The Fifth Act

The scripts of award-winning film director Ingmar Bergman have been among the most important documents in film history. Though his vision in such films as Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal has shaped our thinking about the cinema, none of his most recent films have been shown in U.S. theaters. This book brings to English readers for the first time some of the finest creations of Bergman’s mature years. In these three scenarios of extraordinary frankness, even rawness, Bergman shows his tender yet realistic views on the world of theater, cinema, and acting, culminating with In the Presence of a Clown, where he returns to the character of his Uncle Carl, an irrepressible inventor who comes up with an early version of the talking film. These most recent scripts, in effect Bergman’s own fifth act, add an important and moving chapter to his life work. A preface contextualizing the scripts within Bergman’s oeuvre has been added by Lasse Bergstrom, a noted Swedish film critic as well as the publisher of Bergman’s work in Sweden.