Cries and Whispers is a 1972 Swedish period drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann. The film, set in a mansion at the end of the 19th century, is about three sisters and a servant who struggle with the terminal cancer of one of the sisters (Andersson). The servant (Sylwan) is close to her, while the other two sisters confront their emotional distance from each other.
Fanny and Alexander is a 1982 period drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The plot focuses on two siblings and their large family in Uppsala, Sweden during the first decade of the twentieth century. Following the death of the children's father, their mother remarries a prominent bishop who becomes abusive towards Alexander for his vivid imagination.
The Criterion Collection, Inc. is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A de facto subsidiary of arthouse film distributor Janus Films, Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinephiles and public and academic libraries. Criterion has helped to standardize certain aspects of home-video releases such as film restoration, the letterboxing format for widescreen films and the inclusion of bonus features such as scholarly essays and documentary content about the films and filmmakers. Criterion most notably pioneered the use of commentary tracks. Criterion has produced and distributed more than 1,000 special editions of its films in VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray formats and box sets. These films and their special features are also available via The Criterion Channel, an online streaming service that the company operates.
Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, such as documentary films, classic and rarely seen films from earlier periods in the history of cinema, and world cinema. In addition to theatrical distribution, Kino Lorber releases films in the home entertainment market and has its own streaming services for its digital library.
The Virgin Spring is a 1960 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in medieval Sweden, it is a tale about a father's merciless response to the rape and murder of his young daughter. The story was adapted by screenwriter Ulla Isaksson from a 13th-century Swedish ballad, "Töres döttrar i Wänge". Bergman researched the legend of Per Töre with an eye to an adaptation, considering an opera before deciding on a film version. Given criticism of the historical accuracy of his 1957 film The Seventh Seal, he also invited Isaksson to write the screenplay. Other influences included the 1950 Japanese film Rashomon. Max von Sydow played Töre.
Hour of the Wolf is a 1968 Swedish psychological horror film directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann. The story explores the disappearance of fictional painter Johan Borg, who lived on an island with his wife Alma (Ullmann) while plagued with frightening visions and insomnia.
Through a Glass Darkly is a 1961 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow and Lars Passgård. The film tells the story of a schizophrenic young woman (Andersson) vacationing on a remote island with her husband, novelist father (Björnstrand), and frustrated younger brother (Passgård).
Winter Light is a 1963 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring his regulars, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow. It follows Tomas Ericsson (Björnstrand), pastor of a small rural Swedish church, as he deals with an existential crisis and his Christianity.
La Chienne is a 1931 French film by director Jean Renoir. It is the second sound film by the director and the twelfth film of his career. The film is based on the eponymous story "La Chienne" by Georges de La Fouchardière. The literal English translation of the film's title is "The Bitch", although the movie was never released under this title. It is often referred to in English as Isn't Life a Bitch? The film was remade by Fritz Lang in the United States as Scarlet Street (1945).
Shame is a 1968 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow. Ullmann and von Sydow play Eva and Jan, former violinists, a politically uninvolved couple whose home comes under threat by civil war. They are accused by one side of sympathy for the enemy, and their marriage deteriorates while the couple flees. The story explores themes of shame, moral decline, self-loathing and violence.
The Magic Flute is Ingmar Bergman's 1975 film version of Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte. It was intended as a television production and was first shown on Swedish television on 1 January 1975, but was followed by a theatrical release later that year. The work is widely viewed as one of the most successful films of an opera ever made, and as an unusual item among the director's works. The film won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Foreign Television Programme in 1976 and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
The Brattle Theatre is a repertory movie theater located in Brattle Hall at 40 Brattle Street near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The theatre is a small movie house with one screen. It is one of the few remaining movie theaters, if not the only one, to use a rear-projection system; the projector is located behind the screen rather than behind the audience.
The Making of Fanny and Alexander is a 1984 Swedish documentary film directed by Ingmar Bergman which traces the making of his film Fanny and Alexander. Its running length is 110 minutes and it is photographed by Arne Carlsson. It debuted at the Swedish Film Institute on 16 September 1984, with Bergman in attendance to give a speech. It then aired with a television repeat of Fanny and Alexander in Sweden on 18 August 1986. In 2011 in Region A, The Criterion Collection released The Making of Fanny and Alexander on Blu-ray as part of their release of Fanny and Alexander.
The Silence is a 1963 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom. The plot focuses on two sisters, the younger a sensuous woman with a young son, the elder more intellectually oriented and seriously ill, and their tense relationship as they travel toward home through a fictional Central European country on the brink of war.
All These Women, originally released as Now About These Women in the UK, is a 1964 Swedish comedy film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It is a parody of Federico Fellini's 8½. Along with Smiles of a Summer Night, the film is one of the few comedy films ever made by Bergman. It was Bergman's first film to be shot in color.
Bryant Haliday was an American actor, as well as producer, of film and stage, who was instrumental in providing a showcase for international film titles in the United States by co-founding Janus Films with his partner Cyrus Harvey, Jr.
The Professor is a 1919 American silent comedy film made at the Chaplin Studios for the First National film company starring Charlie Chaplin. However, the film was never released or even completed. Chaplin abandoned production after finishing only one sequence: a single reel. Chaplin appears not as his usual Tramp character but as "Professor Bosco", a slovenly showman who brings his flea circus with him when staying at a flophouse. The fleas get loose during the night and create havoc.
Fårö Document is a 1970 Swedish documentary film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was shot on the island of Fårö and is about its inhabitants.
Ingmar Bergman's Cinema is a Blu-ray disc box set featuring 39 films directed by Ingmar Bergman, released by the Criterion Collection on November 20, 2018 in the United States. The set spans Bergman's early career, beginning in the 1940s, up to his final film in 2003. The films are organized non-chronologically, and are instead presented in four groupings that mimic the procession of a film festival. Accompanying the discs is a book featuring critical essays on each of the films, intended to guide the viewer through the experience. Of the 39 films featured, 17 had not been previously released by the Criterion Collection prior to their inclusion in the set.
