Ingmar Bergman’s Top Rock & Roll Moments
International cinema lost a giant this weekend: Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, who directed the fun-loving, madcap cinematic thrill rides that put Stockholm on the party map. His films explored alienation and the emptiness of the universe, but let’s not forget the Ing’s wild side. Here are the scenes we’ll remember him by — the top rock & roll moments in Ingmar Bergman films!
The Seventh Seal
Medieval knight Max Von Sydow challenges Death to a game of chess, but it turns into one crazy dance-off, with Death doing the lawnmower with his scythe to INXS’ “What You Need.”
Winter Light
Ingrid Thulin, haunted by her repressed passion for suicidal Lutheran pastor Gunnar Bjornstrand, surprises him on the altar — with a steamy dance to En Vogue’s “Giving Him Something He Can Feel”! Then they kill themselves! Scanidav-ulous!
Scenes From a Marriage
It’s the end of the road for Liv Ullman and Erland Josephson — until a zany divorce hearing (watch for Charles Nelson Reilly in his cameo as the judge) ends up in a big courtroom karaoke rendition of ABBA’s “Waterloo.” Looks like love is Swede-r than ever!
The Silence
Aaaaw! The terrible silence of God has got a pair of sisters feeling mighty depressed! But turn that frown upside down, Miss Grumpy Pants! DJ Usher is here to rock the school gym with Fatboy Slim’s “The Rockafeller Skank.” (Or was this scene in She’s All That? I always get these confused.)
Persona
Liv Ullman, as the traumatized mute actress! Bibi Andersson, as the seaside nurse! Uh oh! Did somebody say, “sultry beach-volleyball scene set to The Cars’ “Moving In Stereo?”
Through a Glass Darkly
Harriet Andersson is one wacky Swedish lady, what with all the hallucinations of spiders that symbolize the bleakness of human existence. Whew! But how about a little incest in a ruined windmill on the desolate, windswept, God-abandoned beach? While Whitney Houston sings “All The Man That I Need”? Hell to the yeah! R.I.P., Ingmar.