A Film Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman

In 1961, Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman embarked on a trilogy of chamber dramas confronting the existence of God in the modern world. The Oscar-winning Through a Glass Darkly (1961) stars Harriet Andersson as a young woman suffering from mental illness who spirals deeper into schizophrenia when she discovers that her novelist father (Gunnar Björnstrand) plans to record her decline for his work. Winter Light (1963) takes on the existence of God even more directly through the story of a small-town pastor (also Björnstrand) in a spiritual crisis and a parishioner (Max von Sydow) suffering from a debilitating fear of nuclear annihilation. Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom are sisters whose ambiguous relationship breaks down as they travel through an unnamed country on the verge of war in The Silence (1963), a title that evokes both the silence of God and the sisters’ inability to communicate. All three are serious, provocative, philosophically heavy films that are evocatively shot in beautifully textured black-and-white in the cold winter light of Bergman’s world by Sven Nykvist, creating a harsh beauty and a sense of alienation and disconnection. Restored and remastered by the Svensk Filminstitutet, extras include the five-part documentary "Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie" shot during the production of Winter Light, and archival interviews with Andersson, Björnstrand (audio), and cinematographer Nykvist (illustrated audio), as well as observations from 2003 on each film by Bergman scholar Peter Cowie, a poster gallery, and a booklet with an essay by film scholar Catherine Wheatley. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)