The Fifth Act

Ingmar Bergman s scripts are 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 cinema, the vast majority of his most powerful recent work only slowly finds its way to American theatres. The Fifth Act brings to English readers for the first time some of the finest creations of Bergamn s mature years. In these scenarios of extraordinary frankness, even rawness, Bergman shows his tender yet realistic views on the world of theatre, 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 adds an important and moving character to his life s work. A preface contextualizing the scripts within Bergaman s oeuvre has been added by Lasse Bergström, a Swedish film critic as well as the publisher of Bergman s work in Sweden.