A nineteenth-century traveling hypnotist is subjected to a cross-examination by the royal medical adviser in Stockholm who wants to expose him as a fraud, but the hypnotist proves to be too clever.

A knight returning home from the Crusades encounters Death, who agrees to a chess game. In the balance hang the lives of the knight and a group of traveling players.

Told through the eyes of Alexander and his sister Fanny, we see the exuberant and colorful Ekdahl household in a Swedish town early in the twentieth century. Their parents, Oscar and Emilie, are the director and the leading lady of the local theatre company. Oscar's mother and brother are its chief patrons. After Oscar's early death, his widow marries the bishop and moves with her children to his austere and forbidding chancery. The children are immediately...

This four disc set features Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's work on three of his most powerful films presented as a trilogy. The films of the trilogy examine the necessity of religion and question the promise of faith. The last disc is a documentary film offering views on set construction, lighting, rehearsals, editing, as well as intimate conversations with Ingmar Bergman and members of his cast and crew.