This is Liv Ullmann in her own words: mother, friend, international movie star, myth, muse.

In a candid, honest, totally devoid of adornment way, Miss Ullmann tells how it was when she started out, how she met Ingmar Bergman, how precious her child is to her and how she found a sense of self as a woman, an artist and a human being.

Disarming and beautiful, it is one of the best autobiographies read in a long time.

This book is in a class by itself. One of the extraordinary things about Liv Ullman's autobiography is how little it depends upon the author's celebrity for its power. Yes, she did write it herself, and yes, she writes very well.

Ullman's reflections belong to the body of literature by women about the delicate and complex business of being at once an artist, mother, lover, thinker, creator of magic, and wiper-up of spills. By saying so much in so few words and with so great a respect for the privacy of other people, Ullman reminds us that it is possible for writers to explore their own lives in print without betraying the trust of friends and lovers.

As an artist and a woman, Ullman is most deeply concerned with the process of shedding roles defined by others and becoming what she calls "one's best or truest self." In her view, the real woman is not one who plays roles thrust upon her by others.

Although talented, beautiful, successful and rich, she struggles to achieve an equalibrium between her responsibilities to herself and her obligations to others and is like most women who have refused to settle for one role in life. Her inner turmoil is tempered by a sense of humor and the realization that she is more privileged than most.

She returns to the subject of maternal guilt again and again and the concept is usually translated from the Norwegian as "bad conscience."

"Changing" is filled with compassion for the ways in which both men and women have been limited by traditional views of masculinity and femininity. Her view of relations between the sexes belongs to a feminist ethos that insists the liberation of women will also free men; it is totally at variance with the wing of the feminist movement that suggests women cannot be free until they are free of men.

I was looking for something for my grandchildren who live 1500 miles from us when this beautiful book "jumped off the shelf". These letters contain all kinds of things I am able to teach the grandchildren who live close by and visit often, but it will also be nice for them to have something in their hands for future reference. The lessons that these well known people give to their grandchildren as well as our own speak of values we all want for the world. Such a simple thing as writing down the way we try to live will surely speak loud and clear to children (and parents) everywhere now and in the future.

This book is excellent! It contains big photos of children of many places all around the world. It brings out a lot of emotions.

Although this book has received high praises on Amazon.com, I cannot share this enthusiasm. The main problem with this book is that it is too superficial, and too cursory. Bergman's films are loaded with meaning, symbol, and depth. This book unfortunately, is lacking in depth. The author reviews each film, and then picks out one scene or theme of each movie and discusses it. He grossly simplifies each Bergman film, and thus fails to explicate the richness of his films. The author's analysis of a key scene from The Seventh Seal is trivial and added nothing to my understanding of Bergman as a dirctor. My advice: skip this book and listen to the audio commentaries on Bergman's DVD's. They are much more illuminating.

Ingmar Bergman is a legendary film producer whose work had a seminal influence on an entire generation of filmmakers and whose films are still viewed today in film classes and speciality theaters throughout Europe and the United States. In Ingmar Bergman: Magician And Prophet, film scholar Marc Gervais explores how Bergman achieve his cinematic magic through his specific choices in the use of film language and the texturing and structuring of images, sounds, and rhythms. Gervais also shows how Bergman's work continues to resonate with new generations of viewers. Ingmar Bergman: Magician And Prophet is a "must" for all Bergman fans and students of the history of cinema.