I haven't really watched much Bergman in recent years, having glutted myself on his films to the point of earning a nickname of "Ingmar" from a friend.
But I was saddened nonetheless to hear that he had passed away today. No doubt anywhere you turn you'll see the iconic scene from The Seventh Seal so I was trying to find something different. I couldn't find the one scene that really floored me most recently. It's from a 1994 film, Sunday's Children that he wrote and his son Daniel directed.
In this autobiographical story, Little Pu, the Ingmar stand-in, visits relatives in Norrland and goes to find a ghost in the woods. In a dreamlike hallucinatory scene, Little Pu sees the body of the watchmaker who hung himself and asks him the question, "When will I die?"
The ghost, swaying gently from a rope in the tree, croak-whispers, "Every day, every day, every day."
That scene just about knocked me off the couch. Would have, if I hadn't been riveted there.
And so a brilliant magic lantern is dimmed and shuttered today.
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