96-The Magician - Director:Ingmar Bergman - Cast: Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Naima Wifstrand, Bengt Ekerot,Bibi Anderson,and Erland Josephson.

"The actual focal point of the story is, of course, the androgynous Aman/Manda. It is around her and her enigmatic personality that everything rotates. Manda represents the belief in the holiness of human beings. Vogler, on the other hand, has given up. He is involved in the cheapest kind of theatre, and she knows it. Manda is very open in her talk with Vergérus. The miracle happened once, and she herself carries it. She loves Vogler in spite of being fully aware that he has lost his faith. If Vogler is a magician, who, even though he is tired to death, keeps repeating his by now meaningless hocus-pocus, then Tubal is the exploiter, the salesman of art. Tubal is Bergman, the director, trying to convince Dymling, the head of the studio, of the usefulness and quality of his latest film. In front of extremely skeptical studio executives, I managed to sell The Magician as a hell of an erotic comedy."
-Ingmar Bergman-

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"The film is a metaphor for the artist and all the parts that the audience projects into the artist. It is—or rather was—Bergman's own situation, for the audience projected all their fantasies into him, and he became an extremely interesting and fascinating individual. This goes for rock musicians, movie stars and others like them."

-Max von Sydow-

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"The Magician was created in an atmosphere of high spirits despite the black components in the tale we were spinning. Most certainly this had to do with the feeling of camaraderie in our troupe of jesters, for such we were during our Malmö period. Later, when I repeated themes from The Magician in 'The Rite', they took on a totally different and much more rancid note."
-Ingmar Bergman-

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"Jonas Sima: It's been said that in The Magician you were caricaturing Harry Schein ( Ingrid Thulin's husband-also head of the Swedish Film Institute).
Ingmar Bergman:I was just joking.

Torsten Manns:It's said that Max von Sydow plays you, Björnstrand plays Harry Schein, and Ingrid Thulin plays Ingrid Thulin.
Ingmar Bergman:I say like Flaubert: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi!.

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"I always had a feeling that a person who looks like that must be extremely gifted. And I was right."

-Ingmar Bergman-on Ingrid Thulin

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"It's fun to work with him. We get very involved emotionally for three months; then it's over and we say goodbye."

-Ingrid Thulin-

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"I was an introverted child. My family lived in a small town in the north of Sweden, and I was very lonely. I had an artistic bent, toward painting and music, and then I drifted into acting when I was still an adolescent. I played everything—music hall singers, comedy ingenues, a few of the classics on the stage. I did one thriller for an American television producer with Robert Mitchum—I think it was finally released in theatres. I can't remember most of them today. My real career began when I went to work for Ingmar."

-Ingrid Thulin-

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"We don't have a company of actors. No. It has just happened that he (Bergman) has used the same actors quite often....he uses us over and over again, and it must be very tiring for the audience sometimes. For us, as actors, it is quite amusing because you can follow him and ourselves developing in time. It's very special for us, working with him."

-Ingrid Thulin-

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"Truly one of the great movie actresses of our time. As a jealous colleague expressed it once: 'she is married to the camera'."

-Ingmar Bergman-on Ingrid Thulin

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"She was a wonderful actress and a close friend. I mourn her tremendously. She was extremely skilful, but so incredibly beautiful that people were tricked by her looks. They didn't always see her other sides. For instance, she had an incredible sense of humour."

- Harriet Andersson- Ingrid Thulin R.I.P

Robert Mitchum & Ingrid Thulin

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The great Ingrid Thulin smiling for the great Fellini