Bergman’s first film in English (made for ABC Pictures) stars Bibi Andersson as a seemingly happy Swedish housewife who leaves her husband (Max von Sydow) for a visiting American archaeologist (Elliott Gould). Member of a family of concentration camp survivors, bohemian and prone to violent outbursts, the archaeologist possesses a rage far removed from the heroine’s bourgeois existence; their entire affair, in fact, seems designed to destroy, rather than create, security. Met with scathing reviews during its original release, The Touch remains a little-seen curio, but many critics found interest in Andersson’s brilliant performance and Bergman’s continuing investigation of religion and the nature of freedom.