The Magician

I thought there was something of the slightly menacing John Carradine in Max Von Sydow's performance here, as the eponymous purveyor of bafflement. His troupe arrive in a forewarned small Swedish town that is full of scepticism about the wares and skills of the "Vogler" enterprise. MVS is the master magician, with his wife "Wanda" (Ingrid Thuler), his anti-wart tonic mixing aunt/grandmother (the s...

The three films that Ingmar Bergman produced at the close of the 1950s – <i>Det sjunde inseglet</i>, <i>Smultronstället</i> and <i>Jungfrukällen</i> – tower so high in his output that one might forget that these were not his only productions of the era. <i>Ansiktet</i> ("The Face", released in English-speaking markets as <i>The Magician</i>) from 1958 is one of his lesser-known films. In mid-19...