Ranking All Of Director Ingmar Bergman’s Movies
“What are Ingmar Bergman’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Bergman’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!
We took all of the movies directed by Ingmar Bergman and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 4 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.
The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.
Happy Viewing!
The Top Film’s Of Ingmar Bergman
56 ) High Tension (1950)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 41
- IMDB User Review Score: 56
- Letterboxd User Score: 50
Atka Natas is a secret agent from the oppressive regime of Liquidatzia. He visits his estranged wife Vera, a chemist who is involved with a group of exiles trying to smuggle their compatriots out of Liquidatzia. Almkvist, a local policeman and former lover of Vera’s, contacts her while investigating the death of one of the refugees. Natas has a list of agents operating in the host country and wants to sell them to the Americans. However before he can do so, Vera tries to kill him, after an argument about getting her parents out of Liquidatzia.
55 ) Storm (1960)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 52
- Letterboxd User Score: 51
An elderly gentleman lives alone with his maid Louise. He spends his days chatting with the confectioner who lives and works downstairs, playing chess with his brother Karl Fredrick, and content with his memories. His young wife Gerda ran out on him five years ago, taking their young daughter with her. Now, unbeknownst to the gentleman, she’s back… and living in the upstairs apartment with the child and her new husband. When Gerda finally faces the man, sparks will fly and old wounds will be reopened. Bergman’s TV adaptation of August Strindberg’s play “Storm” was presented on the 111th anniversary of the author’s birth. The production was also shown in Denmark and Norway and received glowing reviews. Bergman was celebrated as an outstanding TV director and was praised for his tact and sympathy in depicting old age, his superior lighting and fine camera work as well as his understanding of the medium in his use of close-ups.
54 ) The Bacchae (1993)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 50
- Letterboxd User Score: 51
The young wine god Dionysus returns to his native town of Thebes after having established his cult in the east. In his entourage, he has a run of Bacchantes. Semele, his mother, was distrusted by her family when she claimed that Zeus was the father of her child. Dionysus has come to restore her, revealing his divinity, and require proper worship of the Theban legion.
52 ) The Ghost Sonata (2007)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 47
- Letterboxd User Score: 51
The Ghost Sonata relates the adventures of a young student, who idealizes the lives of the inhabitants of a stylish apartment building in Stockholm. He makes the acquaintance of the mysterious Jacob Hummel, who helps him to find his way into the apartment, only to find that it is a nest of betrayal and sickness. The world, the student learns, is hell and human beings must suffer to achieve salvation.
52 ) All These Women (1964)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 34
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 38
- IMDB User Review Score: 55
- Letterboxd User Score: 49
The pretentious critic Cornelius is writing a biography on a famous cellist and to do some research he goes to stay in his house for a few days. He doesn’t manage to get an interview with the man, but by talking to all the women who live with him, he comes to learn a lot about the musician’s private life none the less. Cornelius then decides to use this information and tries to blackmail the cellist into performing a composition that he, Cornelius, has written. Written by Leon Wolters
51 ) Stimulantia (1967)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 54
- Letterboxd User Score: 42
Stimulantia is a 1967 Swedish anthology film comprising eight episodes by eight different directors including Ingmar Bergman, Jörn Donner, Gustaf Molander and Vilgot Sjöman and starring among others Ingrid Bergman, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Lars Ekborg and Inga Landgré.
49 ) The School of Wives (1983)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 39
- Letterboxd User Score: 51
The elderly Arnolphe has decided to marry a young woman, Agnes, whom he has fallen in love with. She is too young and innocent to realize what plans he has for her. But Agnes and Arnolphe’s young friend, the dandy Horace, have fallen in love with each other. Their love is a threat to Arnolphe’s attempt at getting married. Can the cunning Arnolphe stop them?
49 ) The Blessed Ones (1986)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 52
- Letterboxd User Score: 38
Sune, a dropped out theology student who also is the son of a priest, meets Viveka in a church. The two connect via a theological discussion and eventually get married. As the years pass, Viveka grows more and more emotionally unstable due to jealousy and religious anxiety. Sune accepts Viveka’s mental problems and, instead of seeking help for his wife, obeys her increasingly bizarre commands. Eventually Viveka loses her mind completely, locks herself in the couple’s apartment while Sune is away, and tries to make neighbours and the police believe that Sune is trying to murder her with a knife. When Sune arrives home Viveka is taken away to a hospital. Sune tries to convince the doctors that Viveka is not insane and should be allowed leave. In the end, Sune turns on a gas tap and lies down next to Viveka so they will die together.
48 ) Music in Darkness (1948)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 47
- Letterboxd User Score: 42
Because of an accident at a military drill the recruit Bengt loses his eyesight and becomes blind. He gets to live with relatives in the countryside and meets the young Ingrid. She falls in love with him but Bengt’s bitterness also makes him blind to her attentions.
46 ) Rabies (1958)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 36
- Letterboxd User Score: 51
A relay race of “scenes from human life”. Depicts the human characters inferior traits are spreading like a disease: the person who gets rejected / humiliated / oppressed takes it out on someone else.
46 ) Crisis (1946)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 32
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 39
- IMDB User Review Score: 47
- Letterboxd User Score: 47
A small-town piano teacher is shocked by the arrival of her foster daughter’s real mother, whose young lover soon follows and causes further disruption.
45 ) The Touch (1971)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 28
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 39
- IMDB User Review Score: 50
- Letterboxd User Score: 47
A seemingly happy Swedish housewife and mother begins an adulterous affair with a foreign archaeologist who is working near her home.
44 ) The Misanthrope (1974)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 32
- Letterboxd User Score: 51
TV-version of Molieres play The Misanthrope
43 ) A Ship to India (1947)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 33
- IMDB User Review Score: 46
- Letterboxd User Score: 42
Sailor Johannes Blom returns to his home port, after seven years at sea, to find that Sally, the girl he has been thinking of while away, is completely despondent. Seven years earlier, obstreperous Alexander Blom, brings his mistress Sally to live with him, his wife Alice, son Johannes, and crew, aboard the salvage boat he captains. Amidst all the tensions on the small boat, Johannes and Sally fall in love with each other.
42 ) Madame de Sade (1992)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 39
- Letterboxd User Score: 38
A theatre production of Yukio Mishima’s play, filmed for Swedish television. It begins in France in 1772. Six Women, one of them Madame de Sade, discuss their views and feelings of the notorious sadist and sodomist Marquis de Sade.
41 ) It Rains on Our Love (1946)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 37
- IMDB User Review Score: 42
- Letterboxd User Score: 38
Maggi meets David after having missed her train, and they spend the night together. Penniless, the young lovers break into a summer cottage. The owner, Håkansson, offers to rent it to them, but he has an ulterior motive. By living together, they have to face their pasts and deal with the meddling neighbors and authorities.
39 ) The Image Makers (2000)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 39
- Letterboxd User Score: 35
The Image Makers is a 2000 Swedish television play directed by Ingmar Bergman and written by Per Olov Enquist. The drama is set in the year 1920 at Filmstaden where the film director Victor Sjöström is shooting the film The Phantom Carriage, an adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf’s novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! Accompanied by actress Tora Teje and film photographer Julius Jaenzon, he has now invited the book’s authoress to take a first look at some early scenes.
39 ) The Serpent’s Egg (1977)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 34
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 34
- IMDB User Review Score: 42
- Letterboxd User Score: 42
The Serpent’s Egg follows a week in the life of Abel Rosenberg, an out-of-work American circus acrobat living in poverty-stricken Berlin following Germany’s defeat in World War I.
37 ) Fårö Document 1979 (1979)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 36
- Letterboxd User Score: 30
In 1969 he made, with Sven Nykvist as cinematographer, The Fårö Document, a film that ended with a rather pessimist view of the island’s future. One of the scenes in the film is of a school-bus and its young passengers. To these and to the realities ten years later Bergman returns in the long documentary Fårö Document 1979.
37 ) Prison (1949)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 36
- Letterboxd User Score: 30
A movie director is approached by his old math teacher with a great movie idea: the Devil declares that the Earth is hell. The director rejects the idea, but subsequent events in the life of a writer, a friend of the director’s, and a young prostitute he loves seem to prove the math teacher’s idea.
36 ) A Dream Play (1963)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 27
- Letterboxd User Score: 35
“A dream play” – This made-for-television film constituted Bergman’s first production of Strindberg’s A Dream Play – a play he would revisit three times more. Gunnar Ollén’s Malmö crew was behind this, for its time, prestigious and costly theatre production, involving more than 40 actors and no less than 75 extras.
35 ) Port of Call (1948)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 24
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 35
- IMDB User Review Score: 42
- Letterboxd User Score: 38
A suicidal factory girl out of reformatory school, anxious to escape her overbearing mother, falls in love with a sailor who can’t forgive her past.
34 ) In the Presence of a Clown (1997)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 28
- IMDB User Review Score: 32
- Letterboxd User Score: 35
Inventor Carl Åkerblom is a rosy-cheeked 54 year-old admirer of Franz Schubert – and a patient in the psychiatric ward of Akademiska Hospital in Uppsala, after having attempted to beat to death his fiancée, Pauline Thibault. Together with another patient, Professor Osvald Vogler, they set up a film project: the living talkie. Before long, they set off on a frantic tour with their film, “The Joy of the Joyous Girl”… Written by Fredrik Klasson
33 ) Dreams (1955)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 32
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 30
- IMDB User Review Score: 29
- Letterboxd User Score: 30
In Stockholm, the fashion photographer Susanne Frank misses her married lover Henrik Lobelius that lives in Gothenburg with his wife and children, and the naive twenty years old model Doris has a troubled relationship with her boy friend Palle Palt. Susanne schedules a session of photo shoots in Gothenburg with Doris, and once there, she calls Henrik for an encounter. Meanwhile, Doris meets an elegant middle age gentleman on the street, the Consul Otto Sönderby, who buys expensive gifts for her: a dress, a pair of Italian gloves and valuable pearl necklace. They spend the afternoon together in an amusement park and later they go to Otto’s mansion, where they are interrupted by his wicked daughter Marianne. Susanne has a love affair with Henrik in her room, but they are interrupted by his cynical wife. The incidents in these encounters affect their perspective of love.
32 ) Thirst (1949)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 35
- IMDB User Review Score: 42
- Letterboxd User Score: 42
A needy couple in a bad marriage travel back to Stockholm after a trip to Italy. Meanwhile, a widow resists seductions from two different persons – her psychiatrist and a lesbian friend.
31 ) To Joy (1950)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 25
- IMDB User Review Score: 28
- Letterboxd User Score: 25
To Joy (Swedish: Till glädje) is a 1950 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman about a young married couple who play together in a Swedish orchestra.
30 ) The Making of Fanny and Alexander (1986)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 42
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
The Making of Fanny and Alexander is a fascinating look at the creation of a masterpiece. Directed by Ingmar Bergman himself, this feature-length documentary chronicles the methods of one of cinema’s true luminaries as he labors to realize his crowning production.
29 ) The Rite (1969)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 26
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 29
- Letterboxd User Score: 25
A judge in an unnamed country interviews three actors, together and singly, provoking them while investigating a pornographic performance for which they may face a fine. Their relationships are complicated: Sebastian, volatile, a heavy drinker, in debt, guilty of killing his former partner, is having an affair with that man’s widow. She is Thea, high strung, prone to fits, and seemingly fragile, currently married to Sebastian’s new partner, Hans. Hans is the troupe leader, wealthy, self-contained, and growing tired. The judge plays on the trio’s insecurities, but when they finally, in a private session with him, perform the masque called The Rite, they may have their revenge.
28 ) The Devil’s Eye (1960)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 29
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 27
- IMDB User Review Score: 29
- Letterboxd User Score: 25
The devil has a stye in his eye, caused by the purity of a vicar’s daughter. To get rid of it, he sends Don Juan up from hell to seduce the 20 year old Britt-Marie and to rob her of her virginity and her belief in love. She however can resist him and things get even turned around when Don Juan falls in love with her. The fact that he feels love for the first time now, makes him even less attractive to her and Don Juan returns to hell.
27 ) From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 31
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 28
- IMDB User Review Score: 25
- Letterboxd User Score: 23
Made during Bergman’s tax-related exile in Germany, the film continues the story of Katarina and Peter Egermann, the feuding, childless, professional couple who appear in one episode of “Scenes From A Marriage.” After Peter perpetrates a horrendous crime in its first scene, the rest of the film consists of a non-linear examination of his motivations, incorporating a police psychological investigation, scenes from the Egermanns’ married life, and dream sequences.
26 ) Brink of Life (1958)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 36
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 16
- IMDB User Review Score: 23
- Letterboxd User Score: 23
Set in a hospital where three women meet either because they have been through an abortion or are due to give birth.
25 ) Secrets of Women (1952)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 30
- IMDB User Review Score: 32
- Letterboxd User Score: 30
Rakel, Marta, Karin and Annette are married to four brothers. While waiting in a summer cottage for their husbands to come home, they tell each other stories about their marriages. Rakel tells about the time she had an affair and confronted her husband with it. Marta’s story is about how she at first refused to marry and had her child by herself. Karin tells about what happened when one time she and her husband got stuck in an elevator together. While the women tell their stories, Marta’s younger sister Maj is planning to elope.
24 ) After the Rehearsal (1984)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 15
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 24
- IMDB User Review Score: 25
- Letterboxd User Score: 25
Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She is the lead in his new production of Stindberg’s “A Dream Play.” She talks of her hatred for her mother, now dead, an alcoholic actress, who was Vogler’s star and lover. Vogler falls into a reverie, remembering a day Anna’s mother, Rakel, late in life, came after rehearsal to beg him to come to her apartment. He awakes and Anna reveals the reason she has returned: she jolts him into an emotional response, rare for him, and the feelings of a young woman and an older man play out.
23 ) A Lesson in Love (1954)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 25
- IMDB User Review Score: 32
- Letterboxd User Score: 30
After 15 years of marriage, David and Marianne have grown apart. David has had an affair with a patient of his and Marianne has got herself involved with her former lover Carl-Adam, who’s also David’s best friend. When she travels to Copenhagen to meet Carl-Adam, David takes the same train as she does, making it look coincidental. Spending time together remembering their past and talking about their future, they come to understand each other again, which leads to a reconciliation.
22 ) Face to Face (1976)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 25
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 15
A sensitive exploration of the tragic irony of the psychiatrist suffering with mental illness.
21 ) The Magic Flute (1975)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 12
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 18
- IMDB User Review Score: 14
- Letterboxd User Score: 25
The Queen of the Night enlists a handsome prince named Tamino to rescue her beautiful kidnapped daughter, Princess Pamina, in this screen adaptation of the beloved Mozart opera. Aided by the lovelorn bird hunter Papageno and a magical flute that holds the power to change the hearts of men, young Tamino embarks on a quest for true love, leading to the evil Sarastro’s temple where Pamina is held captive.
20 ) Saraband (2003)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 17
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 14
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
The movie is a sequel to Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage (1973), where we revisit the characters of Johan and Marianne, then a married couple. After their divorce, Johan and Marianne haven’t seen each other for 32 years. Marianne is still working, as a divorce lawyer. Johan is quite well off and has retired to a house in the Orsa finnmark district of Sweden. On a whim, Marianne decides to visit him. Johan’s son from a previous marriage, Henrik, lives nearby in a cottage with his daughter Karin, a gifted cello player. The relationship between father and son is strained. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.
19 ) Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 21
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 15
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 12
An artist in crisis is haunted by nightmares from the past in Ingmar Bergman’s only horror film, which takes place on a windy island. During “the hour of the wolf” – between midnight and dawn – he tells his wife about his most painful memories.
18 ) Shame (1968)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 29
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 12
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
Ingmar Bergman’s psychological study of how humans react in a situation of war. The film takes place on Gotland, where invasion forces arrives.
17 ) Summer with Monika (1953)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 23
- Letterboxd User Score: 15
Monika from Stockholm falls in love with Harry, a young man on holiday. When she becomes pregnant they are forced into a marriage, which begins to fall apart soon after they take up residence in a cramped little flat.
16 ) Summer Interlude (1951)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 23
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 15
Ballet dancer Marie reminisce of a summer 13 years ago when she was a teenager and met Henrik on vacation in the archipelago.
15 ) Sawdust and Tinsel (1953)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 18
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
On a gray morning, a circus caravan arrives in the town where Albert the ringmaster’s family lives. He hasn’t seen them for three years and has taken a mistress, the young and buxom Anne. Albert calls on his wife; Anne, jealous and wanting out, visits a theatrical troupe and lets an actor, Frans, seduce her in exchange for a necklace he says is valuable. Anne finds out it’s worthless at about the same time Albert’s wife declines to let him live with the family. Albert and Anne are stuck with the circus and each other; there’s a show tonight, Frans will be there smirking and sardonic, the bear is mangy, the clown is as sour as they come, and suicide offers an exit.
14 ) The Magician (1958)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 16
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
Ingmar Bergman’s The Magician (Ansiktet) is an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of deceit from one of cinema’s premier illusionists. Max von Sydow stars as Dr. Vogler, a nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test in Stockholm by the cruel, eminently rational royal medical adviser Dr. Vergérus. The result is a diabolically clever battle of wits that’s both frightening and funny, shot in rich, gorgeously gothic black and white.
13 ) The Silence (1963)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 15
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 12
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 12
Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester, her sister Anna and Anna’s young son, Johan, check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.
12 ) The Passion of Anna (1969)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 18
- IMDB User Review Score: 14
- Letterboxd User Score: 15
Andreas, a man struggling with the recent demise of his marriage and his own emotional isolation, befriends a married couple also in the midst of psychological turmoil. In turn he meets Anna, who is grieving the recent deaths of her husband and son. She appears zealous in her faith and steadfast in her search for truth, but gradually her delusions surface. Andreas and Anna pursue a love affair, but he is unable to overcome his feelings of deep humiliation and remains disconnected. Meanwhile, the island community is victimized by an unknown person committing acts of animal cruelty.
11 ) Cries and Whispers (1972)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 21
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 8
As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so deeply immersed in their own psychic pains that they can’t offer her the support she needs. Maria is wracked with guilt at her husband’s suicide, caused by his discovery of her extramarital affair. The self-loathing, suicidal Karin seems to regard her sister with revulsion. Only Anna, the deeply religious maid who lost her young child, seems able to offer Agnes solace and empathy.
10 ) Winter Light (1963)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 27
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 5
A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.
9 ) The Virgin Spring (1960)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 19
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
Devout Christians Töre and Märeta send their only daughter, the virginal Karin, and their foster daughter, the unrepentant Ingeri, to deliver candles to a distant church. On their way through the woods, the girls encounter a group of savage goat herders who brutally rape and murder Karin as Ingeri remains hidden. When the killers unwittingly seek refuge in the farmhouse of Töre and Märeta, Töre plots a fitting revenge.
8 ) Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 11
- IMDB User Review Score: 13
- Letterboxd User Score: 12
Early in the 20th century, middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman and his young wife, Anne, have still not consummated their marriage, while Fredrik’s son finds himself increasingly attracted to his new stepmother. To make matters worse, Fredrik’s old flame Desiree makes a public bet that she can seduce him at a romantic weekend retreat where four couples convene, swapping partners and pairing off in unexpected ways.
7 ) Autumn Sonata (1978)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 17
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 2
- Letterboxd User Score: 5
After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.
5 ) Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 23
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
Johan and Marianne are married and seem to have it all. Their happiness, however, is a façade for a troubled relationship, which becomes even rockier when Johan admits that he’s having an affair. Before long, the spouses separate and move towards finalizing their divorce, but they make attempts at reconciling. Even as they pursue other relationships, Johan and Marianne realize that they have a significant bond, but also many issues that hinder that connection.
5 ) Persona (1966)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 19
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer. Alma eventually confesses her secrets to a seemingly sympathetic Elisabeth and finds that her own personality is being submerged into Elisabeth’s persona.
4 ) The Seventh Seal (1957)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 14
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 3
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
3 ) Wild Strawberries (1957)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 12
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
- IMDB User Review Score: 3
- Letterboxd User Score: 5
Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor’s own first love.
2 ) Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 8
Karin hopes to recover from her recent stay at a mental hospital by spending the summer at her family’s cottage on a tiny island. Her husband, Martin, cares for her but is frustrated by her physical withdrawal. Her younger brother, Minus, is confused by Karin’s vulnerability and his own budding sexuality. Their father, David, cannot overcome his haughty remoteness. Beset by visions, Karin descends further into madness.
1 ) Fanny & Alexander (1982)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.
