The Magician (Ansiktet) (1958)
The Magician (Ansiktet) Photos
Movie Info
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Cast
as Albert Emanuel Vogler
as Manda Vogler/Mr. Aman
as Sara Lindqvist
as Dr. Vergerus
as Spegel
as Ottilia
as Simson
as Starbeck
as Egerman
as Tubal
as Sofia
as Antonsson
as Henrietta
as Rustan
as Sanna
as Sonna
as Customs officer
as Grandmother
Critic Reviews for The Magician (Ansiktet)
All Critics (10) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (0) | DVD (1)
The movie has elements of Gothic horror and philosophy, along with lusty, low comedy rolls.
It is one of Bergman's most tightly structured and frightening films.
Like the subject it portrays, it is a movie that genuinely seems to sense the guilty delight of life's unending irony.
Tremendously important Bergman, even it it doesn't have the instant cachet of his more famous and direct movies.
Both a rebuke to critics and a confession of charlatanism, The Magician puts forward a one-of-a-kind examination of the problem of truth in life and in art. [Blu-ray]
reflects Bergman's fundamental understanding of the cinema as an illusionistic play of light and shadow that can nonetheless reveal some of the deepest recesses of the human experience
Audience Reviews for The Magician (Ansiktet)
every time i watch a bergman film for the first time, the thing i'm most excited for is encountering new, interesting characters. i think the characters in this film are among his absolute best and most interesting. in fact, i loved everything about this film until the very end, when the last ten minutes sort of fell a part for me, but the entirety of the film is still quite good, and the tension of the overall concept of empirical reality vs. the supernatural is one that needs to be explored in film more often.
Super Reviewer
In "The Magician," Albert Vogler(Max Von Sydow), magician, is traveling through the countryside with his protege, Aman(Ingrid Thulin), grandmother(Naima Wifstrand) and manager, Tubal(Ake Fridell), when they come upon Johan(Bengt Ekerot), an actor who is very ill. Their new passenger dies but it is not his body that the authorities are curious about. Rather, Dr. Vergerus(Gunnar Bjornstrand), Police Superintendant Starbeck(Toivo Pawlo) and Consul Egerman(Erland Josephson) have some very pointed questions about the act and wish to see him perform on the following day. "The Magician" is a darkly engaging movie from Ingmar Bergman that does a neat job of keeping the audience off balance. By that I mean, both the audience in the movie and the one watching the movie. The movie is set in 1846 when reason was starting to take hold but superstition was still ingrained enough in the consciousness to give power to what Vogler is trying to do. On another level, it is about the fine line between performance and reality for an artist. As Kurt Vonnegut put it in the preface for his novel "Mother Night," we are what we pretend to be.(That sound you hear is Stephen Colbert having the mother of all existential crises.) By the way, this is probably also the first time a law enforcement officer is referred to as a pig.
Super Reviewer
Sort've a similar set-up to The Seventh Seal. There's another great ensemble cast led by the towering Scandinavian known as Max Von Sydow. This isn't so much a historical commentary, but rather a specific look at the effects of science on professions like magicians. The doubt and suspense concerning the legitimacy of Vogler's act is really such a nice aspect. It?M)s been later used in movies like The Illusionist and The Prestige, but nothing since has quite the same authenticity of mysticism and rich storytelling. Ingmar Bergman's vision is so unbelievably present in this and I feel that it's one of his more overlooked works. I think that it's not so filled with subjective imagery is probably what makes it so unique. This manages to have the same feeling, but at the same time a completely different way of achieving it. It's not really part of any genre, which is what is my favorite thing. Bergman kind've is a genre in itself and a great one at that.
Super Reviewer
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