Ingmar Bergman: his life and films by Jerry Vermilye

Author:Jerry Vermilye
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-01-19T18:42:07+00:00

Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). Harriet Andersson and Ulla Jacobsson. Svensk Filmindustri.

Critics’ Circle

Turning from the contemporary scene to a period comedy of manners, Ingmar Bergman has evoked the spirits of Schnitzler, Wilde and Strindberg in this decidedly Nordic morality play. Maneuvering his collection of fickle husbands and scheming wives and mistresses with cool detachment, Bergman delivers his sardonic comments on the vagaries of love mainly through epigrammatic dialogue closely reflecting 19th-century models. Consequently, one is lightly amused without being either emotionally involved or moved by this parade of infidelity. There are some lively performances by Eva Dahlbeck as the resourceful mistress and Gunnar Björnstrand and Jarl Kulle as the husbands. Delicately luminous photography and some stylish set decorations give the film an attractive visual gloss.

—“J. G.” in Monthly Film Bulletin

The bulk of this hothouse comedy concerns the weekend party. The intricate sexual relationships involved throughout its duration are as claustrophobic and compelling as a plot fabricated by Jean Cocteau.

Youth is unkind,” says the lonely, wicked old lady; but young Henrik finds his elders cruel and disgusting. Nevertheless, I can find no bitterness to spoil the taste of the film — nothing can take away its beauty. Bergman explores its moods of longing and regret with wonderful compassion and perception. The entire, vibrant wealth of this film is exquisite.

—Peter John Dyer in Films and Filming

In a style of writing more characteristic of the French or perhaps the pre-war Hungarians than the usually solemn Swedes, Mr. Bergman skips us gaily through a mix-up of youthful and adult love affairs, which, while timed around the turn of the century, are as spicy as any such today.

—Bosley Crowther in The New York Times

Smiles of a Summer Night lies complete and closed within itself, to some extent impossible to reach. Of its kind, it is perfect. But the picture has a strange, perfumed, ingratiating atmosphere which scarcely harmonizes with the predominant line in Bergman’s production. Still, the tragic element exists, based on the characters presented. The laughter is bitter.

—Jörn Donner in The Personal Vision of Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman achieves one of the few classics of carnal comedy: a tragicomic chase and roundelay that raises boudoir farce to elegance and lyric poetry. The film becomes an elegy to transient love; a gust of wind, and the whole vision may drift away.

—Pauline Kael in 5001 Nights at the Movies

One of the finest romantic comedies ever made, a witty treatise on manners, mores and sex during a weekend at a country estate in the late 19th century.

—Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide

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