I discovered this thread too late to partake of any re-watches, but I went on a Bergman binge a number of years ago and many of the images and situations have stuck with me ever since. I'll go ahead and endeavor to rank them, though a numerical, hierarchical ranking is usually something I eschew. Suffice to say that films 1-8 here would be essentially tied in the category of UNMITIGATED MASTERPIECES, while 9 would slot into EXCELLENT and 10-12 into VERY GOOD. 13 ranks as GOOD.
1. Wild Strawberries
A cliche pick for number one, perhaps, but there is so much beauty and earned melancholy throughout, but the ending is a stroke of grace and love. Sjostrom certainly provides on-screen gravitas, and even the dream sequences, a type scene that usually puts me off, feel appropriate here.
2. The Seventh Seal
In contrast to what some others have written above, this only feels more contemporary to me with each viewing. A world of war, disease, and fanaticism, faced with stoic uncertainty by Max Von Sydow, in the first role in which he looked old, which he's now achieved for sixty consecutive years.
3. Persona
I'm not sure this isn't the best, actually. Certainly the most daring formally, it's also endlessly fascinating thematically, with its hypnotic reduction of psyche to shadow, yet continually imbued with emotional immediacy, with two sterling performances keeping it together. And I love that he just up and decided to go out-New Wave all the New Waves by
really pushing the medium.
4. Whispers and Cries
Yes,
Whispers and Cries, listen to the man himself! A similar ending to that of
Wild Strawberries, but it's a much more emotionally fraught journey throughout. And such color!
5. Winter Light
A simple yet moving depiction of the importance of ritual as a signifier of belief and hope, even in the face of gloom and death.
6. Saraband
Whereas this is more of a death rattle, and to me one of Bergman's most emotionally vulnerable and sensitive works.
7. The Virgin Spring
Here we have a pristinely structured diamond of a film, intense -- perhaps in more conventional ways than some of his other work (see how it's been translated into horror revenges thrillers), but another beautiful ending that adds transcendence to the whole experience.
8. Shame
The details have faded in my memory a bit, but I remember it being a harrowing experience, a brutal exposure of the worst potentials of human nature.
9. Smiles of a Summer Night
So breezy, and in such a way that became rarer as Bergman's career possessed. But I like this lighter side, which feels like a Mozartian intrigue as filtered through Ophuls (though without such ornate camerawork, natch, though it is beautiful).
10. The Magician
Inconsistent, but it has two standout sequences: an early sequence with the servants in their revels, and of course the suspenseful climax.
11. Summer with Monika
One of the most important films to the Nouvelle Vague, directly homaged in
The 400 Blows and anticipatory of the middle section of
Pierrot Le Fou. And, of course, Monika's stare etched its way into
Blows,
Breathless, and (to move to another country)
La Dolce Vita.
12. Through a Glass Darkly
Agony followed, ever so briefly, by hope found in the smallest of gestures; even the smallest of gestures carry weight in the absence of any other sound.
13. Hour of the Wolf
Again, somewhat inconsistent, but effective atmospherics. An interesting reversal of
Persona, where we get a visual representation of an unusual beachside event, whereas
Persona conveyed its in monologue. Odd, then, that
Persona feels more "cinematic"; above perhaps any filmmaker, Bergman demonstrated that being "cinematic" requires a commitment to depicting humanity with honesty and authenticity.
Now, there are a number of likely masterpieces I simply haven't gotten around to yet (
Fanny and Alexander chief among them), but there are a few others I've seen that I've chosen to exclude from this ranking. One is
The Silence, which I should revisit; it does look good and have an intriguing texture, but to me it simply doesn't compel or add up to much, though I find it
very important as a transitory work, as I don't know if
Persona is achievable without Bergman having gone through the process of this film. I perhaps made a mistake by watching the series of
Scenes from a Marriage without seeing the feature, as such doses of misery are rather hard to take (and felt rather tonally monotonous and repetitive), even spread out over episodic viewings -- though, again, another viewing could certainly shake some things loose.
The one film I'd say simply isn't good at all is
The Serpent's Egg, which just feels unfocused and meandering, as well as oddly-cast. A noble experiment, sure, but for me, not a success.
As you might gather from the above, I hold Bergman in tremendous esteem, and happily forgive what I perceive as his missteps as they are always part of a project of lurching forward and toward something ineffable, but something always profoundly human and existentially curious. He was willing to strip down stylistically and willing to gloss things up as his subjects required. His work with actors is sublime, and there so many moments of visual beauty, some comforting and some disconcerting.