Ingmar Bergman – Persona , Madame Sade & Magic Lantern
Wednesday, July 13th, 2022Madame Sade Bergman’s hit production of Yukio Mishima’s play.
‘Starkly ascetic regarding the physical effects, yet vibrating with sensibility.’
Curious Conundrums of Bergman’s Magic Lantern
I’m planning, you see, to try to confine myself to the truth. That’s hard for an old, inveterate fantasy martyr and liar who has never hesitated to give truth the form he felt the occasion demanded.
– Ingmar Bergman, The Magic Lantern
The Magic Lantern, Bergman’s
first autobiography, was a huge-
ly
revealing and honest piece of
writing. In general terms, how-
ever, Bergman’s unparalleled
successes as a film, theatre
and television director have
clearly overshadowed Ingmar
Bergman the author. Dubious
as a document, masterful
as literature, the book had a
non-chronological structure,
with altering chapters on child-
hood, theatre work, the tax
affair in 1976, marriage crises,
and encounters with artists like
Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo,
and Herbert von K