I saw it in a Bergman retrospective (sandwiched between Seventh Seal & Strawberries) and it just blew me away. The use of shadow in the movie was enlightening! It also made me a Von Sydow fan for life...
[And just what did you expect from a three-year-old?]
Ftr most release lists, really all that i am aware of, show Wild Strawberries having been done before The Magician.
I think it a very good film, but while ambitious I did not feel that it quite hung together as well as most other Bergman films i have seen. It is certainly not in a league with The Seventh Seal or Wild Strawberries.
Glad you like the film, and I don't care that you don't like it as much as I do. People having different opinions is what makes life interesting.
What I liked about the movie (mostly) was his use of shadow. It was ... like, wow!
BTW: I get the feeling that you think I think that the movie Wild Strawberries was made after The Magician. I'm not quite sure where you got that idea, unless you believe that every retrospective has to show the movies they show in a certain order...
[RAmen]