Just the other day I was surprised to find that Ingmar Bergman was still alive. He more or less retired from making films more or less about 25 years ago, Fanny and Alexander being the last major film he directed (with the exception of some direct to TV films). It struck me as a shame that a man who gave us such classics as The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries had not made any films for so long, especially considering how wonderful his films and screenplays are. I’m sure he would have had a few things to say about the way the world has changed over the last quarter of a century. As an aside, both of those films are 50 years old this year - hence why there’s been interviews with the great man and retrospectives of his work as well as new releases of both masterpieces.

According to current news reports, it would appear that Bergman died this morning. No doubt he’s off challenging Death to a game of chess somewhere.