Ingrid: Ingrid Bergman, a Personal Biography |
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Charlotte Chandler
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Pages: 352 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0743294211
Pub: Simon & Schuster
Pub date: 2007-02-20
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 219634
Reader Reviews:
Personally (2/2 people found this helpful)
Ingrid Bergman was that actress in a million who really enjoyed acting, was brilliant at it, and who seemed as pleasant as her public image would suggest, even when hypocrisy almost destroyed her career.
Charlotte Chandler tries to add a more human dimension to Bergman in "Ingrid Bergman: A Personal Biography," which contains in-depth interviews with Ingrid and many others who knew her. Chandler's style is pleasant and easy, but the book moves a bit too quickly at times -- I mean, how long were these marriages?
Daughter of a photographer and his beloved wife, Bergman originally got into acting when her late dad's girlfriend got a small role in a movie. In just a few years, she became a major star in Sweden, and married a rather humorless doctor. When a studio head saw her movie "Intermezzo," he invited her to come to Hollywood, and star in the English-speaking remake.
Her down-to-earth beauty, kindly personality and massive talent made her a massive star. But when Ingrid went to make a movie with her favorite director, Roberto Rossellini, they began an affair and she became pregnant, shocking hypcocritical Hollywood and causing her to be blacklisted. But Bergman remained honest and open, as she went through divorces, children and many more wonderful movies.
Donald Spoto already wrote the definitive Ingrid Bergman biography, but Charlotte Chandler does manage to provide some intriguing new information and details. And it definitely lives up to the "personal" aspect of it, which was more than most biographies manage to do.
If there's a flaw, it's that it goes by too quickly -- each of Ingrid's marriages seems to take place in just a few years, tops. But Chandler manages to retell Bergman's story with a warm, easy style, full of filming details and pleasant little anecdotes, such as Bergman pretending to be one of the hired help at a Hollywood banquet. And it also approaches less-handled aspects of Bergman's life, such as her daughter Isabella's fight with scoliosis.
What's more, Chandler does manage to make this biography personal -- it has many interviews not only from Bergman, but with her children, costars, friends, and many others. And not only does it focus on Bergman as a person, but on her own thoughts, such as how she never regretted leaving her first husband, since it led to the birth of her son and twins. And Chandler offers some perspectives on the people around her, from Charles Boyer to Rossellini himself.
"Ingrid Bergman: A Personal Biography" is rather bare-bones as a biography, but offers fascinating looks at Bergman's personality, and anecdotes about her life. Definitely worth reading.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Biography -> Film, Television & Music -> Actors & Actresses
Books -> Subjects -> Music, Stage & Screen -> Film -> Biographies -> Bestsellers