Four Stories

Unlike most film directors, Ingmar Bergman did not produce his films from a script or screenplay.

‘A screenplay,’ he writes,can never express what the film wants to convey. If I were to reproduce in words what happens in the film I have conceived, I would be forced to write a bulky book of little readable value and great nuisance. Such a procedure would effectively kill all creative joy for both me and the artists.

Instead Bergman wrote a short story or novella and distributed it to each individual involved in the film. I offer the reader a summary text, a cipher, which at best appeals to his imagination and insight.

All involved read and re-read the stories until they understood and developed the essences and nuances of the relationships and scenes as vividly in their own minds as Bergman had in his. The shooting then proceeded; virtually nothing else was written down.

Here then are the origins of four of Bergman’s greatest movies— The Touch, Cries & Whsipers, The Hour of the Wolf and A Passion. Like their cinematic counterparts, each differs in style and form, but all reflect the themes of human intimacy and the dark power of mythic forces that are the hallmarks of Bergman’s artistry. The imagery is clear and vivid, the dialogue absorbing. These stories are both delightful reading in their own right, and an extraordinary insight into the creative genius of Ingmar Bergman and his films.