He Is an Island
by Jul 16, 2008The locations for many of Ingmar Bergman’s most dramatically spare films have existed for so long in moviegoers’ minds as stark black-and-white dream states that to walk through them in living, vibrant...
Synopsis
While vacationing on a remote island retreat, a family’s already fragile ties are tested when daughter Karin (Harriet Andersson) discovers her father has been using her schizophrenia for his own literary means. As she drifts in and out of lucidity, the father (Gunnar Björnstrand), along with Karin’s husband (Max von Sydow) and her younger brother (Lars Passgård) are unable to prevent Karin’s harrowing descent into the abyss of mental illness. Winner of the 1962 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and featuring an astonishing lead performance by Andersson, Through a Glass Darkly presents an unflinching vision of a family’s near disintegration and a tortured psyche further taunted by God’s intangible presence.
Cast
| Karin | Harriet Andersson |
| Martin | Max von Sydow |
| David | Gunnar Bjornstrand |
| Minus | Lars Passgård |
Credits
| Director | Ingmar Bergman |
| Written and directed by | Ingmar Bergman |
| Assistant director | Lenn Hjortzberg |
| Cinematography | Sven Nykvist |
| Assistant photographer | Rolf Holmqvist and Peter Wester |
| Production manager | Lars-Owe Carlberg |
| Editing | Ulla Ryghe |
| Sound | Stig Flodin |
| Music | Johann Sebastian Bach |
| Music performed by | Erling Blöndal Bengtsson |
| Sets | P.A. Lundgren |
| Costumes | Mago |
| Makeup | Börje Lundh |
Disc Features
- New high-definition digital transfer
- Exploring the film: Video discussion with Ingmar Bergman biographer Peter Cowie
- New essay by film scholar Peter Matthews
- Original theatrical trailer
- Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
From the Current
Through a Glass Darkly: Patron Saint of Angst
by Aug 18, 2003Watching Ingmar Bergman’s 1961 Through a Glass Darkly now, you’re carried back to a golden era that was also an ice age. The year before, Michelangelo Antonioni’s drifting, elliptical masterpiece L’Avventura had been booed at the Cannes Film Festival; three years...
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