9. Ingmar Bergman
Goodwill Built On: The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring, Through A Glass Darkly, Persona, Scenes from a MarriageGoodwill Squandered On: The Serpent's Egg Ingmar Bergman began an unprecedented and virtually unrivaled run of masterpieces with his 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night until 1973's Scenes From a Marriage. In that span, Bergman produced such beloved classics as The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona, and Hour of The Wolf. Needless to say, Bergman had won audiences over worldwide, that is until his critically reviled 1977 release The Serpent's Egg. Made during Bergman's self-imposed exile from Sweden as a result of tax evasion charges, and the only Bergman film he produced using Hollywood funding, The Serpent's Egg found Bergman out of his element working with a star, David Carradine, that many critics felt was miscast. Both a critical and commercial failure The Serpent's Egg spent Bergman's hard-earned cache of audience goodwill. Not one to stay down for long, Bergman's next movie, 1978's Autumn Sonata, won him critical acclaim and landed him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.