The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140128506 ISBN 13: 9780140128505

Publisher: Penguin, 1989

Synopsis

Bearing all the narrative trademarks of a Bergman film, his autobiography unfolds not in strict chronology, but as a series of flashbacks to his childhood of bitter unhappiness: "our family", he writes "were men and women with a catastrophic heritage of excessive demands, bad conscience, and guilt". Bergman also tells of the experiences of fear and occasional idyllic happiness that caused his adult unhappiness and self hatred.

About this title

Review

" Bergman' s minute recall is essentially, astonishingly, visual. Description after description stamp out scenes from his films. The man, his memory, his work are one. . . . It is wonderfully liberating to be made privy to the tangible relish in his craft . . . "The Magic Lantern" is no conventional autobiography, more a scalding stream of consciousness from the pen of a licentious puritan." " -- New York Review of Books"

0;Bergman7;s minute recall is essentially, astonishingly, visual. Description after description stamp out scenes from his films. The man, his memory, his work are one. . . . It is wonderfully liberating to be made privy to the tangible relish in his craft . . . "The Magic Lantern" is no conventional autobiography, more a scalding stream of consciousness from the pen of a licentious puritan. . . . He is funny and crisp about several of the Famous and unstrainingly vicious about the dead and dismal critics.1;" 2;New York Review of Books" -- John Osborne "New York Review of Books"

"In its structure, its tone, its intent, Bergman''s book asks to be judged, not as a factual account, however good, but as a work of literature. It succeeds--exactly as he wanted it to: The Magic Lantern is as personal and penetrating as a Bergman film, wry, shadowy, austere--Stanley Kaufman "New Republic "

Bergman s minute recall is essentially, astonishingly, visual. Description after description stamp out scenes from his films. The man, his memory, his work are one. . . . It is wonderfully liberating to be made privy to the tangible relish in his craft . . . The Magic Lantern is no conventional autobiography, more a scalding stream of consciousness from the pen of a licentious puritan. . . . He is funny and crisp about several of the Famous and unstrainingly vicious about the dead and dismal critics. New York Review of Books--John Osborne "New York Review of Books ""

[Bergman] has found a way to show the soul s landscape. . . . Many gripping revelations.
--Woody Allen "New York Times Book Review ""

"[Bergman] has found a way to show the soul's landscape. . . . Many gripping revelations."

--Woody Allen "New York Times Book Review "

"In its structure, its tone, its intent, Bergman's book asks to be judged, not as a factual account, however good, but as a work of literature. It succeeds--exactly as he wanted it to: The Magic Lantern is as personal and penetrating as a Bergman film, wry, shadowy, austere."--Stanley Kauffmann "New Republic "

"Combined with the life-affecting astonishment that his brutal and beautiful films inspire, The Magic Lantern cultivates a sensitivity towards this film-loving, sometimes self-loathing, sometimes faith-avowing Ingmar Bergman."--Kristi McKim "Film International "

"Bergman's minute recall is essentially, astonishingly, visual. Description after description stamp out scenes from his films. The man, his memory, his work are one. . . . It is wonderfully liberating to be made privy to the tangible relish in his craft . . . The Magic Lantern is no conventional autobiography, more a scalding stream of consciousness from the pen of a licentious puritan. . . . He is funny and crisp about several of the Famous and unstrainingly vicious about the dead and dismal critics."--John Osborne "New York Review of Books "

About the Author

Ingmar Bergman is a Swedish filmmaker who has written and directed over fifty films.  He is the recipient of three Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film for The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, and Fanny and Alexander.

 

Joan Tate (1922–2000) was a prolific translator of Swedish works into English.

 

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140128506
• ISBN 13: 9780140128505
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320