The Rite deals with a touring variety troupe called "Les Riens," who are prosecuted and summoned to an interrogation because one of their numbers is considered grossly indecent. They are confronted with the judge's accusations, which are extremely vague. The judge's interrogation is harsh and relentless, it humiliates the artists, confuses them, shakes their self-confidence. Who are we? What is the meaning of our lives?—that is, our art?

In a series of taught scenes with great dramatic power and tension Bergman lets the three artists reveal themselves to the spectator's astonished gaze. In scenes of passion, of blood, of darkness, which are occasionally broken by gleams of hope and consolation, the author gives a vision of what it means to be an artist and of art's sanctity and curse. In the rite that forms the finale of the film, the judge meets death. Art has avenged itself on reason. The artists, the abused ones, have spoken.

"All Bergman's films around this time centre on isolated social groups (often the partners of a marriage) and show them under attack from both inside and out: Laingian fissures and cracks open up between the characters, and their precarious security is challenged by irruptions from the outside world. Bergman preserves and extends his private mythologies (witness the way that images and names recur from film to film), but in a broader (less precious, more honest) context: The Rite, with a trio of actors under examination by a judge on charges of obscenity, tries to expose the bonds that tie an artist to his audience, and pushes towards a theory of non-communication. A bold step forward in Bergman's analysis of human isolation."

"What was it like, curling up in front of the TV on a Saturday evening in Sweden in the late 1960s? Pretty torrid, if this is anything to go by. The Rite was Bergman's first made-for-television project, and it is, by today's standards, remarkably opaque and difficult. The director's themes are (of course) sexual entanglements and the role of the artist in society. His approach, chilling and forensic, is certainly not to all tastes but this is a fascinating piece of social history. I'd love to know what kind of ratings it achieved."

"Bergman's searing psycho-drama pits three actors against a sweaty, intrusive magistrate who has accused them of obscenity. In the face of his relentless questioning, they reveal their most intimate secrets. Starkly shot in black and white, with many close-ups held for minutes at a time, the film makes queasy, claustrophobic viewing. As in The Magician, made a decade before, Bergman satirizes the hypocritical way in which society treats (and humiliates) artists, though he is commendably even handed—the egotism and arrogance of the performers are also exposed."

"The rite isn't just what they do at the end. It's a sort of papiermaché game, with markers and things, all sorts of hocus pocus. The rite is the game the artist plays with his audience, between the artist and society—all this hodge-podge of mutual humiliation and mutual need for one another. That's the ritual element."

"The Rite merely expresses my resentment against the critics, audience, and government, with which I was in constant battle while I ran the [Royal Dramatic] theatre. A year after my resignation from the post, I sat down and wrote this script in five days. I did it merely to free myself....I liked very much to write it and even more to make it. We had a lot of fun while we were shooting. My purpose was just to amuse myself and the audience which liked it."

David Parkinson: "Film Notes"