Fredrik Egerman is troubled; he has a young wife whom he fears he loves as a doting father than a husband. He seeks help from an old flame, Desiree, who is having an affair with a pompous soldier, Count Malcolm. Desiree invites both men and their wives and Egerman's gloomy son Henrik to her mother's country house for the weekend ...
This touching, funny and beautifully observed comedy of sexual manners is one of my favourite Bergman films, made just before he was about to become a key figure in world cinema with movies like Det Sjunde Inseglet and Smultronstället. If you only know him for his heavy-going introspective dramas like Persona and Viskningar Och Rop, check this out as a means of contrast. The story is wonderfully sweet, the characters are sharp and brilliantly played by the entire ensemble and the dialogue will make you chuckle throughout (particularly Wifstrand as the dotty mother with the short attention span). As with all his work, it's Bergman's insight into the universal frailties of human nature that makes the movie so touching; we have a man who has married for beauty not love, a femme fatale who is tired of twisting men around her finger, young lovers who careen between ecstatic joy and suicidal misery, a man who foolishly ranks his pride above all else, and a self-loathing wife who can't stop loving a cheating husband. Bergman dances these characters around each other, making his points with subtle skill and entertaining us with style and wit. The four Swedish female leads - Dahlbeck, Jacobsson, Andersson and Carlqvist - are all stunningly beautiful women. Loosely remade twice; once as a Stephen Sondheim musical (A Little Night Music) and also as a charming Woody Allen farce (A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy). English title - Smiles Of A Summer Night.
This touching, funny and beautifully observed comedy of sexual manners is one of my favourite Bergman films, made just before he was about to become a key figure in world cinema with movies like Det Sjunde Inseglet and Smultronstället. If you only know him for his heavy-going introspective dramas like Persona and Viskningar Och Rop, check this out as a means of contrast. The story is wonderfully sweet, the characters are sharp and brilliantly played by the entire ensemble and the dialogue will make you chuckle throughout (particularly Wifstrand as the dotty mother with the short attention span). As with all his work, it's Bergman's insight into the universal frailties of human nature that makes the movie so touching; we have a man who has married for beauty not love, a femme fatale who is tired of twisting men around her finger, young lovers who careen between ecstatic joy and suicidal misery, a man who foolishly ranks his pride above all else, and a self-loathing wife who can't stop loving a cheating husband. Bergman dances these characters around each other, making his points with subtle skill and entertaining us with style and wit. The four Swedish female leads - Dahlbeck, Jacobsson, Andersson and Carlqvist - are all stunningly beautiful women. Loosely remade twice; once as a Stephen Sondheim musical (A Little Night Music) and also as a charming Woody Allen farce (A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy). English title - Smiles Of A Summer Night.