Tuesday 1 July 2008


TITLE: INGRID – A PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY

AUTHOR: Charlotte Chandler

DATE PUBLISHED: 2007

DATE READ: June 2008

NOTES: This is not a book I would have chosen to read (a reading group choice). If I choose a biography I prefer it to be of an important historical character (eg Pepys or George Eliot) and prefer not to know the minutiae of the lives of film stars or celebrities. Of course, she led an interesting life but I am not sure that this had any bearing on how she acted in films and on the stage.

This biography is written in an uncritical rather dull way and is hardly a page turner. Do we really need to know the story of her early Swedish and German films? And would a woman as intelligent as Bergmann have no comment to make about working in Germany in the film industry when it was being run by Goebbels?

I would have liked a little more explanation or theory as to why she allowed herself to be dominated by Rossellini who refused to allow her to work with any other directors or to go to America…..

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