break into a summer cottage; the owner offers to rent to them but he has ulterior motives. By living together, the lovers must face their pasts and contend with the meddling neighbors and authorities.

A small-town piano teacher is shocked by the arrival of her foster daughter's biological mother, whose young lover soon follows and causes further disruption.