Ingmar Bergman: A Critical Biography

Well, this is it...Bergman is notorioiusly difficult to sum up - we've had biographical, psychoanalytical, religious, aesthetic, God-knows-what-else approaches... But this book is about the best you'll get. Cowie, rightly regarded as an expert on Swedish (and Finnish9 film, provides a readable, informative and sensitive history. It has that perfect combination of enough fact for the uninitiated and enough interpretation for the devotee. As if that wasn't sufficient, it's been updated up to 1992 and contains lots of handsome images - not only of the great man and his entourage, but also of the films themslves, just right for stoking the embers of mnemory (especially if you haven't got a video-recorder...)Quite simply an authoritative, genial account of a 'difficult' genius.