Ronald Bergan

South Africa

Ronald Bergan is a writer and critic. He lectured on film at the Sorbonne, France, and the British Institute beside writing for numerous television documentaries. Currently, he is a jury member of several film festivals and considered as a professional speaker at various universities, film and theater clubs, on radio and television. After writing Sport in the Movies, Ronald Bergan co-wrote with Robyn Karney Movie Mastermind: Over WOO Questions to Addle the Addict and Baffle a Buff. W. B. Hooper, a reviewer for Booklist, called the trivia book “great fun” and Bergan followed with a solo effort. Rupert Christiansen, a reviewer in the Chicago Tribune, called the year-by-year chronicle “valuable” as a “mirror of the changing times” of the movie industry. Christopher Schemering, a reviewer in Washington Post Book World, claimed that fans would “be pleased by Bergan’s incisive, sometimes irreverent film-by-film commentary.” Continuing his interest in the fine arts, Bergan turned his attention to the realm of London theaters with The Great Theatres of London: An Illustrated Companion. With a foreword by famed actor Anthony Hopkins, The Great Theatres is a sampling of story and myth. Charles Neuringer, a reviewer in American Reference Book Annual, called the book “a delight.” Ilene Cooper, a reviewer in Booklist, recommended the book for “libraries with large theater or travel collections.” Collaborating again with Robyn Karney, Bergan tackled the wealth of foreign-language films with The Holt Foreign Film Guide. W. P. Hogan, a reviewer in Choice, called the work “pleasant and informative.” A reviewer in Bloomsbury Review considered the treatment of over 2000 foreign films as “surprisingly up-to-date and truly comprehensive” as well as a “much-needed reference book.” Robert L. Turner, Jr., a reviewer in American Reference Book Annual, commended Bergan and Karney for omitting only those “movies that are virtually impossible to see in their original versions.” Robin Buss, a reviewer in Times Educational Supplement, called the book “an exceptionally useful work of reference.” Exploring the careers of four Oxbridge, England artists who took British comedy down a new creative path, Bergan wrote Beyond the Fringe... and Beyond. A reviewer in Books called the work a “witty and constructive in commentary.” Byron Rogers, a reviewer in the Spectator, recommended Beyond the Fringe for Bergan’s inclusion of biographical material concerning Jonathan Miller and that the book “is worth buying alone.” Bergan again shifted his focus and attention and investigated the enigmatic yet troubled life and times of Sergei Eisenstein in Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict. A reviewer in the Economist declared that “Bergan’s lucid book is a reminder of both how great a director Eisenstein was and how much greater his achievement might have been.” Jane Plymale, a reviewer in Library Journal, claimed Bergan focused “more on the human interactions that influenced Eisenstein than on the ideas themselves.”

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Works

book

Sports in the movies

1982

Movie Mastermind: 1000 Questions to Addle an Addict and Baffle a Buff

1984

The United Artists Story

1986

The Great Theatres of London

1988

Bloomsbury foreign film guide

1988

The Holt Foreign Film Guide

(The A-Z, short-entry format is similar to Leslie Halliwel...)

1989

Beyond the Fringe...and Beyond

1990

The Faber Companion to Foreign Films

1992

Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise

(The definitive biography of a seminal figure in film hist...)

1994

Katherine Hepburn: An Independent Woman

(Charting a career that has spanned seven decades and prod...)

1996

Francis Ford Coppola

1998

Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict

(Shining a new light on Eisenstein’s early life, his work,...)

1999

The Coen Brothers, Second Edition

(From their startling debut, Blood Simple (1984), all of t...)

2000

Ronald Bergan

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historian writer

Background

Ronald Berger was born in South Africa.

Education

Bergan received education in England and later the United States.

Career

Ronald Bergan is a writer and critic. He lectured on film at the Sorbonne, France, and the British Institute beside writing for numerous television documentaries. Currently, he is a jury member of several film festivals and considered as a professional speaker at various universities, film and theater clubs, on radio and television.

After writing Sport in the Movies, Ronald Bergan co-wrote with Robyn Karney Movie Mastermind: Over WOO Questions to Addle the Addict and Baffle a Buff. W. B. Hooper, a reviewer for Booklist, called the trivia book “great fun” and Bergan followed with a solo effort. Rupert Christiansen, a reviewer in the Chicago Tribune, called the year-by-year chronicle “valuable” as a “mirror of the changing times” of the movie industry. Christopher Schemering, a reviewer in Washington Post Book World, claimed that fans would “be pleased by Bergan’s incisive, sometimes irreverent film-by-film commentary.”

Continuing his interest in the fine arts, Bergan turned his attention to the realm of London theaters with The Great Theatres of London: An Illustrated Companion. With a foreword by famed actor Anthony Hopkins, The Great Theatres is a sampling of story and myth. Charles Neuringer, a reviewer in American Reference Book Annual, called the book “a delight.” Ilene Cooper, a reviewer in Booklist, recommended the book for “libraries with large theater or travel collections.”

Collaborating again with Robyn Karney, Bergan tackled the wealth of foreign-language films with The Holt Foreign Film Guide. W. P. Hogan, a reviewer in Choice, called the work “pleasant and informative.” A reviewer in Bloomsbury Review considered the treatment of over 2000 foreign films as “surprisingly up-to-date and truly comprehensive” as well as a “much-needed reference book.” Robert L. Turner, Jr., a reviewer in American Reference Book Annual, commended Bergan and Karney for omitting only those “movies that are virtually impossible to see in their original versions.” Robin Buss, a reviewer in Times Educational Supplement, called the book “an exceptionally useful work of reference.”

Exploring the careers of four Oxbridge, England artists who took British comedy down a new creative path, Bergan wrote Beyond the Fringe... and Beyond. A reviewer in Books called the work a “witty and constructive in commentary.” Byron Rogers, a reviewer in the Spectator, recommended Beyond the Fringe for Bergan’s inclusion of biographical material concerning Jonathan Miller and that the book “is worth buying alone.”

Bergan again shifted his focus and attention and investigated the enigmatic yet troubled life and times of Sergei Eisenstein in Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict. A reviewer in the Economist declared that “Bergan’s lucid book is a reminder of both how great a director Eisenstein was and how much greater his achievement might have been.” Jane Plymale, a reviewer in Library Journal, claimed Bergan focused “more on the human interactions that influenced Eisenstein than on the ideas themselves.”

Achievements

Bergan's works are considered easily one of the best and most influential not only as literature but also as documentaries. His work Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict is considered as a valuable achievement.