Bergman’s strength lay in his relationship with actors. His films have extremely internalised performances from a repertoire of actors that he cultivated. He provided his actors space to develop their performances, fully sensitive to their state of psychological vulnerability.

Bergman’s collaboration with Sven Nykvist, his cinematographer, is by now a part of cinema folklore. Together, they created some of the most enduring images in world cinema. Bergman’s essential concern was with his characters as human beings — their moments of joy, their sorrows, their emotional traumas and the poetry of their souls tormented by questions that seemed to defy answers. With Nykvist on the camera, his films established a sophisticated cinematic aesthetic that reflected his artistic concerns.

Reflecting upon the nature of cinema, Bergman once said, “Film as dream, film as music. No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.” Bergman’s cinema is indeed a symphony of the human soul.

The writer is an eminent film-maker