The works of Swedish film and stage director Ingmar Bergman (born 1918) 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...