Starring Max von Sydow
15 Episodes
In celebration of the life of Max von Sydow, the Criterion Channel presents a series of highlights from his legendary career. One of the greatest actors of the twentieth century, von Sydow is best known for his long creative partnership with director Ingmar Bergman, whose psychologically probing dramas—including their most famous collaboration, THE SEVENTH SEAL—gave the actor freedom to bare his soul and showcase his unfailingly commanding screen presence. In addition to the string of masterpieces he made with the Swedish auteur, von Sydow embodied a wide range of characters in films by art-house titans such as Jan Troell, Lars von Trier, and Wim Wenders, leaving behind a body of work that spans more than six decades and a dozen different countries.
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08:49Episode 1
Peter Cowie on Max von Sydow
Episode 1
Bergman scholar Peter Cowie on the late Max von Sydow, one of the greatest actors of all time.
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1:32:25Episode 2
Wild Strawberries
Episode 2
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1957 • Sweden
Starring Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid ThulinTraveling to accept an honorary degree, Professor Isak Borg—masterfully played by the veteran filmmaker and actor Victor Sjöström—is forced to face his past, come to terms with his faults, and make...
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1:37:07Episode 3
The Seventh Seal
Episode 3
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1957 • Sweden
Starring Max von Sydow, Inga Landgré, Gunnar BjörnstrandReturning exhausted from the Crusades to find medieval Sweden gripped by the Plague, a knight (Max von Sydow) suddenly comes face-to-face with the hooded figure of Death, and challenges him to a g...
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1:41:12Episode 4
The Magician
Episode 4
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1958 • Sweden
Starring Max von Sydow, Gunnar BjörnstrandWith THE MAGICIAN, an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of chicanery that doubles as a symbolic portrait of the artist as a deceiver, Ingmar Bergman proved himself to be one of cinema’s premier illusionists....
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1:25:00Episode 5
Brink of Life
Episode 5
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1958 • Sweden
Starring Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck, Bibi AnderssonAt the height of his international acclaim, Ingmar Bergman followed two meditations on death, THE SEVENTH SEAL and WILD STRAWBERRIES, with an examination of the mystery and pain of birth. This intimat...
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1:29:29Episode 6
The Virgin Spring
Episode 6
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1960 • Sweden
Starring Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel LindblomWinner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film, Ingmar Bergman’s THE VIRGIN SPRING is a harrowing tale of faith, revenge, and savagery in medieval Sweden. With austere simplicity, the...
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1:29:56Episode 7
Through a Glass Darkly
Episode 7
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1961 • Sweden
Starring Harriet Andersson, Max von Sydow, Gunnar BjörnstrandWhile vacationing on a remote island retreat, a family finds its fragile ties tested when daughter Karin (an astonishing Harriet Andersson) discovers her father (Gunnar Björnstrand) has been ...
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1:21:22Episode 8
Winter Light
Episode 8
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1963 • Sweden
Starring Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Max von Sydow“God, why hast thou forsaken me?” With WINTER LIGHT, Ingmar Bergman explores the search for redemption in a meaningless existence. Small-town pastor Tomas Ericsson (Gunnar Björnstrand) performs h...
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30:24Episode 9
Interlude in the Marshland
Episode 9
Directed by Jan Troell • 1965 • Sweden
In 1965, director Jan Troell took part in the film 4 X 4, which comprises four shorts, each from a different Nordic country. Troell’s Swedish entry, INTERLUDE IN THE MARSHLAND, starring Max von Sydow and produced and cowritten by Bengt Forslund, is based on...
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2:49:04Episode 10
Here Is Your Life
Episode 10
Directed by Jan Troell • 1966 • Sweden
Starring Eddie Axberg, Ulla Sjöblom, Gunnar BjörnstrandThis mesmerizing debut by the great Swedish director Jan Troell is an epic bildungsroman and a multilayered representation of early twentieth-century Sweden. Based on a series of autobiographical novel...
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1:27:46Episode 11
Hour of the Wolf
Episode 11
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1968 • Sweden
The strangest and most disturbing of the films Ingmar Bergman shot on the island of Fårö, HOUR OF THE WOLF stars Max von Sydow as a haunted painter living in voluntary exile with his wife (Liv Ullmann). When the couple are invited to a nearby castle f...
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Shame
Episode 12
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1968 • Sweden
Starring Liv Ullmann, Max von SydowDirected by Ingmar Bergman, SHAME (SKAMMEN) is at once an examination of the violent legacy of World War II and a scathing response to the escalation of the conflict in Vietnam. Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann star as m...
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1:40:39Episode 13
The Passion of Anna
Episode 13
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1969 • Sweden
When Andreas (Max von Sydow) meets Anna (Liv Ullmann) he is a man struggling with the collapse of both his marriage and his emotional state. Subsequently, Anna is grieving the recent loss of her husband and son, and the two enter into a relationship. As...
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The Touch
Episode 14
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1971 • Sweden
Starring Elliott Gould, Bibi Andersson, Max von SydowWith his first English-language film, a critical and box-office disaster, Ingmar Bergman delivered a compelling portrait of conflicting desires. In THE TOUCH, a chance encounter between seemingly con...
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4:47:59Episode 15
Until the End of the World
Episode 15
Directed by Wim Wenders • 1991 • Germany, France, Australia
Starring William Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, Sam NeillConceived as the ultimate road movie, this decades-in-the-making science-fiction epic from Wim Wenders follows the restless Claire Tourneur (Solveig Dommartin) across continents as she...