Ansiktet or The Magician is a movie directed and written by Ingmar Bergman. It stars Max von Sydow as a traveling magician named Albert Vogler. Reading reports of a variety of supernatural disturbances at Vogler's prior performances abroad, the leading townspeople request that their troupe provide them a sample of their act, before allowing them public audiences. The scientific-minded disbelievers try to expose them as charlatans, but Vogler has a few tricks up his sleeve. Ingmar Bergman Ingmar Bergman   listen? (pronounced in Swedish, but usually in English, IPA in Unicode notation) (born July 14, 1918) is a Swedish stage and film director who is one of the key film auteurs in the second-half of the twentieth century. ... Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless Max Carl Adolf von Sydow   listen? (born on April 10, 1929) is a Swedish actor, known in particular for his collaboraton with Ingmar Bergman. ...

Ansiktet is usually considered a minor masterpiece in the filmography of Ingmar Bergman although many consider it to be wrongly neglected.

The movie was partially inspired by a play by G.K. Chesterton called "Magic" which Bergman claimed to be a favourite of his. Bergman actually staged a theatre production of "Magic" in Swedish at one point. It should be noted however that despite a few similarities between "Magic" and The Magician should not really be compared. For the town of Chesterton in Cambridgeshire, see Chesterton (Cambridge). ...