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Ingmar Bergman (1918 – 2007) was a Swedish director, regarded as one of the true greats in the history of film. Between writing, directing, and producing, he was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, winning for Best Foreign Film three times: The Virgin Spring (1960, the inspiration for the American The Last House on the Left), Through A Glass Darkly (1961), and Fanny And Alexander (1983). Another of his famous films is The Seventh Seal, a Trope Codifier for Chess with Death.
His films have a reputation for being gloomy and surreal. Although he generally tells identifiable "stories," straightforward plot descriptions will rarely give any real indication of what his movies are "about": even criticism of his works tends to sound like psychobabble. Bergman himself even stated that he didn't so much care if the audience understood what he was going for, as long as they felt something. Despite being a poster child for True Art Is Incomprehensible, the list of filmmakers who regard him as being among the best directors ever is long, including Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola. There's a reason so many of his films have been released in America by The Criterion Collection.
Not to be confused with and wasn't related to Ingrid Bergman (he once directed her in Autumn Sonata, people on set got them confused).