Jane Magnusson’s Bergman: A Year in a Life offers an insightful journey through 1957, the fruitful year in which the young Ingmar Bergman directed two of his most acclaimed features, The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, made a TV film Mr. Sleeman Is Coming, and staged plays for theatre (The Misanthrope, Counterfeiters, The Prisoner, Peer Gynt),
The title of this revelatory documentary is misleading: Though it focuses on one crucial year, Magnusson discusses other chapters in the long career and rich life of Bergman, who died in 2007.
World premiering at the 2018 Cannes Film Fest, this non-fiction later won the Best Documentary from the European Film awards.
Magnusson serves as narrator, who walks us through archival footage of Bergman, not just in 1957. She has gathered a wide array of interviewees, who were influenced by Bergman’s work. The group includes two of his most frequent actresses, Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson (the latter appeared as Sara in The Seventh Seal)
Among the directors she talked to are Lars von Triers, Roy Andersson, Jan Troell, and Zhang Yimou.
And there are many American actors and directors, including Barbra Streisand, Holly Hunter, John Landis, Dick Cavett.
Running time: 117 Minutes.