Ingmar Bergman: A Bibliography
From the UC Berkeley Library
Images by
Ingmar Bergman is an acknowledged giant of film and one of the great creative artists of this century. His career as a movie director, screenwriter, and producer spanned more than forty years, during which he made such masterpieces as The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Smiles of a Summer Night, Persona, Hour of the Wolf, Shame, Cries and Whispers, and Fanny and Alexander. After his retirement from film-making following Fanny and Alexander, he went on to write his autobiography, The Magic Lantern, which became a best-seller worldwide and was hailed as "surely one of the finest self-portraits of an artist in our time" (Time). Now, in Images, Ingmar Bergman turns the magic lantern of memory from himself to his films. To write this book, Bergman rescreened all of his films, many of which he had not seen since their release. His friend, the movie critic and publisher Lasse Bergstrom, also viewed and discussed them, helping to jog his memory and to expose his psychological blind spots about his work.Bergman relied, too, on annotated scripts, newspapers, and the recollections of others, but especially on his own workbooks and diaries, from which he is here publishing extracts for the first time. Images is the creator's effort to "account for the sources" of his creation. It is at once a penetrating, unsentimental portrait of artistry and a fascinating self-portrait, a critical testament and a memoir. Because Bergman's life and films are so intimately intertwined, Images adds much to our knowledge of the man while offering countless insights into and a new understanding of the work. Bergman takes us into the backstage world of memories and "the blurred X rays of the soul". He recounts themaking of the films and explores the themes that bind them together, the preoccupations, the anguish, the conflicts. He comments brilliantly and unsparingly on his successes as well as his perceived failures. He recalls the les
Ingmar Bergman Archives by
This book presents the complete works of Ingmar Bergman: an homage to one of the most esteemed film and theater artists of all time, began in cooperation with Bergman himself and made with full access to his archives.Since 1957, when he released "The Seventh Seal"" and ""Wild Strawberries""
Ingmar Bergman by
The films of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman are renowned for their largely spare and stark aesthetic, an existential framework, and plots driven by a fascination with death and the moral torments of the human soul. Birgitta Steene offers here in Ingmar Bergman: A Reference Guide an essential and unparalleled resource on the life and work of Bergman. Plumbing the depths of these trademark Bergman themes, Steene traces as well the indelible mark he left on world cinema through his other cinematographic work and writings. Over the decades, Bergman's stature and image have evolved in fascinating ways--an iconoclast of the 1950s, a bourgeois traditionalist of the 1960s, and an icon in the 1980s. This exhaustive compendium considers each phase of his career, exploring his deep and vast oeuvre in all its controversy and complexity, and analyzes his intriguing and unique motifs such as his efforts to expose dead conventions and his portrayals of Woman as the archetype of humanity. As well as providing a detailed account of Bergman's life and chronicling his career as a filmmaker and theater director, including his work for television, Steene offers transcripts of some of the numerous interviews and conversations she conducted with Bergman. Writings by and about Bergman and a detailed chronological survey of his film and theatrical work completes this eminently readable and thoroughly researched volume. A wide-ranging and groundbreaking work of film history, Ingmar Bergman is the definitive reference for scholars of the Scandinavian master.
Ingmar Bergman by
He always is very, very close to the camera, and he is terribly inspiring. I don't know what his magic is, but it is something that makes you want to give everything you have. He has respect for actors and for everybody. A bad director very often doesn't have that respect. Liv Ullman's words about Ingmar Bergman hint at the consummate director he was, one who knew the business, the strengths and weaknesses of actors and crews, the arrangement of the set, the framing of the camera, and all other particulars of the fine art of directing. This work presents Bergman's life and work, beginning with his youth in Uppsala, Sweden, and covering his formative years, his development as an artist, and his career as a world-renowned director. A brief synopsis for each of Bergman's films is provided, with such information as producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, art director, music sound credits, running time, casts, Bergman's own comments, and the reactions of critics.
Ingmar Bergman by
Exhaustive compendium by one of the world's foremost experts on the Swedish master covers Bergman's life, his cultural background, his entire artistic career and extensive annotated bibliographies of interviews and critical writings on Bergman.
Ingmar Bergman Revisited by
Ingmar Bergman Revisited is a collection of new essays based on a major international symposium held in Stockholm in 2005 on the legacy of one of cinema's most towering figures. Moving beyond simple auteurist readings of Bergman as a cinematic artist, the writings here evaluate the theatrical and literary sides of Bergman's work to reconsider the achievements of the Swedish director, up to his last film Saraband (2003). Several essays result from research in Bergman's own personal archive, and amongst the subjects discussed are Bergman's stage adaptations of Shakespeare, his fascination with still photography and issues of identity, and the influence of philosophy and psychology on his work. With contributors including Thomas Elsaesser, Birgitta Steene and Janet Staiger, and a foreword written by Liv Ullmann, Ingmar Bergman Revisited forms a landmark study of one of Sweden's great cultural icons, emphasising how Bergman should be understood with reference to an eclectic range of his artistic interests.
Ingmar Bergman, Cinematic Philosopher by
Known for their repeating motifs and signature tropes, the films of Ingmar Bergman also contain extensive variation and development. In these reflections on Bergman's artistry and thought, Irving Singer discerns distinctive themes in Bergman's filmmaking, from first intimations in the early work to consummate resolutions in the later movies. Singer demonstrates that while Bergman's output is not philosophy on celluloid, it attains an expressive and purely aesthetic truthfulness that can be considered philosophical in a broader sense. Through analysis of both narrative and filmic effects, Singer probes Bergman's mythmaking and his reliance upon the magic inherent in his cinematic techniques. Singer traces throughout the evolution of Bergman's ideas about life and death, and about the possibility of happiness and interpersonal love. In the overtly self-referential films that he wrote or directed (The Best Intentions, Fanny and Alexander, Sunday's Children) as well as the less obviously autobiographical ones (including Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, and the triad that begins with Through a Glass Darkly) Bergman investigates problems in his existence and frequently reverts to childhood memories. In such movies as Smiles of a Summer Night, Scenes from a Marriage, and Saraband, Bergman draws upon his mature experience and depicts the troubled relationships between men who are often weak and women who are made to suffer by the damaged men with whom they live. In Persona, Cries and Whispers, and other works, his experiments with the camera are uniquely masterful. Inspecting the panorama of Bergman's art, Singer shows how the endless search for human contact motivates the content of his films and reflects Bergman's profound perspective on the world.
Bergman's Muses by
Bergman is a most versatile director who has devoted himself to several muses in a variety of media. Apart from being a writer of plays and screenplays, he has over the past fifty years directed about a hundred stage performances, fifty films, and many works for radio and television. During this time, all the production equipment used have undergone significant changes (allowing, just for instance, a more varied and subtle use of light and sound). But by his own admission, Bergman's texts have often lacked a clear orientation toward a specific medium. This book focuses on Bergman's way of tackling the problems inherent in each art form he has dealt with, giving a penetrating picture of his craftsmanship and the intimate relationship between his work on stage and in film, as well as the possibilities and limitations of the various forms. With the varied media at his disposal, Bergman is internationally the most versatile author-cum-director presently at work, well aware of what each medium can and cannot do and, most importantly, eager to test its borders. The book addresses itself not only to Bergman fans but also to all those interested in the aesthetic problems related to different presentational forms.
A Film Trilogy
This four disc set features Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's work on three of his most powerful films presented as a trilogy. The films of the trilogy examine the necessity of religion and question the promise of faith. The last disc is a documentary film offering views on set construction, lighting, rehearsals, editing, as well as intimate conversations with Ingmar Bergman and members of his cast and crew.
Private Confessions by
Ten years ago, Ingmar Bergman traded in the technological tools of filmmaking for the simpler devices of prose. Yet the cinematic lens still seems to reside between his thoughts and his words. Private Confessions continues Bergman's autobiographical project, which he began in two earlier novels and two volumes of memoirs. In the spare words of blocking and camera angles, this slim novel stages a story of adultery through which we see Bergman's attempts to understand his parents' troubled relationship. Through a series of revelatory confessions, Anna tells of her affair with her husband's young friend Tomas and her unhappiness with her life as wife of a dour country pastor. Bergman nails scenes in taut prose and stunning bursts of dialogue, but the overall story is unrelenting, with little to hold as beautiful, save the starkness of Bergman's expression and the deep probing of his own creative psyche.
