The Touch (1971 film)

For other films, see Touch (disambiguation).

The Touch
Directed byIngmar Bergman
Written byIngmar Bergman
Produced byLars-Owe Carlberg
Ingmar Bergman
StarringElliott Gould
Bibi Andersson
Max von Sydow
Sheila Reid
CinematographySven Nykvist
Production
companies
ABC Pictures
Cinematograph A.B.[1]
Distributed byCinerama Releasing Corporation[1]
Release date
  • 30 August 1971 (1971-08-30)
Running time
112 minutes
CountriesSweden
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,200,000[2]
Box office$1,135,000[2]

The Touch (Swedish: Beröringen) is a 1971 Swedish romantic drama film directed and written 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 made in two versions - one in Swedish and English, the other wholly in English.[3] It was 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 failed at the box office. It has since had a limited rerelease by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2011 and a home media release by The Criterion Collection in 2018.

  1. ^ a b The Touch at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  2. ^ a b "ABC's 5 Years of Film Production Profits & Losses". Variety. 31 May 1973. p. 3.
  3. ^ "The Touch: Ingmar Bergman's most misunderstood masterwork? | Sight & Sound". 2 March 2018.