| |
|
|
 (Click for larger image) 
Bergman, Ingmar (Translated by Alan Blair).
SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE.
New York City, NY: Pantheon, 1974. Hardcover. First Edition/First Printing. 199 pages. Fine/Fine. Price-clipped . The author's screenplay. One of the greatest films of the 20th century. The first appearance of the title in English. Published as a First Edition in a small and limited print run as a hardcover original only. Precedes and should not be confused with the paperback edition. The screenplay is presented in its entirety as it was filmed for and first shown on Swedish television in six parts over a period of six weeks. The most successful television series in Sweden, the film was first shown here in a three-and-a-half-hour version, produced for commercial release in the rest of the world. The formidable Pauline Kael and other important critics hailed Bergman's truncated version as a masterpiece. It was subsequently re-released in its entirety in key film centers to enormous critical acclaim, and is now available from the popular and prestigious Criterion DVD Collection as it originally appeared on Swedish television. An unflinching and harrowing account of the joys, quarrels, misunderstandings, and eventual breakdown of a marriage, "Scenes from a Marriage" was one of Bergman's personal favorites. It remains the most widely-watched television series in the history of Swedish television; the Swedes made plans around each weekly episode's screening and dropped everything in order to follow it. That Bergman would return to it in his very last film, "Saraband", is beyond poignant and beautiful. Ingmar Bergman died on July 30, 2007 at the age of 89, an irreplaceable loss to world culture. Given the abysmal state and irreversible decline of contemporary cinema, there are no words to describe the loss of its single greatest figure. "The greatest film artist since the invention of the motion picture camera" (Woody Allen). One of Bergman's greatest works, this is a "must-have" title for Ingmar Bergman collectors. This title has been out-of-print for a very long time. This is one of extremely few copies of the First English-language Edition still available online and is in fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A very scarce copy thus. The greatest film director of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER INGMAR BERGMAN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0394493052. $50.00 |
