The Touch
Bibi Andersson and Critic Bengt Forslund in Person
Screening on Film
Screening on Film
Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
With Bibi Andersson, Elliott Gould, Max von Sydow.
US/Sweden, 1971, 35mm, color, 113 min.
With Bibi Andersson, Elliott Gould, Max von Sydow.
US/Sweden, 1971, 35mm, color, 113 min.
In Bergman’s only English-language film, a married woman (Andersson) has an affair with an intense but volatile American archaeologist (Gould) and becomes torn between him and her staid Swedish husband (von Sydow). Apart from the support of Andrew Sarris and several others, the film garnered little recognition among critics. But this gritty, erotic melodrama is emotionally effective, contains wonderful imagery of both Sweden and England, and in its attempt to reach broader audiences provides a refreshing departure from Bergman’s more brooding metaphysical endeavors.