Max Von Sydow, RIP

It took 63 years, but Max von Sydow finally lost that chess match with death.

Von Sydow was genuinely one of the greatest actors of cinema history. His work with Bergman isn’t exactly hip these days; Bergman’s complete lack of irony does not sit well with the modern imagination and his stories of religious doubt and self-loathing aren’t as popular as they once were either. I mostly think these are great movies though. The Seventh Seal is one of the finest films of all time. Von Sydow’s work in films such as The Virgin Spring, Hour of the Wolf, Shame, and many other Bergman films was consistently outstanding, as was his work in The Best Intentions, which is technically a Bille August film, but is actually about Bergman’s parents. Moreover, there was his two-film epic with Liv Ullmann: Jan Troell’s The Emigrants and The New Land, which aren’t perfect films, but are a truly outstanding story about the immigrant experience and from the non-U.S. perspective. Other great films includes his portrayal of Knut Hamsun in the 1996 biopic of the fascist-friendly writer and a critical supporting role in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Von Sydow’s films in the U.S. were more hit and miss, not surprisingly. He’s most known for The Exorcist and sometimes got really meaty roles, such as in Hannah and Her Sisters. The U.S. has never really had a real place for a brilliant European actor with an accent like Von Sydow, but at least he made a bunch of money and worked all the way up to the end.