Ingmar Bergman Passed Away

Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film director died today at his home on the isle of Faaroe, off Sweden's east coast, the Swedish Film Institute said in a statement. He was 89. In his lifetime, he directed more than 50 movies, wrote scripts for another dozen, and was responsible for 168 works for the stage, television and radio and inspired many of his contemporary directors as far ranging as Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg.

Born on July 14, 1918, Bergman was a massively influential director, breaking through into prominence in the 1950s, and with a cinematic peak that endured from the 60s through to the 80s. The prolific filmmaker was active right into old age, making the well-received Swedish telefilm Saraband in 2003.

Some highlights from the filmography of the genius include: The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Fanny And Alexander, Scenes From A Marriage, Winter Light, Hour Of The Wolf, and Through a Glass Darkly, among several other masterpieces. Three of his movies won Academy Awards for best foreign language film and one, ``Fanny and Alexander'' in 1982, grabbed four awards. It was also the beginning of a 21-year hiatus in his film making.

Before spending his final years in seclusion on the windswept Baltic island of Faaroe, Bergman made his last film, ``Saraband,'' in 2003. It was greeted in a review by Time magazine as ``the last roar from a legend,'' a work that showed he was still ``the greatest living filmmaker,'' with a gift for finding ``universal significance in his private agonies.''

Words of Bergman will always resonate in our heart: ""Film as dream, film as music. No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul."