Ingmar Bergman
Swedish director and screenwriter (1918–2007)
A director's score is the sum of their films' composite canon scores — methodology.
- Born
- July 14, 1918 · Uppsala
- Died
- July 30, 2007 · Fårö parish
- Nationality
- Sweden
- Work
- film director, theatre director, screenwriter, playwright
The minister's son who put God on trial
Bergman is the filmmaker who convinced the twentieth century that a chamber drama could carry the weight of scripture. No car chases, no crowds, often no more than two faces in a small room — and yet the stakes are always the largest available: whether God is silent, whether the self is real, whether love survives contact with another person. He made the interior monologue cinematic. The knock on him has always been that this is theatre filmed, literature with a lens attached; my view is the opposite. The confinement is the form's whole argument. Strip away spectacle and what remains has to be a face doing the work, which is why Bergman, more than any director alive or dead, taught the camera how to interrogate one.
Uppsala to Fårö
Born in Uppsala on 14 July 1918, the son of a strict Lutheran minister, Erik Bergman, he grew up inside exactly the theology his films would later cross-examine. He came to the screen through the stage and through writing: rewriting scripts for Svensk Filmindustri in the early 1940s, then breaking through as screenwriter of Torment (1944) before directing his own first feature in 1946. He ran theatres in parallel his whole life — theatrical manager at Helsingborg at twenty-six, later head of Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre from 1960 to 1966 — and directed some 170 plays alongside the films. The great collaborators recur like a repertory company: cinematographer Sven Nykvist, and actors Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand and Erland Josephson. In 1976 he was arrested at the Royal Dramatic Theatre on income-tax charges that were dropped that March as baseless; the humiliation drove him into self-imposed exile in Munich for years. He came home to make Fanny and Alexander (1982), then closed the career with Saraband (2003) at eighty-four, and died on Fårö on 30 July 2007.
What the numbers say
Our library ranks Bergman #5 among all directors — composite 34.10 across 28 films — a placement that matches his cultural weight and, I think, tells the truth about how his reputation actually distributes. He has no single monolith. Wild Strawberries (1957) leads at #42 (4.30), then Persona (1966) at #44 (4.29) and The Seventh Seal (1957) at #86 (3.58), with Cries and Whispers (1972) at #218. The revealing case is Fanny and Alexander: it draws the most citations of any Bergman film, appearing on 13 of our source lists, yet it lands only at #117 — while Wild Strawberries, cited on fewer (11), outscores it comfortably. Breadth of mention is not intensity of regard, and the composite keeps them separate. Note too how deep the tail runs: Winter Light (1963) at #1245, The Silence (1963) at #1016, whole stretches of the faith trilogy that critics revere sitting below the thousand mark. He is a director the canon honors in name and thins out in the voting.
Where to start
The Seventh Seal for the image everyone already carries — a knight playing chess with Death — then Wild Strawberries for the warmer, sadder film underneath the icon. Persona when you want to see the medium break itself open. Save Fanny and Alexander for last: the whole cosmology, told as a childhood.
Films in our library, ranked
Ranked by composite canon score across 20+ authoritative lists, awards and polls — our ordering, with every placement citing its evidence on the film's page.
- 1
1957 · Sweden · drama
Berlin Golden Bear winner 1958 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1962 #1 · Sarris's annual top 10 1959 #1
4.3011 citations - 2
1966 · Sweden · drama
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1967 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #9 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #18
4.2912 citations - 3
1957 · Sweden · fantasy, drama
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1958 #2 · Sarris's annual top 10 1958 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #72
3.5812 citations - 4
1982 · France / Germany / Sweden · drama
Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #52 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1985 #3 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #129
3.3013 citations - 5
1972 · Sweden · drama
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1974 #2 · Ebert's annual top 10 1973 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1973
2.648 citations - 6
1974 · Sweden · drama
Ebert's annual top 10 1974 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1981 #8 · Sarris's annual top 10 1974 #3
1.928 citations - 7Autumn SonataHöstsonaten
1978 · Sweden / France / Germany · drama
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1981 #2 · Letterboxd Top 250 #24 · Ebert's annual top 10 1978 #5
1.505 citations - 8The Virgin SpringJungfrukällan
1960 · Sweden · drama
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1961 #1 · Criterion Collection spine #321 · Sarris's annual top 10 1960 #8
1.434 citations - 9After the RehearsalEfter repetitionen
1984 · Sweden · drama
Sarris's annual top 10 1984 #1 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1985 #4 · Sarris's annual top 10 1989 #4
1.153 citations - 10Smiles of a Summer NightSommarnattens leende
1955 · Sweden · comedy
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1956 #6 · TIME All-TIME 100 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
1.085 citations - 11The SilenceTystnaden
1963 · Sweden · drama
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1964 #8 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1964 #9 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
1.085 citations - 12Winter LightNattvardsgästerna
1963 · Sweden · drama
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1965 #3 · Letterboxd Top 250 #226 · Criterion Collection spine #210
0.994 citations - 13
2003 · Germany / Sweden / Austria · drama, musical
Sarris's annual top 10 2005 #2 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2004 #9 · Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #13
0.883 citations - 14Sawdust and TinselGycklarnas afton
1953 · Sweden · drama
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1957 #6 · Empire 500 (2008) #300 · Criterion Collection spine #412
0.814 citations - 15The Magic FluteTrollflöjten
1975 · Sweden · musical, fantasy
Ebert's annual top 10 1976 #3 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Criterion Collection spine #71
0.744 citations - 16Through a Glass DarklySåsom i en spegel
1961 · Sweden · drama
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1962 #8 · Criterion Collection spine #209 · Roger Ebert's Great Movies
0.613 citations - 17DreamsKvinnodröm
1955 · Sweden · drama, comedy
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1958 #6 · Sarris's annual top 10 1960 #5
0.552 citations - 18The Passion of AnnaEn passion
1969 · Sweden · drama
Siskel's annual top 10 1970 #5 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Ebert's annual top 10 1970 #8
0.523 citations - 19The MagicianAnsiktet
1958 · Sweden · fantasy, drama
Sarris's annual top 10 1959 #6 · Criterion Collection spine #537 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
0.453 citations - 20Summer InterludeSommarlek
1951 · Sweden · drama
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1958 #10 · Criterion Collection spine #613
0.452 citations - 21Face to FaceAnsikte mot ansikte
1976 · Sweden · horror, drama
NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Sarris's annual top 10 1976 #10
0.312 citations - 22All These WomenFör att inte tala om alla dessa kvinnor
1964 · Sweden · comedy
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1964 #9
0.301 citation - 23Summer with MonikaSommaren med Monika
1953 · Sweden · drama, romance
Criterion Collection spine #614 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
0.272 citations - 240.251 citation
- 25From the Life of the MarionettesAus dem Leben der Marionetten
1980 · Germany / Sweden · drama
Sarris's annual top 10 1980 #5
0.191 citation - 260.181 citation
- 270.171 citation
- 280.161 citation
Complete filmography
All 63 directorial credits recorded on Wikidata, in chronological order; films in our library link to their canon-score page.
- 1946Crisis
- 1946It Rains on Our Love
- 1947A Ship Bound for India
- 1947Music in Darkness
- 1948Port of Call
- 1948Prison
- 1950Thirst
- 1950This Can't Happen Here
- 1950To Joy
- 1951Summer Interlude
- 1952Secrets of Women
- 1953Sawdust and Tinsel
- 1953Summer with Monika
- 1954A Lesson in Love
- 1955Dreams
- 1955Smiles of a Summer Night
- 1957Mr. Sleeman Is Coming
- 1957The Seventh Seal
- 1957Wild Strawberries
- 1958Brink of Life
- 1958Rabies
- 1958The Magician
- 1958The Venetian
- 1960Oväder
- 1960The Devil's Eye
- 1960The Virgin Spring
- 1961Through a Glass Darkly
- 1963A Dream Play
- 1963The Silence
- 1963Winter Light
- 1964All These Women
- 1965Don Juan
- 1966Persona
- 1967Stimulantia
- 1968Hour of the Wolf
- 1968Shame
- 1969The Passion of Anna
- 1969The Rite
- 1970Fårö Document
- 1971The Touch
- 1972Cries and Whispers
- 1974Misantropen
- 1974Scenes from a Marriage
- 1975The Magic Flute
- 1976Face to Face
- 1976The Condemned Women Dance
- 1977The Serpent's Egg
- 1978Autumn Sonata
- 1979Fårö Document 1979
- 1980From the Life of the Marionettes
- 1982Fanny and Alexander
- 1983Hustruskolan
- 1984After the Rehearsal
- 1984Karin's Face
- 1986The Blessed Ones
- 1986The Making of Fanny and Alexander
- 1992Markisinnan de Sade
- 1993Les Bacchantes
- 1995The Last Gasp
- 1997In the Presence of a Clown
- 2000The Image Makers
- 2003Saraband
- 2018Ingmar Bergman's Cinema