Shortlisted for the 2008 Kraszna-Krausz Award for the Best Moving Image Book.

Known for their repeating motifs and signature tropes, the films of Ingmar Bergman also contain extensive variation and development. In these reflections on Bergman's artistry and thought, Irving Singer discerns distinctive themes in Bergman's filmmaking, from first intimations in the early work to consummate resolutions in the later movies. Singer demonstrates that while Bergman's output was not philosophy on celluloid, it attains an expressive and purely aesthetic truthfulness that can be considered philosophical in a broader sense.

Through analysis of both narrative and filmic effects, Singer probes Bergman's mythmaking and his reliance upon the magic inherent in his cinematic techniques. Singer traces throughout the evolution of Bergman's ideas about life and death, and about the possibility of happiness and interpersonal love. In the overtly self-referential films that he wrote or directed (The Best Intentions, Fanny and Alexander, Sunday's Children) as well as the less obviously autobiographical ones (including Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, and the triad that begins with Through a Glass Darkly) Bergman investigates problems in his existence and frequently reverts to childhood memories. In such movies as Smiles of a Summer Night, Scenes from a Marriage, and Saraband, Bergman draws upon his mature experience and depicts the troubled relationships between men who are often weak and women who are made to suffer by the damaged men with whom they live. In Persona, Cries and Whispers, and other works, his experiments with the camera are uniquely masterful. Inspecting the panorama of Bergman's art, Singer shows how the endless search for human contact motivates the content of his films and reflects Bergman's profound perspective on the world.

Irving Singer Library

入围2008年Kraszna-Krausz最佳活动影像书奖。

英格玛-伯格曼的电影以其重复的主题和标志性的套路而闻名，但也包含了广泛的变化和发展。在这些对伯格曼的艺术和思想的反思中，欧文-辛格发现了伯格曼电影创作中的独特主题，从早期作品中的最初暗示到后期电影中的完美解决。辛格证明，虽然伯格曼的作品不是赛璐珞上的哲学，但它达到了一种表现力和纯美学的真实性，可以被视为更广泛意义上的哲学。

通过对叙事和电影效果的分析，辛格探究了伯格曼的神话制造和他对其电影技术中固有的魔力的依赖。辛格自始至终追踪了伯格曼关于生命和死亡、关于幸福的可能性和人与人之间的爱的想法的演变。在他创作或执导的公开自我暗示的电影（《最好的打算》、《芬妮和亚历山大》、《星期天的孩子》）以及不太明显的自传性电影（包括《野草莓》、《第七封印》和以《透过黑暗玻璃》开始的三部曲）中，伯格曼调查了自己存在的问题，并经常回溯到童年记忆。在《夏夜的微笑》（Smiles of a Summer Night）、《婚姻场景》（Scenes from a Marriage）和《萨拉班德》（Saraband）等电影中，伯格曼利用他的成熟经验，描绘了通常是弱者的男人和被与之生活在一起的受损男人折磨的女人之间的麻烦关系。在《人物》、《哭泣与低语》和其他作品中，他对摄影机的实验是独一无二的杰作。通过检查伯格曼的艺术全景，辛格展示了对人类接触的无尽探索如何激励了他的电影内容，并反映了伯格曼对世界的深刻看法。

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