page_title: The Touch (1971 film)
section_title: Casting
hierarchical_section_title: The Touch (1971 film) / Production / Casting
caption_attribution_description: English: Publicity photo of Elliott Gould in Together We Stand.
context_page_description: The Touch is a 1971 romantic drama film directed 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 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 was a box office bomb. It has since had a limited re-release by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2011 and a home media release by The Criterion Collection in 2018.
context_section_description: Bergman selected actor Elliott Gould on the basis of his work in Getting Straight. Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman had also been proposed by ABC. Gould stated that he "got a migraine" when he read the first sex scene in the screenplay, and that he believed the film could potentially harm his career, but felt it was an honour to be the first American actor in a Bergman film.
  Bergman had written the character Karin with Liv Ullmann in mind, but when Ullmann was unavailable, he offered it to Bibi Andersson. Andersson said she had reservations, both because she was the second choice for the role and because she had just played a similar role, but said she did not feel like could turn down Bergman's offers.
caption: Elliott Gould thought it was an honour to be the first American actor in an Ingmar Bergman film, though it could harm his career.
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