The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography

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.

" 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 "