![]() Even as late as 1969, Robin Wood, a very perceptive critic generally well-disposed to Bergman’s work, wrote in his book on the director: “Besides a horror sequence that doesn’t horrify, The Face boasts comedy that doesn’t make us laugh and anguish that entirely fails to move.” Well, finding things funny or scary is famously a subjective affair, and much as this particular writer admires the criticism of the late, often very great Mr. The Magician struck some as a little frivolous in comparison to such work: much of the film was in the comic register, and what’s more, the sequence that constituted its dramatic climax sounded echoes of the populist horror genre. And the trilogy produced not long after The Magician-consisting of Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1962), and The Silence (1963)-was so intense that it reinforced any notions that might already have existed of Bergman as a cool, cruel maestro consumed by his own profound anguish concerning a godless universe. A number of critical hits-including The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries (both 1957)-had recently won Bergman an illustrious international reputation, albeit as a northern genius rather morbidly preoccupied with death. Its undeservedly lowly standing may perhaps be attributed to its chronological position in a remarkable filmmaking career. ![]() Ingmar Bergman’s Ansiktet (1958)-the title literally translates as The Face, though in North America it was released as The Magician-is arguably one of his most underrated achievements. ![]()
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