The Marriage Scenarios

by Ingmar Bergman

Three screenplays by the Swedish director deal with a troubled marriage, an attempted suicide, and the complex relationship between a mother and her adult daughter

Genres: Literature, Film

407 pages, Paperback

Published August 12, 1988

About the author

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a nine-time Academy Award-nominated Swedish film, stage, and opera director. He depicted bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope in his explorations of the human condition. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in cinematic history.

He directed 62 films, most of which he wrote, and directed over 170 plays. Some of his internationally known favorite actors were Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in the stark landscape of his native Sweden, and major themes were often bleak, dealing with death, illness, betrayal, and insanity.

Bergman was active for more than 60 years, but his career was seriously threatened in 1976 when he suspended a number of pending productions, closed his studios, and went into self-imposed exile in Germany for eight years following a botched criminal investigation for alleged income tax evasion.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential for Bergmanophiles, in large part because it contains the original screenplay for the miniseries Face to Face (only available in North America as a severely truncated and mildly confusing feature film)

Also: the complete screenplay (and some great B&W photos from the set) of Scenes from a Marriage and Autumn Sonata as well

[?0?0?0 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read and own for fans of Bergman, in particular those with an eye at making movies of their own.