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DVD Smiles Of A Summer Night - Criterion Collection
Ingmar Bergman achieved international stardom with this classic melancholy comedy about the romantic entanglements of three 19th-century couples during a weekend at a country estate. It's exactly what you'd expect from a bedroom farce filtered through the ideas and eyes of Bergman: sharp, serious, pensive, austerely sexy, and ultimately sobering. Still, anyone who thought the Swedish filmmaker was incapable of a little fun has only to watch Bergman's orchestrations of these dangerous liaisons. Prosperous lawyer Fredrik (Gunnar Björnstrand) is married to the comely young Anne (Ulla Jacobsson), who (despite his best efforts) remains a virgin. Henrik (Björn Bjelfvenstam), Fredrik's grown son from a previous marriage, is desperately in love with Anne--and having an affair with the maid (Harriet Andersson)--despite the torturings of his pious soul. When actress Desiree (Eva Dahlbeck), Fredrik's former mistress, breezes into town, Fredrick pays her a visit, only to find himself jealous of her relationship with the piggish Count Malcolm (Jarl Kulle), who just happens to be married to Anne's best friend, the depressed and suicidal Charlotte (Margit Carlqvist); both women have a decided bone to pick with Desiree. All convene at the estate of Desiree's mother for a weekend of confrontations, illicit romance, dinner, dueling, and eventual pairing with the right romantic partner. Bergman winningly conveys the aspects of love among both the young and the old--those who feel they'll live forever and those whose impending mortality colors their actions. Absolutely brilliant and heartfelt, a true cinematic masterpiece. The basis for Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, of "Send in the Clowns" fame. --Mark Englehart
Review(s): DVD Smiles Of A Summer Night - Criterion Collection
Love, love, love . . .
Set around the year 1900, the movie takes place from midnight to dawn of a particular summer day. The smiles are three in number and represent three ways of looking at love.
The first involves an older man, Fredrik Egerman, who has married a much younger woman, Anne - still a virgin after two years. Egerman's son, Henrik, runs away with her, leaving the older man alone and depressed (that's the third look, which occurs as the sun is rising). Anne's veil that blows off her head as she's being driven away by her young lover and which is recovered by Egerman speaks volumes.
The second look, which occurs during the darkest period of the night just before dawn, is the most cynical, and involves Count Malcolm and his wife Charlotte. No misty-eyed declarations of never dying love here, but bare honesty - but revealed in the exaggerated form of the great satirists/comedians, almost Bierceian in its savage humor, but at the same time done lightly within a c'est la vie attitude.
Bergman has created a beautiful comedy, set in a time long ago when social positions, especially of the sexes, were clearly defined. Yet the women here have the upper hand and the men, especially Egerman, act the fools. But Egerman is not just a fool, but a suffering human being as well. In that representation lies Bergman's genius - a genius that affects us on very deep levels. A great movie.
Smiles Of A Summer Night
Just imagine-- an Ingmar Bergman comedy. This one is magic: a joyous, perceptive meditation on the fickle nature of love and lust, and the eternal struggle between the sexes to understand each other. Smart, infectious fun-and stunningly shot in black and white.
bergman's "comedy"
not bergman's best (no audio commentary by peter cowie on this one, hint hint) -- but still manages to underscore our need to seek out inner peace and happiness through romantic relationships. in this case, the brief scandinavian summer impels all protagonists to seize the window of opportunity, as everything falls into place in the end. cowie brands this as a comedy, though i don't recall bergman himself (in the introduction) calling it as such. what's sure is the master intended this to be a lighthearted approach to delivering a simple message. it was in his next film, "the seventh seal", where he was given the green light to go for the coup de grace.
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