The Bell Tolls for Max von Sydow
The Swedish actor died this weekend, he was 90. His career spanned seven decades and included more than 150 films and television series that spanned multiple genres.
Max von Sydow was born in Lund, Sweden in 1929. His journey to acting started with creating a theatrical group with his friends at school.
“You see, I had an odd upbringing. My father was a scholar, a professor in the town where I was born, and his subject was folklore. He was a master at telling stories — folk tales and adventures. I was very shy as a boy and heard more fairy tales than the average child because of my father. This and my shyness prompted my imagination and led to an interest in make-believe.”
He studied at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm and spent several years on the stage with city theater groups performing Shakespeare and made his film debut in Alf Sjöberg’s Bara en mor in 1949. He met Ingmar Bergman in 1955 when he joined the Malmö City Theatre.
His performance as medieval knight Antonious Block in The Seventh Seal brought him to international fame and is still held as a masterclass in acting. It has influenced many films since – it was parodied in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. The pair would go on to make eleven films together, including Wild Strawberries, The Virgin Spring, The Magician, Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and Shame. Their partnership created some of the most enduring movies of the era and effected a generation of filmmakers.
“You have to get more involved in a [Ingmar Bergman] film than you do in others because it deals with much deeper and more philosophic questions than the average movie. He also establishes a much closer relationship with his actors and technicians than would ever be possible on larger productions.”
L-R: Ingmar Bergman, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bibi Andersson, and Max von Sydow
In Hollywood, he was often cast as the villain (much to his frustration) due to his towering height, deep voice, and austere features. Most will recognize him as Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon, Lamar Burgess in Minority Report, and Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Never Say Never Again. He also played several older, wise teacher type characters – notably in The Exorcist, Dune, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and Game of Thrones.
“At home [in Sweden], the actor’s profession was not considered particularly reputable, but being an actor or star in a Hollywood film was something very important in American eyes. Then I slowly realized that as an actor in Sweden, you were allowed to be involved in some kind of artistic project, which could be a flop and yet still be justifiable if it carried artistic weight and ambitions. In Hollywood, on the other hand, if you do not succeed, you are nobody. You become a mere piece of paper with a figure on it. You are just as good-or bad-as your last film was financially. And while Sweden remains sufficiently small for you to work in, say, Malmö and still make films in Stockholm, in the States you either work in Hollywood, or you live somewhere else, and you work for the legitimate theater.”
Outside of his career in Hollywood, he regularly worked in Europe (he spoke five languages) on screen and stage playing what he called “people without any remarkable talents” that struggled with existential questions and insurmountable odds. Films like The Emigrants and Pelle the Conqueror (which earned him an Oscar nomination).
This weekend is a good time to remember von Sydow by digging into his work. Amazon Prime currently has Three Days of the Condor, The Ox, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. Netflix has The Command. The Criterion Channel has nearly everything he did with Bergman plus a bunch of others.
