The Ingmar Bergman Archives XL

by Paul Duncan (Editor)

Swede An in-depth exploration of Bergman’s complete works On November 24, 2008 The Ingmar Bergman Archives editors Paul Duncan and Bengt Wanselius won the August Prize 2008 for the Best Non-Fiction Book published in Sweden. This is the most prestigious literary prize in Sweden, voted for by booksellers and librarians throughout the country.

The complete works of Ingmar 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 has been one of the leading figures in international cinema. In a career that spanned 60 years, he wrote, produced, and directed 50 films that defined how we see ourselves and how we interact with the people we love, in films like Persona, Scenes from a Marriage , and Fanny and Alexander .

Before his death in 2007, Bergman gave TASCHEN and the Swedish publishing house Max Ström complete access to his archives at The Bergman Foundation, and permission to reprint his writings and interviews, many of which have never been seen outside of Sweden. Picture researcher Bengt Wanselius, who was Bergman’s photographer for 20 years, scoured photo archives all over Sweden, discovered previously unseen images from Bergman’s films, and selected unpublished images from the personal archives of many photographers. Text editor Paul Duncan gathered a team of Bergman experts as contributing editors—Peter Cowie and Bengt Forslund (for film/TV), and Ulla Åberg & Birgitta Steene (for theater)—who have researched and written a narrative that, for the first time, will combine all of Bergman’s working life in film and theater. Such is the depth of Bergman’s writings that most of the story is told in his own words. This book also features a new introduction by Bergman’s close friend, actor and collaborator Erland Josephson, as well as a DVD full of rare and previously unseen material, and an original film strip from Fanny and Alexander .

The publishers have been given complete access to the files and archives of the Swedish Film Institute, Svensk Filmindustri, Sveriges Television, and the Royal Dramatic Theater, as well as many other institutions, publishers, and newspapers, making this not only the most complete book ever published on Ingmar Bergman, but also about an individual director.

Special bonuses
Other contributing
Ulla Åberg, Peter Cowie, Bengt Forslund, Birgitta Steene

Genres: Film, Collections, Reference

592 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

“My films begin with a snowflake that ends up as a snowball, where the original snowflake is often lost”--Bergman

“Each film I make is my last”--Bergman

When I was in college in the seventies I loved film and craved knowledge of European film auteurs I had heard about. Truffaut, Godard, Bergman, Fellini. Of course we knew Hitchcock and you could sometimes see these films on tv--The Birds, Vertigo, North by Northwest--but you had to be there when it was being shown that one time--and there was no videotaping. I repeat, no videotaping existed to study films frame by frame. Kids, videotaping did not exist, I'm serious.

I was part of my college film council, where we had an annual film series. So the only way you could see these films is through film series, and if you happened to run just such a series, you would get huge boxes of 16 mm film reels in big boxes sent to your house, and you’d drop everything to watch each film as many times as you could in a weekend. And read up about it from any sources you could find in the library. Because--now get this, and I hope you are sitting down to hear this--there was NO INTERNET and there was no public archive where you could view these films, for no amount of money you might offer, as you can now. And then some libraries began to buy some films, beginning with American films, but the enterprise was very limited for decades.

And I, as a (then) Calvinist, like the God-haunted films of Ingmar Bergman, which had all the anguish and doubt of the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky. NOW you can get them for free online, and this book I am reviewing has encouraged me to watch again, let’s say, my top ten favorite films, in the dead of sunless winter. Good idea? Do I need black and white films with subtitles about anguish? Maybe I do!

This wonderful oversized library book is for scholars and Bergman lovers mainly, with essays on each and every film, and some essays on Bergman and even by him. It’s a treasure chest of information, and almost as heavy as one, and I loved it, though I admit I skimmed some essays about films I had never seen and never will.

My faves:

The Seventh Seal
Wild Strawberries
Persona
Cries and Whispers
Virgin Spring
Autumn Sonata
Fanny and Alexander
Face to Face
Hour of the Wolf
Scenes from a Marriage

But there were others, too: The trilogy Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, the Silence. Shame. The Magic Flute. Even the last films After the Rehearsal, Saraband.

When I first began teaching in the mid seventies (!!) I taught in rural Michigan, and I taught a film course where we decided to feature The Seventh Seal, Citizen Kane and On the Waterfront, though most of the films were shorts. Film: Real to Reel was the main text. We taught them how films are made, not just filmic interpretation. Tracking shots, one shots, two shots, wide angles.

Bergman's actors take a special place in the book, of course. (Especially) Liv Ullman (I own a book of photographs of her), Max Van Sydow, Bibi Anderson, Erland Josephson, and so many others.

This mix of anguish, faith, despair, madness, lust, laughter, magic, mystery. One of the best ever. If you see just one, see The Seventh Seal, which is one of his films that won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This enormous book packed with rare photographs, interviews and insights from critics, actors and Ingmar Bergman himself is fantastic - but beware, it is about a metre wide when open and weighs more than my cat so is not the easiest of reads.

[Anthony McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A glorious tribute to the Swedish master Ingmar Bergman and his unforgettable films.

For those of us who grew up in film societies Bergman and his thought-provoking studies of the human condition were the highlight of our days in the world of international cinema. In those days we didn't have DVDs and streaming services to capture the intimate dramas of Bergman; we had to "die" waiting for the next masterpiece to arrive at our specialized little arthouse cinema, hoping it would appear sooner than later.

And we didn't have the likes of Taschen and its crew of brilliant film loving editors to bring such magnificent books as this one to us to relive and study more the genius of Bergman.
My edition is not (unfortunately) the original massive tome. But my limited budget did indulge me to purchase the second edition which is still massive and beautifully produced (452 pages; 10"x 13.5").

Hundreds and hundreds of faultlessly reproduced stills from all his films, text and analysis by Bergman experts (including the renowned Peter Cowie), diary excerpts/statements/ summaries and interviews by and with the filmmaker himself, articles by his collaborators (including Liv Ullmann. Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Max Von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin)- all adding up to the Bergman book no film lover can do without.

A stunning work of art which is only befitting to compliment one of the true greats in the history of world cinema.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this for Christmas. It's incredibly awesome. I'll doubt I'll ever actually finish the whole thing.