The Magician

Name: The Magician
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: August 27, 1959
Duration: 101 min
Rating: 86
Cast: Bengt Ekerot, Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson, Gertrud Fridh, Gunnar Björnstrand

1959

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Universal acclaim based on 8 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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7.5	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Svensk Filmindustri | Release Date: August 27, 1959 | TV-PG

Starring: Bengt Ekerot, Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson, Gertrud Fridh, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Lars Ekborg, Max von Sydow, Naima Wifstrand, Toivo Pawlo

Summary: A traveling magician and his assistants are persecuted by authorities in Sweden of the 19th century. Their captures, however, didn't bring victory to those in power.

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 101 min

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Critic Reviews

100

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

The Magician is still fascinating, presenting a myriad of challenging ideas about magic, reality, and the nature of film itself. The acting, as in typical in Bergman, is exceptionally good, with Bjornstrand a standout. Read full review

Scott Tobias

It’s haunting and beautiful at times, surprisingly playful at others, and like all great movies about magic, it has more than a few tricks up its sleeve. Read full review

Bosley Crowther

This picture is full of extraordinary thrills that flow and collide on several levels of emotion and intellect. And it swarms with sufficient melodrama of the blood-chilling, flesh-creeping sort to tingle the hide of the least brainy addict of out-right monster films. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

Perhaps Bergman's most typical variation on one of his major themes: the clash between raffish theatrical artists and sober rulers. [10 Dec 2005, p.C4]

Don Druker

Set in the 19th century, it's one of Bergman's most tightly structured and frightening films. Read full review

Joseph Jon Lanthier

This piquant control over cinematic grammar doesn’t quite rescue the film from a laughably zombie-tinged climax and an anomalous deus ex machina denouement, but it makes The Magician one of Bergman’s more accessible failures, and collapses any suspicious connection between him and the fretful Vogler. Read full review

Pauline Kael

This Ingmar Bergman film isn't a masterwork, or even a very good movie, but it is clearly a film made by a master.

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