Ingmar Bergman /

In Ingmar Bergman film studies, the late Robin Wood remains one of the towering scholars. This new edition of Wood's 40-year-old study (CH, Jun'71) is most welcome on several counts. The original analysis remains peerless in its insights into a most challenging director. With the appearance in 2012 of Liv and Ingmar: Painfully Connected, a documentary on Liv Ullman's relationship with Bergman, and with his films' widespread availability on DVD, Bergman is ripe for rediscovery. For both the newcomer and the nostalgic veteran, Wood's book is the clearest guide. The new edition includes four additional essays Wood intended for a volume he never completed, three on later Bergman films and the fourth a retake on Persona. As Grant (Brock Univ., Canada) points out, these additions demonstrate Wood's changing critical approach, not just to Bergman but to film's pressing social/political context. More than an astute critic's progressive engagement with a brilliant artist, this volume emblematizes the shifting values in film analysis. So much livelier than any memorial, this new edition is invaluable. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. M. Yacowar emeritus, University of Calgary