Criterion re-releases restorations of three Ingmar Bergman titles with A Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman, the collection’s first presentation of the Swedish auteurs works originally released on DVD in 2003. Sixteen years later, Criterion has released one of the most comprehensive collections of his filmography last fall and continues to restore its stand alone offerings. While the triptych of Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1962) and The Silence (1963) are collectively known as his Silence of God Trilogy, the collection foregoes the direct religious reference in its packaging (and also foregoes the inclusion of the documentary Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie, spine number 212, in this Blu-ray re-release). Notably, Through a Glass Darkly won the Best Foreign Language Academy Award and competed in Berlin (where Bergman had previously won the Golden Bear for Wild Strawberries in 1957). A masterful series of films which charts a progression of human estrangement and disillusionment as conditioned cultural constructs erode in a world primed for self-destruction, these are amongst some of Bergman’s most emotionally harrowing and nuanced portraits of the human condition.
Through a Glass Darkly
Film Rating: ★★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Rating: ★★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Winter Light
Film Rating: ★★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Rating: ★★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
The Silence
Film Rating: ★★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Rating: ★★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), FIPRESCI, the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2023: The Beast (Bonello) Poor Things (Lanthimos), Master Gardener (Schrader). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.
