The Image Makers

Bergman’s decision to direct this television play was due in large measure to his love of Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage, which he claims to have seen at least a hundred times, and the project’s intersection of the worlds of theater and film. The scenario takes place in 1920, when Sjöström (Lennart Hjulström) invites Selma Lagerlöf (Anita Björk), author of the novel on which The Phantom Carriage is based, to Stockholm to show her scenes from his film adaptation. Also present are the talented cinematographer Julius Jaenzon (Carl-Magnus Dellow) and the young actress Tora Teje (Elin Klinga), Sjöström’s mistress and the object of Jaenzon’s desire. The Phantom Carriage screens in the Barbro Osher Theater on September 22.