"Award-winning film director Ingmar Bergmann's scripts are among the most important documents in film history. Though his vision in such films as Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal has shaped our thinking about the cinema, the vast majority of his most powerful recent work only slowly finds its way to American theaters. The Fifth Act brings to English readers for the first time some of the finest creations of Bergman's mature years.".

"In these scenarios of extraordinary frankness, even rawness, Bergmann shows his tender yet realistic views on the world of theater, cinema, and acting, culminating with In the Presence of a Clown, where he returns to the character of his Uncle Carl, an irrepressible inventor who comes up with an early version of the talking film."--BOOK JACKET.