The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography
by Ingmar Bergman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ingmar BergmanTranslator: Joan Tate
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-15
ISBN: 0226043827
Number of pages: 314
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Book Reviews of The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography
Book Review: "Sixty years have gone by, but the excitement is still the same"
Summary: 5 Stars
One Christmas, when Ingmar Bergman was 10 years old, a wealthy aunt gave his older brother a magic lantern--a low tech projector. Little Ingmar was overwhelmed by the contraption, and he traded 100 tin soldiers for it from his rather indifferent brother. That night he crept into a closet with the lantern, fired it up, and gazed in wonderment at the images flashed against the closet wall. He was enchanted, and in his memoir, aptly titled after that memorable experience, he tells us that he still is.
The Magic Lantern is as intriguing as Bergman's films. Anyone who has seen his films will immediately appreciate just how many scenes in them are pulled from Bergman's own life--or at least his memories, accurate or not, of his life: the spanking scene in "Fanny and Alexander," the locked-in-a-closet scene in "Hour of the Wolf," the infidelity in "Faithless" (Liv Ullmann directed, but Bergman wrote the script), the death fear in "Seventh Seal," and so on. Bergman truly is a confessional artist. As both writer and director, his personal life, both inner and outer, is the raw material for his films.
The Magic Lantern isn't written in a linear style. Memories of childhood dance with more recent ones--e.g., rehearsing Strindberg's "Dream Play" or being arrested on false charges of tax evasion. What's important for Bergman throughout is his inner life: the incredibly rich psyche that serves as the magic lantern that projects his art into the world, both on the screen and the stage.
Bergman wrote his memoir after he'd "retired." He still had several films ahead of him, including what I think turned out to be one of his best, "Saraband." The themes that haunted him throughout his life, including ones that he thought he'd laid to rest involving God and death, and which he wrote about in The Magic Lantern, remained with him for the final two decades of his life. Like his movies, there is no final resolution. Perhaps that's simply the human condition.
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