Bergman

As you may have heard Swedish director/writer/genius Ingmar Bergman died on Monday. Although many great articles have been written on Bergman's life already (Ebert's being my favorite) I thought I'd share a little bit of how I feel about Bergman.

I am not a film critic and don't know very much about film making, but what I do know is that there is almost nothing better than sitting down and watching a Bergman film. I saw The Seventh Seal for the first time a few years ago and discovered Bergman for the first time. Since then I have seen many more of his movies and every one has been a fantastic experience.

You don't need to understand philosophy or psychology or film on any technical level to enjoy the humanity, sadness, and beauty of Bergman's movies. Yet Bergman's films manage to portray everything about human nature with such acute vision that watching a Bergman film is like taking a class in any of these subjects.

My favorite Bergman movie is wild strawberries, in which an aging man and a young woman go on a road trip together. It is simple and beautiful and (unlike many of Bergman's other films) somewhat hopeful.

Bergman's death is not terribly tragic (he was an old dude) but I still can't help feeling sad that one of my heroes is dead. Anyway, what I am really trying to say is: go rent Bergman's films. I can't recommend them enough and now that he is gone it is even more apparent how important the films he made during his life were.