Photo: Anders Roth
© Stiftelsen Ingmar Bergman

The first draft of what was to become Through a Glass Darkly is in the form of a note on the last page of the script for Bergman's preceding film, The Virgin Spring. It begins with the words: "THE WALLPAPER. She who is small and gets a story about the room with the mysterious wallpaper. Then one day she experiences it."

Karin is played by Harriet Andersson. If her role in Summer with Monika was her big breakthrough, the aforementioned complex character constituted her second big break. Gunnar Björnstrand plays her father, a writer who uses her psychosis in his novels. Of the four actors in this chamber piece, Lars Passgård was definitely the beginner of the bunch. At the age of 18, he was confronted with the challenges of relating to a dead mother, a distant, suicidal father and an insane big sister, who also molests him.

© AB Svensk Filmindustri

Through a Glass Darkly is often referred to as the first part of the 'God and Man trilogy' – of which Winter Light and The Silence make up the second and third, respectively. The film was Bergman's second complete collaboration with
Sven Nykvist and the first of his films to be shot on Fårö. It was, in fact, Nykvist who recommended the island to Bergman.

Harriet Andersson recently commented on shooting the film: "Back in those days, exterior shots were allowed to take their time, and it shows. There are some insanely long tracking shots that called for extensive rail work. Nowadays they run around with theses tiny cameras, no wonder that they don't need any rails.”

Through a Glass Darkly was Sweden's contribution to the Venice Biennale in 1962. It won the Oscar for best Foreign Language Film the same year.

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