Smash hit

He had his detractors, too. The demanding nature of his work, in particular the gravity of his themes, was such that the general public found him remote, and he was accused in his homeland of being partly responsible for Sweden being presented as a country of neurotics.

He was also a harsh self-critic. In an interview in 2004 with Swedish broadcaster SVT, the reclusive filmmaker admitted that he was reluctant to view his work. "I don’t watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry ... and miserable. I think it’s awful," he said.

Though best known internationally for his films, Bergman was also a prominent stage director. He worked at several playhouses in Sweden from the mid-1940s, including the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm which he headed from 1963 to 1966. He staged many plays by the Swedish author August Strindberg, whom he cited as an inspiration.

Known in Sweden mainly as a dramatist, Bergman obtained poor reviews for work that was considered dark and incomprehensible, with its focus on love, loneliness, anguish and relations with God.

Women also occupied a central role in his work, which often dwelt on the mysteries of the female soul. He had loved his mother intensely as a child, and when a doctor advised her to set her son aside or risk damaging him for life, he felt the loss deeply.

Mother-son relationships featured prominently in his work, as did his experiences from five marriages. He had nine children, including a daughter by the actress Liv Ullmann.

Bergman made profoundly personal films following his intellectual and spiritual preoccupations and tracing his loss of faith in God.

The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring (1960), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963) and The Silence (1963) all lead progressively to a rejection of religious belief, leaving only the conviction that human life is haunted by"a virulent, active evil".

With Wild Strawberries (1957), Bergman turned increasingly to psychological dilemmas and ethical issues in human and social relations once religion proved a failure.

For many years Bergman declined attractive offers to work abroad. But in 1976, after being charged by the Swedish tax authorities, he moved to Germany and worked as the director of Munich Residenz Theater.

After a six-year exile he returned to Sweden and remained there until his death. Officially "retired", he continued to work tirelessly, directing television plays, and writing screenplays such as the autobiographical saga The Best Intentions, which, reduced to three-hour film length, won the 1992 Cannes Golden Palm for director Bille August.

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