The works of Swedish film and stage director Ingmar Bergman are marked by intellectuality, metaphysical speculation, and symbolic and allegorical content.

Ingmar Bergman was born on July 14, 1918, in Uppsala, Sweden, the son of a Lutheran minister. He attended the University of Stockholm, where he became an active member of the student theatrical group. In 1942, after a brilliant production of Macbeth, the aspiring director was appointed to the Swedish Royal Opera. In the years following he divided his talents equally between stage and film efforts.

In 1945 Bergman directed his first film, Crisis, the story of an unhappy love affair which ends in suicide. Several films followed in close succession, but in 1956 with The Seventh Seal Bergman reached the pinnacle of critical and popular acclaim. The Seventh Seal is a medieval morality play about a moribund knight who, seeking to placate his religious doubts and unravel the mystery of the universe, challenges Death to a game of chess. Even Bergman's critics concede that this film has visual audacity and great dramatic power.

A year later Bergman directed Wild Strawberries, a brilliantly integrated work conceived in cinematic rather than literary or dramatic terms. A poignant study of the abyss between youth and old age, the effort projects a sad lyricism and warm Chekhovian glow. With his next film, The Magician (1959), Bergman returned to his earlier use of symbolism. It is the story of a group of wandering magicians and their encounters with otherworldly spirits. The Virgin Spring, a second venture into the medieval milieu, followed in 1960, as well as several lesser works.

In 1961 Bergman embarked upon his ambitious trilogy, beginning with Through a Glass Darkly, an intense, almost hysterical, study of familial violence. The second contribution, Winter Light (1962), presents the emptiness which follows loss of faith; while the final portion, The Silence (1963), explores with surreal imagery the dilemma of verbal inadequacy and the attendant terror of noncommunication