A Favourite Film

There was reasonable coverage of the death of Ingmar Bergman in the press here today, though I doubt we'll be treated to a Bergman festival on tv anytime soon. I'm no film buff, and I don't entirely get a lot of his work, but if I had to name an all time favourite movie it just might be Fanny and Alexander. I watched it on the BBC when it was shown in three or four parts (I can't quite remember how many) over a long-ago Christmas and was stunned. In those days movies were not quite so easy to access as they are now and being able to get to see Fanny and Alexander had something of the feel of a privileged event about it. Magical is an overused word (and I admit to being a major offender in that regard) but if any film ever deserved the adjective, this is the one.