Ingmar Bergman Dies at 89

The associated press reports that Ingmar Bergman died at the age of 89. The only movie I've seen of his was the abstruse and densely allegorical Seventh Seal, an existential tale about a knight's game of chess with Death. Despite his obsession with the theme of existential crisis (which apparently permeates many of his films), he was quoted as saying he was quite comfortable with the idea of nothingness beyond death and his lifestyle certainly seemed to corroborate this quip. It's fascinating that figures like Bergman and Sartre are obsessed with the idea of existential despair, yet possess none of it themselves. Sartre loved to talk about the horror of war, while eating chocolates behind the lines. Both Bergman and Sartre basked in celebrity lifestyles.