Ingmar Bergman

Brink of Life

Brink of Life

At the height of his international acclaim, Ingmar Bergman followed two meditations on death, The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, with an examination of the mystery and pain of birth. This intimate chamber drama, set in a maternity ward, follows the emotional crises of three women as they grapple with motherhood. Another major success for the director that was also recognized for its exquisite performances by Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck, and Bibi Andersson, Brink of Life is one of Bergman’s most brilliantly nuanced explorations of the inner lives of women.

Film Info

  • Sweden
  • 1958
  • 85 minutes
  • 1.37:1
  • Swedish

Available In

Collector's Set

Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema

Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema

Blu-ray Box Set

30 Discs

$209.96

Brink of Life
Cast
Eva Dahlbeck
Stina Andersson
Ingrid Thulin
Cecilia Ellius
Bibi Andersson
Hjördis Petterson
Barbro Hiort af Ornäs
Nurse Brita
Erland Josephson
Anders Ellius
Max von Sydow
Harry Andersson
Gunnar Sjöberg
Dr. Nordlander
Ann-Marie Gyllenspetz
Counselor Gran
Inga Landgré
Greta Ellius
Credits
Director
Ingmar Bergman
Screenplay
Ulla Isaksson
Cinematographer
Max Wilén
Editor
Carl-Olov Skeppstedt
Production design
Bibi Lindström
Makeup artist
Nils Nittel
Production manager
Gösta Hammarbäck
Assistant director
Gösta Ekman
Sound
Lennart Svensson

Current

Eva Dahlbeck, a “Battleship of Femininity”

Ingmar’s Actors

Eva Dahlbeck, a “Battleship of Femininity”

This diva of the screen brought a touch of elegance and no-nonsense wit to her roles in Waiting Women, Smiles of a Summer Night, and other Bergman gems.

The Eerie Intensity of Ingrid Thulin

Ingmar’s Actors

The Eerie Intensity of Ingrid Thulin

A performer of great psychological force and control, Ingrid Thulin embodied some of Ingmar Bergman’s darkest obsessions with her intimidating screen presence.

Explore

Ingmar Bergman

Director

Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman

The Swedish auteur began his artistic career in the theater but eventually navigated toward film—"the great adventure," as he called it—initially as a screenwriter and then as a director. Simply put, in the fifties and sixties, the name Ingmar Bergman was synonymous with European art cinema. Yet his incredible run of successes in that era—including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and The Virgin Spring, haunting black-and-white elegies on the nature of God and death—merely paved the way for a long and continuously dazzling career that would take him from the daring “Silence of God” trilogy (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence) to the existential terrors of Cries and Whispers to the family epic Fanny and Alexander, with which he “retired” from the cinema. Bergman died in July 2007, leaving behind one of the richest bodies of work in the history of cinema.