The Touch

R

Released Jul 14, 1971

1h 52m

Drama

List

64%

25 Reviews

Tomatometer

39%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Karin Vergerus (Bibi Andersson) is a beautiful young Swedish woman and a seemingly happy wife and mother, married to Andreas (Max von Sydow), a very reserved surgeon. When David Kovac (Elliott Gould), an archaeologist from the United States, arrives in the area, Karin becomes strongly attracted to him and his inherent sense of freedom from mundane life. As Karin and David begin an affair, the two must contend with the effects that the romance has on their lives.

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chris w

7 7 7 7 7 7 5 5 5 5 = 62 The worst film of Bergman to me. Such a disappointment.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

jack c

way underrated in Bergman's cannon. It's not great, but not definitely not bad by any stretch. It's just a nice infidelity story that if it were made by anyone else than Bergman would be a masterpiece.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

eric b

Director Ingmar Bergman made only two English-language films, "The Touch" (1971) and "The Serpent's Eye" (1977). Neither are well-regarded, and this doesn't seem coincidental. The dialogue in "The Touch" is uncomfortably stiff, and even the otherwise garrulous Elliott Gould sounds awkward delivering it. And his character is a mess. He's ridiculously brutal and tempestuous in some scenes, and unnaturally restrained in the rest. Essentially a three-character film, "The Touch" follows an affair between Gould and beautiful Bibi Andersson, while her academic husband (Max Von Sydow) seems too wrapped up in work to notice. Andersson doesn't seem compatible with either man, and there's little reason to root for either pairing to win out. Even the cinematography and score aren't up to Bergman's usual standards. Bedroom scenes bring good news and bad news: Andersson's perfect breasts and Gould's furry back.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A flawed and lifeless picture that rarely showcases what made Bergman Bergman.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The Touch by Ingmar Bergman (1971) is a film about how the very experience of personal love can heal emotional trauma. Lover as a psychotherapist is not an easy role - in passionate love there is not enough distance for disinterested observation and understanding. But Karin (Bibi Andersson) is able to do the impossible she transforms the very area of love between two into a magic point of sharing wisdom through her enduring and inexhaustible vulnerability. Her love toward her younger partner in existential encounter is a model of psychological wholeness it includes romantic, sexual, motherly, purely emotional and intellectual aspects in tune with one another. Bergman demonstrates that sometimes separation of lovers is a victory of love, not a defeat. The Touch is Bergmans Hiroshima Mon Amour another film about personal love as psychotherapy. After finishing watching this film you again and again return to the meaning of the characters actions and emotions and the films visual symbolism, and understand more about their personalities and human life as an incredibly rich and beautiful philosophical drama. Please, visit www.actingpitpolitics to read articles about Bergmans Through Glass Darkly (with analysis of shots from the film), and also analysis of films by Godard, Bunuel, Kurosawa, Alain Tanner, Resnais, Pasolini, Cavani, Bertolucci and Fassbinder. BY Victor Enyutin

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Audience Member

<a></a> <img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/stills/7439/original.jpg?1289446646" width="240" border="0" />

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

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Ingmar Bergman

Director

Bibi Andersson

Karin Vergerus

Elliott Gould

David Kovac

Max von Sydow

Andreas Vergerus

Sheila Reid

Sara Kovac

Steffan Hallerstram

Anders Vergerus

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Gary Arnold

Washington Post

The Touch is utterly ridiculous, the probable low point of Ingmar Bergman’s often trying but independent and distinguished artistic career.

Jan 29, 2024

Full Review

Penelope Gilliatt

New Yorker

Ingmar Bergman’s new film, The Touch, the best about love he has ever made, is a record of a man who brings into the existence of a calmly married couple his own feeling that death is something that has to be ambushed daily.

Jan 29, 2024

Full Review

David Robinson

Financial Times

It could be -- and almost is -- pure novelette; yet Bergman's gift is to create real people with problems and sufferings real enough to be more than trivial, engage your concern.

Feb 12, 2020

Full Review

Tim Brayton

Alternate Ending

Shallow and unconvincing as a love story, failing to make its characters emerge as anything other than the stock types in any random early '70s adultery drama.

Rated: 2.5/5

Nov 18, 2020

Full Review

Andrew Sarris

Vogue

Bergman's psychological intensity, though often disconnected dramatically, grabs our throats with its intimations of unrelieved pain and suffering.

Mar 19, 2020

Full Review

Dilys Powell

Sunday Times (UK)

Whether because the script is inconsequent or because Mr Gould, floundering in violence, sexuality and insolence, loses his footing in Bergman country, one can't believe a word.

Feb 12, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

Karin Vergerus (Bibi Andersson) is a beautiful young Swedish woman and a seemingly happy wife and mother, married to Andreas (Max von Sydow), a very reserved surgeon. When David Kovac (Elliott Gould), an archaeologist from the United States, arrives in the area, Karin becomes strongly attracted to him and his inherent sense of freedom from mundane life. As Karin and David begin an affair, the two must contend with the effects that the romance has on their lives.

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Distributor: Cinerama Releasing Corporation [us]
Production Co: Cinematograph AB, ABC Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 14, 1971, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 20, 2018
Runtime: 1h 52m
Sound Mix: Surround

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