Ingmar Bergman - Collected Works and Screenplays (25 books)

* Ingmar Bergman - Collected Works and Screenplays (25 books)

INGMAR BERGMAN (1918–2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. He is considered one of the greatest and most important filmmakers in the history of cinema, most notably as a prominent figure of both European film industry and Swedish cinema. He directed more than 60 films and documentaries, most of which he also wrote, and led to international acclaim and garnered Academy Award wins and nominations throughout his career. Throughout Bergman’s many works, one finds variations on a central theme: dysfunctional families, blood-sucking failed artists and an absent Almighty all become manifestations of our collective inability to communicate with each other.

Bergman transformed screenwriting from a blueprint for production into a distinct literary art form, treating his published scripts as autonomous texts meant to be read like literature. Early landmark screenplays, such as THE SEVENTH SEAL (1956) and WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957), proved that cinematic narratives could hold the psychological depth and philosophical weight of great novels. He later consolidated his reputation as a master writer by compiling his works into volumes like FOUR SCREENPLAYS OF INGMAR BERGMAN (1960). His later television and film scripts, most notably SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (1974) and FACE TO FACE (1976), rely on razor-sharp, devastating dialogue that exposes human relationships. By publishing these scripts, Bergman allowed readers to experience the raw, internal pacing of his dialogue and character development independent of his visual choices.

Beyond the screen, Bergman dedicated a lifetime to the stage and published dramatic texts that solidified his identity as a playwright and theatre scholar. He frequently adapted classic plays or created original stagings that he subsequently published as distinct literary projects, notably seen in A PROJECT FOR THE THEATRE (1983), which detailed his profound engagements with Strindberg and Ibsen. Later in his career, he gathered his challenging shorter stage scripts and metatheatrical reflections into volumes like THE FIFTH ACT (1994). This collection brought together pieces like MONOLOGUES and IN THE PRESENCE OF A CLOWN , exploring the agonizing anxieties of performers and directors. These texts highlight his obsessive need to analyze the act of performance itself, bridging the gap between live theatre production and permanent literature.

In his later decades, Bergman transitioned smoothly into traditional fiction, publishing a series of intense prose novels that blurred the lines between family history and creative myth-making. He turned his gaze inward to his own ancestry, penning a trilogy of novels that explored the complex, painful marriage of his parents: THE BEST INTENTIONS (1991), SUNDAY'S CHILDREN (1993), and PRIVATE CONFESSIONS (1996). Written with rigorous emotional honesty and a distinctive novelistic voice, these works served as raw explorations of his strict childhood, religious guilt, and inherited trauma. Bergman ultimately chose to publish these stories as prose before they were ever adapted for the screen by other directors, proving his deep commitment to the novelistic form.

Bergman rounded out his literary footprint with essential nonfiction volumes and deeply personal memoirs that offered unparalleled access to his creative psyche. His seminal autobiography, THE MAGIC LANTERN (1987), rejected standard chronological timelines in favor of a fragmented, poetic, and highly subjective recollection of his youth and career. He followed this landmark memoir with IMAGES: MY LIFE IN FILM (1990), a more structured companion piece that combined production diaries, retrospective self-criticism, and technical breakdowns of his filmography. Together, these published works function as vital historical documents and self-reflective literature, cementing Bergman’s status as a writer whose command of the printed word was just as absolute as his mastery of the camera lens.


Shockingly little of Bergman's published work has been released in digital format. All the freshly scanned PDFs in this collection are the extraordinary work of @Mohamed5438 , to whom I am deeply indebted:

== SCREENPLAYS ==

* Autumn Sonata [tr. Blair] (Pantheon, 1978) – PDF
* Face to Face [tr. Blair] (Pantheon, 1976) – PDF
* Fanny and Alexander [tr. Blair] (Pantheon, 1982) – PDF
* A Film Trilogy [tr. Austin] (Calder, 1967) – PDF
* Four Screenplays [tr. Malmström & Kushner] (Simon & Schuster, 1960) – PDF
* From the Life of the Marionettes [tr. Blair] (Pantheon, 1980) – PDF
* The Marriage Scenarios [tr. Blair] (Pantheon, 1978) – PDF
* Persona and Shame [tr. Bradfield] (Marion Boyars, 2002) – PDF
* Scenes from a Marriage [tr. Blair] (Pantheon, 1974) – PDF
* The Serpent's Egg (Pantheon, 1977) – PDF
* The Seventh Seal [tr. Malmström & Kushner] (Simon & Schuster, 1960) – PDF
* Wild Strawberries [tr. Malmström & Kushner] (Simon & Schuster, 1960) – PDF

== PLAYS ==

* The Fifth Act [tr. Rugg & Tate] (New Press, 2001) – PDF
* A Project for the Theatre [ed. Marker & Marker] (Ungar, 1983) – PDF
* Strindberg: A Dream Play [tr. Meyer] (Dial Press, 1973) – PDF

== FICTION ==

* The Best Intentions [tr. Tate] (Arcade, 2011) – ePUB
* The Best Intentions [tr. Tate, revised] (Vintage, 2018) – PDF
* Private Confessions [tr. Tate] (Arcade, 1996) – ePUB / PDF
* Sunday's Child [tr. Tate] (Harvill, 1994) – PDF
* Sunday's Children [tr. Tate, revised] (Vintage, 2018) – PDF

== AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ==

* The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography [tr. Tate] (Penguin, 1989) – PDF
* Images: My Life in Film [tr. Ruuth] (Arcade, 2011) – ePUB

== OTHER PROSE ==

* Four Stories [tr. Blair] (Anchor, 1976) – PDF

[b]== CONVERSATIONS ==

* Bergman on Bergman [tr. Austin] (Simon & Schuster, 1975) – PDF
* Talking with Ingmar Bergman [ed. Jones] (SMU, 1983) – PDF

== MISCELLANEOUS ==

* A Conversation with Ann Morrissett (Transatlantic Review, Autumn 1963) – PDF
* Demons and Childhood Secrets [interview] (Grand Street, Fall 1998) – PDF
* Each Film Is My Last (Tulane Drama Review, Autumn 1966) – PDF
* On Dreams, the Subconscious and Filmmaking (1981) – PDF
* Playboy Interview (June 1964) – PDF
* Playwright, Director, Scenarist, and Cinéaste [interview] (Scandinavian Studies, Fall 2009) – PDF
* Wood Painting: A Morality Play (Tulane Drama Review, Nov. 1961) – PDF


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