First Hand Films has sold a documentary about influential Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman to French distributor Pretty Pictures, which will release it theatrically in France in the second half of 2013.

As part of the deal, Pretty Pictures has secured the French distribution rights for the 90-minute theatrical version and the six-hour TV version, as well as DVD/VOD rights for Bergman’s Video.

Produced by Gädda Five Production and Swedish broadcaster SVT, the film delves into Bergman’s private video archive of more than 1,500 films, which includes works by directors such as Tarkovsky, Bunuel and Truffaut and Hollywood fare such as The Blues Brothers, Foul Play, Jurassic Park and Ghostbusters. It features interviews with Woody Allen, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Robert de Niro, Laura Dern, Ridley Scott, Ang Lee, Terry Gilliam, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Isabella Rossellini.

According to a press release, the film will offer “new insight into the genius of Bergman and most of all, a portrait of the greatest filmmakers of today, looking at how they co-operate, why they choose the themes they keep coming back to, and why film is an art form like no other.”

“Bergman’s Video is a dream come true, an homage to cinema,” First Hand Films CEO Esther van Messel said in a statement. “Not only do we get to know what grand emotions fuel the filmmakers, we can actually watch them tell us the stories in their own words.”