Bergmans Banaliteter

1948 saw the publication of Ingmar Bergman’s ’Moraliteter’ (/Moralities, Bonniers), and in 2024, ’Bergmans Banaliteter’ (/Bergman’s Banalities) presented by A-FL, is released. The Swedish director was widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Despite significant international success, Ingmar Bergman’s self-image was characterized by a sense of being misunderstood. The director, who claimed to have been rejected from birth, may have been his own harshest critic.

In Bergman’s Banaliteter by A-FL, a heavily annotated original manuscript for a series of previously unpublished interviews, conducted by the critic and Bergman connoisseur Henrik Sjögren (1926-2020) during the autumn of 2001, is being processed. The text is completely omitted, and all that remains are Bergman’s extensive deletions; frenetic lines dancing across the pages in red and green ink. Taken out of context, these resolute strokes transform into abstract formations that manifest Bergman’s relentless self-censorship. On the 32nd page of the original manuscript, the director writes in a desperate note: ”I feel like I’m practically always stating banalities about my productions. It’s too miserable, Henrik!”

’Bergmans Banaliteter’ is published by Farozonen Förlag in an edition of 100 hand-numbered copies, with a risograph-printed inlay in a hot-foiled cover. The book is bound with an archival clip made from tempered steel. Each copy is packaged in a hot-foiled cardboard box, closed with a cotton string. The first 20 orders come with the publisher’s enamel pin.

Pages: 67
Dimensions: 210 × 297 mm
Format: Softcover
Year: 2024
Publisher: Farozonen Förlag