《魔灯》是世界电影巨匠英格玛•伯格曼唯一的生平自述，写于作者拍摄完《芬妮与亚历山大》，宣布结束自己的电影生涯的五年之后。与他的影片同样，本书充满了生动的细节，透露出强烈的内省。伍迪•艾伦称之为“天才之声”。
在这“仅有的一部投入了自己全部文学抱负”的作品中，伯格曼以彻底的严肃性，试图将自己的创作源头与历程和盘托出：童年，父母，宗教，剧场，婚姻与工作。这又是一部现代《忏悔录》，作者坦陈自己的缺点、恐惧、愤怒，青春期时对于纳粹的迷恋，对于性的痴迷，以及导演工作所带来的别样愉悦。二十世纪电影史上一些最重要的时刻，在作者回顾自己的生涯时一一重现，他与卓别林、葛丽泰·嘉宝、卡拉扬、英格利·褒曼等同时代人的交往，和对于塔可夫斯基、费里尼等同行工作的评论不时闪耀其间。
《魔灯》这部反传统自传，在记忆中前后闪回，仿佛一幅视角宏伟而手法细腻的镶嵌画，拼贴出一个来自斯堪的纳维亚乡间的年轻人成长为艺术大师的过程，使读者得以近距离一窥我们这个时代最伟大的心灵。

Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester, her sister Anna and Anna's young son, Johan, check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

1953 film by Ingmar Bergman

A recently divorced man and an emotionally devastated widow begin a love affair.

1961 film by Ingmar Bergman

Dr. Jenny Isaksson is a psychiatrist whose temporary position at a mental hospital offers only modest responsibilities. With her husband out of the country for a seminar and her daughter at camp, Jenny moves in with her grandparents, expecting a relaxing few months. But it isn't long before unpleasant memories of her childhood, the sudden appearance of strange apparitions, and a near-rape push this otherwise stable woman to the very edge of sanity.

In the sixties, Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) built a house on the remote island of Fårö, located in the Baltic Sea, left Stockholm and went to live there. When he died, the house was preserved. A group of very special cinephiles, came from all over the world, travel to Fårö in search of the genius and his legacy. (An abridged version of Bergmans video, 2012.)