Monday | January 14, 2008 9:00 pm

The Face, aka The Magician
(Ansiktet)

Screening on Film

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
With Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Åke Fridell.
Sweden, 1958, 35mm, black & white, 100 min.
Swedish with English subtitles.

When a mid-nineteenth century traveling magician and hypnotist rolls into town, he is summoned to give a command performance for the authorities, who are eager to debunk him. He proves too clever for them in this allegory about art as artifice and its ability to outflank those who think they are immune to it. The Face is at once a spooky Gothic and a darkly erotic comedy.