Max von Sydow’s contributions to world cinema are so vast and so important that only hyperbole will do.
He is now familiar to three generations – or maybe four? – from those who got to know him first through Ingmar Bergman’s films when they arrived on our shores in the 1950s/60s, blowing everyone away. Then there are those who got to know him in the 1970s because of The Exorcist. Or in the 1980s because of his wonderful performance in Hannah and Her Sisters. And now: There are those who know him from The Game of Thrones. Or Star Wars! I saw one headline that read “Max von Sydow from ‘The Game of Thrones’ has died.” Nothing about The Seventh Seal? No? Okay, okay. I think it’s great people know him from all these different things, eras, decades. He was truly international. He worked until the end.
Although his work with Bergman is vast and intimidatingly great, I must pull out Shame, which has a different feel and mood entirely from Bergman’s other films, a jagged hand-held caught-in-the-moment feel. It is one of the greatest of war films. It’s not as well known as The Seventh Seal or Wild Strawberries, but it’s one of Bergman’s very best.
He’s one of those actors (like Duvall) who was never a teenager, never a young man. Even if you find their school pictures, they have the face of a 35 year old commanding officer. It’s hard to imagine him coming up in the current Hollywood system where you have to credibly play a teenager up until your late twenties to get anywhere.
// who was never a teenager, never a young man. //
Scott – WOW. I love this insight. So true.
I’m trying to think of other actors (or actresses) to whom this might apply.
Golden Age actors are easy. Tracy, Bogart, Gable, Grant, Cooper, Wayne were grown ass men when they ascended.
John Hamm couldn’t get arrested for years because his look was never ”young” even when he was a teenager.
I was thinking Jeremy Irons, too.
So my very first TCM Film Festival-was something I could have never planned. The opening night film? Robert Osborne and Max Von Sydow were in my row-THEY WERE RIGHT THERE!!! Watching them watch that movie? Highlight of my life. I don’t want to be shallow, Von Sydow looked amazing! Big, virile, still so charismatic.
Maureen – wow!! Amazing!