The Touch (1971 film)

The Touch
Directed by	Ingmar Bergman
Written by	Ingmar Bergman
Produced by	Lars-Owe Carlberg Ingmar Bergman
Starring	Elliott Gould Bibi Andersson Max von Sydow Sheila Reid
Cinematography	Sven Nykvist
Production companies	ABC Pictures Cinematograph A.B.[1]
Distributed by	Cinerama Releasing Corporation[1]
Release date	30 August 1971 (1971-08-30)
Running time	112 minutes
Countries	Sweden United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,200,000[2]
Box office	$1,135,000[2]

The Touch (Swedish: Beröringen) is a 1971 Swedish romantic drama film directed and written by Ingmar Bergman and starring Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Elliott Gould, and Sheila Reid. The film tells the story of an affair between a married woman and an impetuous foreigner. It contains references to the Virgin Mary and the Holocaust.

Produced by ABC Pictures, The Touch was Bergman's first English-language film, but made in two versions - one in Swedish and English, the other wholly in English.^[3] It was shot on the island of Gotland in Sweden in 1970. Cinematographer Sven Nykvist shot it in Eastmancolor. Gould, cast over Paul Newman and Robert Redford, believed Bergman's screenplay was semi-autobiographical.

The film received mixed to negative reviews and failed at the box office. It has since had a limited rerelease by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2011 and a home media release by The Criterion Collection in 2018.