The Magician (Svensk Filmindustri; Janus) is the latest public fantasy of Sweden's famed Writer-Director Ingmar Bergman, whose last two exports to the U.S.. Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, won hosannas in the art houses. Like them, The Magician pleases the eye and agitates the mind. But drifting with its phantasms is no easy matter, and many a moviegoer is likely, instead, to drift right out of the theater.
Bergman's magician (Max von Sydow) is a mid-19th century Mesmer whose touring Magnetic Health Theater is entirely composed of psychological castaways: the magician's wife...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
