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Max Von Sydow

He better get his own thread. Or I'll set meself on fire. I'll burn myself to a crisp!!! Haha.

I'm not sure I've ever seen him give a bad performance. Even in my least-favorite Bergmans like The Touch he acquits himself nicely, and he's totally compelling in difficult roles like the mad scientist in Until the End of the World.

My favorite Max Von Sydow memory is him being interviewed like five years ago about his career and the interviewer mentions Strange Brew and without missing a beat Von Sydow goes “Ah yes... Brewmeister Smith”

As great as he was in all those Bergman films, my favorite performances of his are in Troell's "The Emigrants," "The New Land" and "The Flight of the Eagle." RIP.

domino harvey wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2020 5:33 pm My favorite Max Von Sydow memory is him being interviewed like five years ago about his career and the interviewer mentions Strange Brew and without missing a beat Von Sydow goes “Ah yes... Brewmeister Smith”

Not going to pretend this film wasn't my first exposure to him

domino harvey wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2020 5:33 pm My favorite Max Von Sydow memory is him being interviewed like five years ago about his career and the interviewer mentions Strange Brew and without missing a beat Von Sydow goes “Ah yes... Brewmeister Smith”

If you go to his Wikipedia page and look at his filmography right now, someone posted a "note" next to this one, and the citation is pretty funny. Wonder how long it'll be up

He's great in everything, but something about his role in Hannah and Her Sisters is so honest in walking the line between both a participant and an innocent in his fate, with the kindest of lenses, that I think it might be my favorite of his roles, however small and unflashy.

domino harvey wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2020 5:33 pm My favorite Max Von Sydow memory is him being interviewed like five years ago about his career and the interviewer mentions Strange Brew and without missing a beat Von Sydow goes “Ah yes... Brewmeister Smith”

I love it when these old actors are hyped about silly roles. I remember a great interview with Christopher Plummer where he was highly dismissive of Sound of Music, but turned around on Dragnet like it was the greatest moment of his career.

As for von Sydow himself, it was kind of weird after Doctor Strange to realize how Tilda Swinton had kind of supplemented him as the enigmatic, unaged European. Though I'm still waiting for her to give something like his 3 Days of the Condor performance which is so great despite it being such a throw away role.

Goes without saying he was a giant in world cinema. What an insane filmography encompassing the sublime to the ridiculous, and he pretty much gave every single role his all. The Seventh Seal may be his iconic role, but his performances in Shame and especially The Passion of Anna stick with me the most. A haunting embodiment of quiet anguish.

I'm not familiar with Strange Brew (but have seen plenty of other things with the McKenzies), so I looked it up and found this:

Q: How did you get Max Von Sydow?

DAVE THOMAS: We were sitting in Freddie Field's office – Freddie was the President of MGM. And I said that, from the beginning, I had had Max Von Sydow as my choice for Brewmaster Smith. And Freddie just yells to his secretary, "GET MAX VON SYDOW ON THE PHONE!" I'm not exaggerating.

She calls him in Sweden. Freddie had produced this soccer movie with Max and Sylvester Stallone, so he knew him. He said, "Max, I'm sitting here at MGM with Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis." (No response from Sweden) "They've got a very funny movie they're going to do and they want you to play a part in it."(still no response) So Freddie just handed me the phone, "Here's Dave."

So I had to pitch Max the story over the phone. I went through the whole story, took a deep breath, and then Max speaks for the first time. (in Max Sydow voice), "So, it's a comedy then." I burst out laughing that I got pimped and suckered by this guy like that.

What happened, we found out later from Max, was that he read the script. I don't know what he thought of it, but he phoned his son, who lived in the States, and asked him if he knew anything about the McKenzies and/or Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis. His kid said, "Oh yeah, they're very funny! You should do that movie!" So Max Von Sydow ended up doing the movie because his kid told him to.

The first day of the shoot...when I met him...I said, "Max, I know everything you've ever done. I know all the Bergman stuff. I know you were the first Jesus to show his face in The Greatest Story Ever Told. I memorized your speech from Three Days of the Condor." And he said (in Max voice), "You memorized it, huh? Do it for me now." So I had to do this speech for him, and it was very embarrassing and fun – all at the same time. He ended up being a wonderful guy to work with...

----

(Also, Dragnet's kind of underrated. I love how Plummer says "The Israelis?" - absolutely hilarious.)

hearthesilence wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:23 pm I know you were the first Jesus to show his face in The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Well, not really -- that was H.B. Warner in DeMille's KING OF KINGS.

I tend to prefer my von Sydow in lighter fare, where his gravity can add, well, gravity to the proceedings. I like his hit man in THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR very much, and, well, his Ming The Merciless is pure genius.

Strange Brew is fantastic and he is well showcased in the trailer ("Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"). I think that along with his Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon were the first things I saw him in. Then of course he had a stunning sci-fi centric 1984 with both Dune and Dreamscape, though Dreamscape got overwhelmed a bit by the thematically similar Nightmare on Elm Street.

And he's amazing as the antagonist figure in the adaptation of Stephen King's Needful Things (playing an archetypally similar King character to the one played by James Mason in Salem's Lot! And the character from Storm of the Century later on). He had a very impressive early 2000s starring in Dario Argento's Sleepless as well as the Spanish film Intacto, along with Minority Report.

However of course its the Bergman that he will be most strongly associated with (arguably The Exorcist as well, but I'm no fan of that) - the knight playing chess with death is one of the indelible images of cinema along with his mercilessly vengeful father in The Virgin Spring, though I most definitely agree with hearthesilence that he was best used in Shame and particularly The Passion of Anna (that dissolution of the image at the climax is perhaps the best image of mental deterioration coupling with an 'end of cinema' image to rival anything by Godard!). But it is important to also note the Bille August films The Best Intentions (the story of Ingmar Bergman's parents) and the Best Foreign Language Oscar winning Pelle The Conqueror (with Von Sydow nominated as Best Actor too). Jan Troell's The Emigrants and The New Land too.

The film that I am most interested in checking out at the moment is The Night Visitor which seems like a bit of a bridge between the psychological Bergman and the more overt horror films he appeared in, along with being a lesser known team up between Von Sydow and Liv Ullman following Shame and Passion of Anna (the axe wielding in the trailer feels very Passion of Anna-homaging!) and made the same year they were starring together in The Emigrants!

(And for video game enthusiasts he voiced the character of Esbern in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, with the task of delivering a lot of the Scandinavian-styled lore!)

He sure has an interesting role in Black Journal (1977). The Blu-ray from Twilight Time is worth picking up, the price isn’t bad either.

colinr0380 wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2020 8:33 pmHowever of course its the Bergman that he will be most strongly associated with (arguably The Exorcist as well, but I'm no fan of that) - the knight playing chess with death is one of the indelible images of cinema along with his mercilessly vengeful father in The Virgin Spring, though I most definitely agree with hearthesilence that he was best used in Shame and particularly The Passion of Anna (that dissolution of the image at the climax is perhaps the best image of mental deterioration coupling with an 'end of cinema' image to rival anything by Godard!).

It's remarkable how he's featured in some of the most striking iconic images in cinema, whether it's an entire shot or a single frame, and you just mentioned three of them. (The tearing down of the tree in The Virgin Spring comes to mind.) There's also the poster for The Exorcist, which may not be a masterpiece, but for my taste, it'll do more than just fine for schlocky blockbuster fare.

knives already mentioned it, I believe, but he made a great villain in Three Days of the Condor. It weirds me out that I happened to re-watch Seventh Seal last night before the news of his death broke in the morning.

We're clearly ignoring his role as the "good" Nazi in Escape to Victory.

His role as Chief Judge Fargo in Judge Dredd was my introduction to him, and being a fan of the comic, he just became "Hey, there's Fargo" anytime I saw him pop up elsewhere.