A book in a century about a once-in-a-century film legend

Pictures never seen before – With an introduction by Liv Ullmann

It is no exaggeration to call Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) a once-in-a-century artist. As early as the 1930s, as a young star of radiant beauty the native Swedish woman with Hamburg roots enjoyed a roaring success in movies in her own country before she was discovered by Hollywood. David O. Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, was to nurture her rise to super-stardom. Classic cinema hits like Casablanca, For Whom the Bell Tolls or the Hitchcock films Spellbound and Notorious will always be inextricably linked with the face of Ingrid Bergman.

The lavishly illustrated book draws its stupendous richness of images from unpublished photographs belonging to her family, not to mention from numerous other archives in the world. It brings together private photos, film stills, glamorous commissioned portraits and spectacular paparazzi snapshots in an unparalleled wealth and intensity.

Not only did Ingrid Bergman write cinematic history, she also caused a huge scandal when in 1949 she left her husband and child behind in Hollywood and fled to Italy to join forces artistically and romantically with director Roberto Rossellini. The coffee-table book shows all the stages, both professional and private of her exciting, and brilliant career as an artist: Ingrid’s friendships with author Ernest Hemingway and directors Jean Renoir and Alfred Hitchcock, her romances with photographic legend Robert Capa, her happy family life in Italy, her successful return to Hollywood and Sweden, and her late theatre career. The winner of no less than three Oscars, at the end of her life, Ingrid Bergman was a radiant “grande dame” of the international film world.