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BBFC RatingThe Touch

Certificate15
Year1971
Director(s)Ingmar Bergman
CountrySweden, USA
Running Time1HR 55MINS
Extra InfoPartially Subtitled
SeasonIngmar Bergman at QFT

Now restored in its original bilingual version, the great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman’s rarely seen chronicle of a passionate affair is a major rediscovery.

During 1970 Ingmar Bergman shot The Touch, his first English language film. Elliott Gould (MASH), the first American to star in a Bergman film, was cast alongside regulars Bibi Andersson and Max von Sydow.

A happily married mother of two, Karin (Andersson) surprises herself by responding in kind to an unforeseen profession of love from David (Gould), an archaeologist visiting Sweden whom her doctor husband Andreas (von Sydow) has befriended. But love, however toxically exhilarating, is seldom simple, and deceit and David’s volatile temperament take their toll…

Due to dubbed prints and mixed reviews, The Touch all but disappeared for decades. Now, however, the psychological precision of Bergman’s script and the subtlety and intensity of the performances can be properly appreciated, along with the evocative autumnal colours of Sven Nykvist’s burnished camerawork. Utterly compelling; a revelation.

INGMAR BERGMAN AT QFT
As part of the global celebrations of the centenary of Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007), QFT will be screening several Bergman titles over the coming months, including major rediscoveries The Touch (1971) and The Magic Flute (1975), alongside some of Bergman’s best-known features such as The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957) and Persona (1966).

 


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