Today, Ingmar Bergman, one of the great masters of modern films, died at 89 on the Swedish isle of Faro. Film fans like me are sad, down in the dumps sad. I can't recall anyone as influential as was Bergman - maybe Kurasawa.
I'll be watching The Seventh Seal, Winter Light or Autumn Sonata tonight -- to remember. Here are seven facts about Bergman that we should be reminded of on this day.
-Woody Allen considered him to be the best film artist who ever lived.
-Bergman's films were about "the relationship between the sexes, and the relationship between mankind and God."
Hit the jump for 5 more Bergman facts.
- The Seventh Seal, where Death plays chess in Atlantic City, even made it into comedies like Diner.
- Bergman's dad was a minister, and young Ingmar hit the road with dad as he preached.
- His boss once described him as “shabby, rude and scampish with a laugh born out of the darkest depths of the inferno.”
- Three Bergman films won the Oscar for Best Foriegn Language Film. My pick? Fanny and Alexander.
- His longtime cinematographer, Sven Nyqvist, was "the master of light"
who helped to make Bergman's movies haunting and memorable.
