The Touch movie storyline. In a small Swedish town, physician Andreas Vergerus (Max von Sydow) and his wife Karin Vergarus (Bibi Andersson) have a loving yet somewhat pedestrian fifteen year marriage which has spawned two now early teen children. They befriend visiting Jewish-American archaeologist David Kovac (Elliott Gould) who is working on a dig of an old church site. Admitting to her that he fell in love with her the first time he laid eyes on her at the hospital on the day that her mother passed away, Karin easily succumbs to David’s advances, she never having cheated on Andreas before.
Although David transforms, having a passive-aggressive nature in their relationship including bouts of physical violence against her, Karin ends up falling in what she believes is love with David in he representing what is missing with Andreas, while she still remains loyal to Andreas and their marriage. Andreas is aware of something concerning David which may provide some answers as to David’s behavior toward Karin, which become a little more clear when Karin meets Sara.
The Touch (Swedish: Beröringen) is a 1971 romantic drama film directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Elliott Gould, and Sheila Reid. The film tells the story of an affair between a married woman and an impetuous foreigner. It contains references to the Virgin Mary and the Holocaust.
Produced by ABC Pictures, The Touch was Bergman’s first English language film, but shot on the island of Gotland in Sweden in 1970. Cinematographer Sven Nykvist shot it in Eastmancolor. Gould, cast over Paul Newman and Robert Redford, believed Bergman’s screenplay was semi-autobiographical.
The film received mixed to negative reviews and was a box office bomb. It has since had a limited re-release by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2011 and a home media release by The Criterion Collection in 2018.
Paul Scherer at Indiana University South Bend argued the film contains “fairly explicit reference to the Garden of Eden and such related themes as Satan, temptation and the fall”. Scherer also noted critic James Gay argued anti-Semitism was vaguely a theme in the film, while Virginia Wexman said the film relied on “poetic imagery”.
The statue of Mary also features in the film’s themes. The statue has a small smile, and resembles Karin’s mother. Bergman had earlier expressed his psychological difficulty distinguishing between wife and mother, and writer Frank Gado argues Karin’s mother dying removes the mother from Karin, and allows David to love her. The larvae eating the statue may represent David and Karin’s fetus.
About the Production
The film was shot on the island of Gotland, as well as at Film-Tcknik Studios in Stockholm and in London, between 14 September and 13 November 1970. Cinematographer Sven Nykvist employed Eastmancolor for his work. Using various shades of make-up, Nykvist took several days with Andersson’s test shots.
Gould believed Andersson’s character was influenced by Ingrid Karlebo, a woman Bergman was living with at the time, and that the film was semi-autobiographical. The sex scene was filmed on a real bed, though Bergman had pledged to use a platform.[12] Bergman and Gould spent hours having conversations to help create the film’s atmosphere.
“They had thought there could be some commerciality to me doing that picture at that time because I was, uh, so hot,” said Gould later. “I was the leading male actor for a moment in the Western world, and I think that was embarrassing to him, because the way it was sold by ABC, with the beautiful picture of me and Bibi…the movie is not about a woman and a man. It was all about the woman. And it was far more revolutionary than people could even begin to think, in terms of the woman’s psyche and journey.”
Andersson described her relationship with Bergman during production as tense. Actress Sheila Reid stated Bergman consulted with her about how the British apartment should look, and that her scene involved some improvisation. Rehearsals lasted from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Touch (1971)
Directed by: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Elliott Gould, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow, Sheila Reid, Margaretha Byström, Elsa Ebbesen, Dennis Gotobed, Karin Gry, Barbro Hiort af Ornäs, Ann-Christin Lobråten, Maria Nolgård
Screenplay by: Ingmar Bergman
Production Design by: Ann-Christin Lobråten, P.A. Lundgren
Cinematography by: Sven Nykvist
Film Editing by: Siv Lundgren
Costume Design by: Mago, Ethel Sjöholm
Makeup Department: Cecilia Drott, Bengt Ottekil
Music by: Carl Michael Bellman, Peter Covent, Jan Johansson
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden), Cinerama Releasing Corporation (USA)
Release Date: August 30, 1971
Visits: 120