The legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman has died, it was reported today.
Bergman, who was 89, died peacefully at his home on the Swedish island of Faro, his daughter, Eve, said.
A 20th century auteur, the groundbreaking director was most famous for his 1957 film The Seventh Seal, in which a character plays chess with death.
Woody Allen, delivering a tribute on Bergman's 70th birthday in 1988, described him as "probably the greatest artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera".
Bergman directed more than 50 films, beginning his career with Crisis in 1946 and gaining fame with the success of Interlude in the early 1950s. He retired from filmmaking in 2003.
He won three Oscars for best foreign language film between 1961 and 1984, taking honours for The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly and Fanny and Alexander. In 1971, the Academy gave him a lifetime achievement award.
He first gained international acclaim with Smiles of a Summer Night, a romantic comedy made in 1955 which later inspired the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music.
His final work was Saraband, a made-for-television film starring Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, two of his favorite actors. Ms Ullmann also mothered one Bergman's children, Linn Ullmann.
Bergman's films approached subjects such as plague and madness with inventive technique and carefully honed writing. His vision encompassed all the extremes of his beloved Sweden, from the claustrophobic gloom of long winter nights to the gentleness of glowing summer evenings.
Alhough best known for his cinema work, he was also a prominent stage director from the 40s onwards, working at Swedish theatres including the Royal Dramatic in Stockholm, which he headed from 1963 to 1966.
Bergman, who was married five times, had nine children. A date for his funeral, which will be attended by family and close friends, has yet to be set.
^ He was a great talent & will be missed...
(image & source: http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2137786,00.html)
