# The Magician (1958 film)
**The Magician** (original Swedish title *Ansiktet*, literally "The Face") is a 1958 Swedish black-and-white comedy-drama written and directed by [Ingmar Bergman](https://www.edgepedia.org/ingmar-bergman), in which a nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist (practitioner of hypnotic, seemingly magical healing) and his troupe are detained and tested by skeptical officials in Stockholm. It was produced by Svensk Filmindustri, photographed by Gunnar Fischer, and released in North America as *The Magician* and in Great Britain as *The Face*.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27521-the-magician) • [2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Ansiktet* ("The Face"); US release title *The Magician*, UK title *The Face*[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27521-the-magician) |
| Director and writer | Ingmar Bergman, who wrote the screenplay; produced by Svensk Filmindustri[2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician) |
| Production | Shot in Filmstaden's studios, June 30 to August 27, 1958[2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician) |
| Premiere | December 26, 1958, at Skandia, Eskilstuna, Sweden[3](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/ansiktet) |
| Setting | July 1846, as the troupe travels to Stockholm[3](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/ansiktet) |
| Award | Jury's special prize at the Venice Film Festival, 1959[2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician) |
| Running time | 101 minutes (Criterion and Harvard Film Archive listings)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27521-the-magician) |
| Reception | IMDb 7.5/10 from about 12,000 ratings; Metacritic Metascore 86[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051365/ratings/) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-magician-1959/critic-reviews/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
In July 1846, five people travel by horse and covered wagon through a dark forest: the magnetist Vogler, his wife Manda (disguised as a man and calling herself Herr Aman), his old grandmother, and his helper Tubal, with the coachman Simson on the box. In the forest they pick up a wandering, gravely ill man, the alcoholic actor Johan Spegel, who welcomes death as a liberator and shortly after boarding collapses, apparently lifeless.[3](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/ansiktet)
On arrival in Stockholm the troupe is escorted by police from a city toll to the house of Consul Abraham Egerman, where they meet the police chief Starbeck and the medical counselor Vergérus. Tubal speaks for the newcomers, explaining that the famous magnetist Vogler cannot speak and that his disciple Herr Aman answers all questions.[3](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/ansiktet) Before the troupe can perform publicly, it must stage its act for the inquisitors, some of whom intend to expose the members as frauds.[6](https://www.citybeat.com/arts/the-magician-review-12173401/) The skeptical townspeople, headed by the cruel medical official, fail to explain Vogler's feats rationally, and events take a disturbing turn.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_magician_1958) In the film's climax, Vogler tries to persuade Vergérus, through his own brand of magic, that the dead can return to life.[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1620-the-magician-through-a-glass-drolly)
## Cast and production
[Max von Sydow](https://www.edgepedia.org/max-von-sydow) plays Albert Emanuel Vogler, spending much of the film performing without speech; Ingrid Thulin plays Manda Vogler, who masquerades as a man; Gunnar Björnstrand plays Dr. Vergérus; and the cast also includes Naima Wifstrand as Vogler's grandmother, Bengt Ekerot as Johan Spegel, Bibi Andersson as Sara, Erland Josephson as Consul Egerman, and Åke Fridell as Tubal.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27521-the-magician) • [9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1092362/the-magician) Gunnar Fischer photographed the film in rich black and white, Erik Nordgren composed the music, and Oscar Rosander edited.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27521-the-magician) • [10](https://biffes.org/frontend/images/widget/2nd%20BIFFes%202008_compressed.pdf)
Shooting ran from June 30 to August 27, 1958, entirely in Filmstaden's studios, with exterior work at Skålhamra by Lake Vallentuna and at Skansen in Stockholm.[2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician) • [3](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/ansiktet) Bergman later said of the result, "In every way the film became a little crueller, a little blacker, a little more brutal than I'd meant it to be."[2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician)
## Origins
To get the film approved, Bergman pitched the concept to Svensk Filmindustri's Carl-Anders Dymling as "one hell of an erotic comedy," a description he later admitted was not altogether truthful; in a 1960s interview he recalled telling Dymling the story was "one big erotic game" ending in "a wild erotic explosion," adding that during filming "I suppose I must have gone rancid."[11](https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/50921/1/9789198557718_fullhl.pdf) • [2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician)
The screenplay drew on two main sources. Bergman's 1947 Gothenburg City Theatre production of [G. K. Chesterton](https://www.edgepedia.org/g-k-chesterton)'s 1913 play *Magic*, about an illusionist interrogated by a scientist, a clergyman, and an aristocrat, is widely noted as a precursor; contemporary critics also read the film as a satirical portrait of conditions at the Malmö City Theatre, where Bergman directed stage plays from 1952 to the beginning of 1959, and some saw it as a faithful rendering of a pre-Christian legend.[9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1092362/the-magician) • [2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician) In his autobiography *Images: My Life in Film*, Bergman wrote that the film, born in the summer of 1958, mirrors his Malmö period, when the company had "remarkably pale relations" with the city's inhabitants; he identified the consul Egerman's family as the audience he and his troupe played for but spent no time with.[2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician)
## Themes and style
The film stages a confrontation between faith and rationality, personified by Vogler and Vergérus, and works through Bergman's conflicted feelings about the nature of art and the manipulation inherent in make-believe.[12](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-magician-2018-09/1) • [9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1092362/the-magician) Its genre mixing is distinctive: much of the film sits in a comic register, while the climactic sequence borrows the conventions of horror, a combination that led some critics to treat it as frivolous next to *The Seventh Seal* (1957) and *Wild Strawberries* (1957) and the later faith trilogy.[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1620-the-magician-through-a-glass-drolly) The critic Geoff Andrew, writing in Criterion's essay "The Magician: Through a Glass Drolly," calls it one of Bergman's most underrated achievements and finds the horror sequence deeply disturbing and the coda surprisingly affecting.[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1620-the-magician-through-a-glass-drolly)
The film belongs to Bergman's series of portraits of the artist as a manipulator of others, alongside *[Sawdust and Tinsel](https://www.edgepedia.org/sawdust-and-tinsel)* (1953), *Persona* (1966), *Hour of the Wolf* (1968), and *The Ritual* (1969).[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1620-the-magician-through-a-glass-drolly) Vogler's powers are shown as a mixture of psychological manipulation, theatrical trickery, and something the film deliberately refuses to explain.[13](https://sightlines.media/film/29453/the-magician-1958)
## Reception
The film competed at the 1959 [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival), where it won the jury's special prize and was nominated for the [Golden Lion](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-lion).[2](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician) • [10](https://biffes.org/frontend/images/widget/2nd%20BIFFes%202008_compressed.pdf) It received a BAFTA Film Award nomination in 1960.[10](https://biffes.org/frontend/images/widget/2nd%20BIFFes%202008_compressed.pdf) Contemporary reviews were generally favorable: Bosley Crowther of *The New York Times* praised its "extraordinary thrills" flowing "on several levels of emotion and intellect," and Time Out called it one of Bergman's most genuinely enjoyable films, widely underrated because of its comic elements.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-magician-1959/critic-reviews/) The film holds a Metascore of 86 on Metacritic, a 100% Tomatometer rating from 14 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and 7.5/10 on IMDb from about 12,000 users.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-magician-1959/critic-reviews/) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_magician_1958) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051365/ratings/)
Several later commentators describe the film as overlooked or underrated within Bergman's output, sandwiched between better-known works.[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1620-the-magician-through-a-glass-drolly) • [6](https://www.citybeat.com/arts/the-magician-review-12173401/) [The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) released it on Blu-ray and DVD as spine #537, with a visual essay by the Bergman scholar Peter Cowie, a 1967 television interview with Bergman, and a 1990 tribute by the filmmaker [Olivier Assayas](https://www.edgepedia.org/olivier-assayas), who called the film one of Bergman's most enigmatic and "perhaps his underground masterpiece."[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27521-the-magician)
## References
1. [The Magician, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/27521-the-magician)
2. [The Magician, Ingmar Bergman Foundation](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/production/magician)
3. [Ansiktet, 1958, Ingmar Bergman Foundation](https://www.ingmarbergman.se/verk/ansiktet)
4. [The Magician (1958) Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051365/ratings/)
5. [The Magician critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-magician-1959/critic-reviews/)
6. [The Magician (Review), CityBeat](https://www.citybeat.com/arts/the-magician-review-12173401/)
7. [The Magician (1958), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_magician_1958)
8. [The Magician: Through a Glass Drolly, by Geoff Andrew, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1620-the-magician-through-a-glass-drolly)
9. [The Magician, by Richard Harland Smith, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1092362/the-magician)
10. [The Magician / The Face (Ansiktet), Bengaluru International Film Festival program](https://biffes.org/frontend/images/widget/2nd%20BIFFes%202008_compressed.pdf)
11. [Ingmar Bergman (open-access monograph), OAPEN](https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/50921/1/9789198557718_fullhl.pdf)
12. [The Magician, Harvard Film Archive](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-magician-2018-09/1)
13. [The Magician (1958), Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/29453/the-magician-1958)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1939 to 1997*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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