Review of The Magician (1958) by Randall A — 11 Sep 2011

The Magician is an interesting film in that it sort of bridges the gap and combines two artistic periods of Bergman's career. It has moments of marination on life which closely resemble his film The Seventh Seal. It also has moments of abstract bleakness with a tinge of dread which reminded me if his later film Hour of the Wolf. And lastly it has moments of playfulness regarding the subject of love, reminiscent of Smiles of a Summer Night. Even though it combines the best elements of his other films, it comes out a little flat.

Particularly with this film Bergman's use of light and shadow is magnificent, I'm not sure there is any other director who utilized black and white as good as Bergman did (in regards to light and shadow). The films greatest strength although as with almost all of Bergman's films, lies in his choice of actors. He basically pulled from the same group of about ten actors for all his films. Bergman is an extremely gifted director, but make no mistake, without his very strong cast, his films would not be half as great.

You would expect a film like this to come at the end of or close to the end of filmmakers career. If I had to label this film, I'd call it a stripped down greatest hits version of Ingmar Bergman. Which is odd, considering he would make over a dozen films after this. Some of which would be his very best.