I will never tire of celebrating Max von Sydow!

Perhaps the greatest of all actors, ever.

I have had an unusually long and hard few days, and I anticipate no relief in the short term, so imagine my ecstatic pleasure and delight when I opened Twitter a moment ago to find a particularly lovely photograph of the man who is perhaps my favourite actor in the entire history of the international cinema. Max von Sydow, he of the gaunt countenance, throaty voice, magisterial bearing, unforgettable sunken eyes, and dramatic chops to rival any actor who ever lived. Impossibly perfect in The Seventh Seal, in Hannah and Her Sisters, in Pelle The Conqueror, in Minority Report, in everything. He left us at 90 almost exactly five years ago, but he deserved to live in bliss for another 90 years. I’ll love him forever.