A beautiful and mysterious film. It is very theatrical like many of Bergman's films and tells a story with weighty and universal themes woven into the narrative. I particularly enjoyed the scenes between the magician and his adversaries whose smug and self-righteous cruelty are so believably rendered. The magician's skill in turning the tables on his persecutors is brilliant and (mostly) realistic. Great performance by Max von Sydow, as usual. The whole cast was great.Many of the characters and narrative ideas in "The Magician" are stock but Bergman's imagination enriches them immeasurably. I have one question only about the film and that's this: why, after scoring an apparent victory over the doctor, does the magician abandon his dignity by begging for a few coins? That scene seemed out of place and out of character to me. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this movie!

This film is incredible. It deals with an incredible amount of themes and subjects within 100 minutes while never delving to heavily into exposition. It's all story and character arcs, and yet the discussion of the role of the artist, the competition between intuition and intellect, the effect of time, the pain of humiliation, the fear of death, and most of all hidden truth, is vibrant and fresh. The soul in this movie is matched by the sophistication of the medium one comes to expect from Ingmar Bergman. If you enjoy truly entertaining film that has a wealth of artistic value, you can not go wrong with The Magician.

Foreign films I have learned to love and appreciate, but this one was just hard to sit through. I wish i could have the last two hours of my life back so i could do something more productive like, cleaning my home. i couldn't find one good point about this movie other than Mr. Tubal, but that quickly faded away after he sold the rat poison. Maybe the lesson learned from this movie is that good things come to those whom endure? Or something like that. All in all... watching it rain or your inlaws fight would be more entertaining.