Von Sydow’s Swedish films in spotlight
It started by challenging Death to a game of chess and ended with “Game of Thrones.”
Max von Sydow carved out a legendary international career that included portraying Jesus in the biblical epic “The Greatest Story Ever Told” and playing villains opposite Flash Gordon and James Bond, and he was a soughtafter character actor for some of the world’s greatest directors, including William Friedkin (in “The Exorcist”), David Lynch (“Dune”), Steven Spielberg (“Minority Report”), Martin Scorsese (“Shutter Island”) and J.J. Abrams (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”).
And, of course, he was ThreeEyed Raven in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
But the focus of a sixfilm online retrospective, which pays tribute to the star a year after his death at age 90 and is available to stream through April 30, is the work in his native Sweden that forms the spine of his extraordinary career.
“Max von Sydow: The Best Stradivarius,” cosponsored by the Berkeley Art Museum’s Pacific Film Archive and the California Film Institute’s Smith Rafael
Film Center, explores his work with iconic director Ingmar Bergman (four of the six films); his collaboration with the other Nordic international star of the 1960s and ’70s, Liv Ullmann (three films); and a latecareer masterpiece, “Pelle the Conqueror” (1987), which garnered him the first of his two Oscar nominations.
Director Jan Troell recalled getting his first movie directing job after working in television, a short film that would be a part of the omnibus film “4x4” (1965), thanks to von Sydow, whom he considered his “first mentor.”
“At the time, he was in Hollywood and had just finished ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told,’ ” the 89yearold said. “I was a complete amateur, and for me to reach out to Max von Sydow was like bringing down the moon. I didn’t think it was possible he would say yes. Then one day I was reading the paper, and there was a little story that Max von Sydow was going to do a Swedish film — and it was my film! That’s how I found out.”
Troell would go on to direct von Sydow and Ullmann in “The Emigrants,” a threehour epic about Swedish farmers in the 19th century who seek to immigrate to America. The 1971 film garnered a best picture Academy Award nomination as well as nominations for Troell and Ullmann.
Troell is scheduled to be a part of a livestream conversation on Friday, April 2, as part of the ticket package for “The Emigrants.”
As for Ullmann, who is scheduled to participate in a livestream conversation on April 23 as part of the ticket package for Bergman’s “The Passion of Anna,” she said she and von Sydow “were the best of friends.”
“We were so close because what we did in the movies was so close, and the relationship was so close.”
Ullmann remembered an emotional moment in “The Passion of Anna” when she was sparring with Bergman over her line reading during the emotional climax of the film, when the disturbing nature of her character is revealed. Von Sydow encouraged her to go further.
“Max said, ‘You must listen to Ingmar, Liv!’ ” Ullmann recalled. “And suddenly I listened, and I was thinking ‘Yes!’ ... And the more I spoke, the angrier I became, and I looked at Max (who was off camera) and he smiled. He said, ‘You’re good, Liv. That’s it! That’s it!’
“And that’s like our friendship, too, because few actors maybe not worry about the role they are doing but are showing their partner, ‘We are partners. And we love each other.’ “
Ullmann can also be seen in the series in Bergman’s “Hour of the Wolf,” in which von Sydow plays a tortured artist.
But a good place to start is by experiencing, either for the first time or for a revisit, the film that made both the director and his star internationally famous: “The Seventh Seal.” The 1957 film is set in medieval times during the plague and is a powerful exploration of faith.
Von Sydow’s knight challenges Death to that iconic chess game. The longer the game goes, the longer the knight lives. But it’s about more than living a life; it’s about finding meaning within that life.
The knight looks for answers beyond the game, in those he encounters: his faithful traveling companion, a troupe of entertainers, the inhabitants of a small village. In pandemic times, when death is inevitable and an afterlife is in question, the weary knight doesn’t find big answers but small ones. He learns to enjoy moments in the company of others.
The knight, as he must, eventually loses the game. But for von Sydow, it was just the beginning.