A Great Entertainer

Film Woody Allen reviews Ingmar Bergman's autobiography in 1988: "In addition to all else - and perhaps most important - Bergman is a great entertainer; a storyteller who never loses sight of the fact that no matter what ideas he's chosen to communicate, films are for exciting an audience. His theatricality is inspired. Such imaginative use of old-fashioned Gothic lighting and stylish compositions. The flamboyant surrealism of the dreams and symbols. The opening montage of ''Persona,'' the dinner in ''Hour of the Wolf'' and, in ''The Passion of Anna,'' the chutzpah to stop the engrossing story at intervals and let the actors explain to the audience what they are trying to do with their portrayals, are moments of showmanship at its best." [via]