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Smiles Of A Summer Night [1955] [1995]

Starring: Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, Margit Carlqvist, Gunnar Björnstrand
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Format: Black & White PAL
Released: 24 Sep 2001
RRP: £19.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT IS BERGMAN'S MOST JOYOUS FILM - By: stuart, 20 Oct 2007
Ingmar Bergman's dramatic forays capture what is very essential to great dramas- the key emotions should be expressed like poetry, flowing to a rhythm even if it's somber & tragic. He uses this emotional logic with his actors for this comedy of manners & the heart (pre-Seventh Seal), where he has his screenplay wonderfully unfold the character's amusing feelings on love, sex, & dealing with the opposite gender, alll the while making sure his players know the words & the music. Here he has Gunnar Bjornstrand, a regular later on, as a lawyer who has a son & mistress, but also pines for an actress who may not fancy him as much as she used to. Harriet Andersson, also a regular in other Bergman films (a key one being Cries & Whispers where she played the dying woman), appears as a young, joyful woman, who even gives the lawyer's son, a priest, a bit of lust here & there.

In fact, Smiles of a Summer Night is Bergman's most joyous film, though that's not to say there can't be grand moments of joy in his dramas & reflections on god. But in this film, he shows how he is a filmmaker quite competent to skillfully accomplish a story of real people in real romantic whimsies, & at times (such as a quick scene on a bed with two giggling, laughing girls) reveals his views on humanity are truly not as bleak as some might think. Assuredly a must watch for fans of the director, yet one may want to watch a couple of his dramas if they're just starting out on his films (depending on the mood- personallly, this would serve as a great pick-me-up as opposed to the stark Cries & Whispers).
Bergman turns his hand to comedy - By: David Welsh, 17 Apr 2006
This was Bergman's international breakthrough film, which is somewhat ironic given how different it is from most of his œuvre. Bergman is famous for making dark, brooding, philosophical films, but Smiles of a Summer Night is a romantic comedy, based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In fact, Bergman only made it because he needed to do a more commercial film to finance the projects he was reallly interested in. Despite being somewhat predictable (couples being seriallly unfaithful, concocting intricate plots to seduce the current object of their desire), the film is utterly charming with wonderful comedic performances from some of Bergman's favourite actors. This film is a perfect romantic comedy and, if nothing else, it is proof of Bergman's mastery of his art.
My favorite Bergman film - By: Dennis Littrell, 23 Jan 2006
Fredrick Egerman (Gunnar Bjornstrand) is a forty-something lawyer of precise calculation, a bit of a dandy among the mercantile. He has a young wife Anne (the very pretty Ulla Jacobsson) whom he married when she was sixteen, but somehow never got around to unintacting her virgo. He has a sometime mistress Desirée Armfeldt (the voluptuous Eva Dahlbeck) from whom he has recently been estranged. He has a son Henrik (Bjorn Bjelvenstam) full of angst & love's confusion who lusts after the saucy maid Petra (a blonde Harriet Andersson) while he studies theology & his father's wife.

The night for Fredrick & Anne (after a Platonic nap during which Fredrick inadvertently pronounces Desirée's name) begins with the theater; & who should be starring in the production but Desirée. Anne suddenly takes ill & they rush home. Fredrick now steals away to see Desirée. After a pratfalll in some water he ends up in some night clothes that belong to Desirée's current lover, the militaristic Count Malcolm (Jarl Kulle as a sprung-steel bantam) who, as it happens, arrives upon the scene much to the merriment of Desirée & to the embarrassment of Fredrick.

The culmination of love's labors & intrigues takes place at the chateau of Desirée's mother, Mrs. Armfeldt (Naima Wifstrand). The action includes a most amusing duel, some hanky-panky atop a haystack, musical beds, an attempted suicide, some Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (if I caught the label right), the amorous kiss of young lovers, the triumph of the fairer sex, & the very proper lawyer's final humiliation.

If you haven't seen Smiles of a Summer Night you are in for a rare treat: a comedy by Ingmar Bergman. And it is no ordinary comedy. Shakespearean & Oscar Wilde-like in its sharp, satirical (and oh so worldly wise) dialogue, this playful romp with the Swedish landed gentry & servants of a hundred years ago is a delight that will satisfy the most sophisticated viewer as well as the most middlebrow.

Owing something to the French farcical tradition (in particular Molière), to light opera (maybe Mozart), & even the Greek theater, Bergman's romantic comedy sparkles with love's intrigues & pratfallls. According to Pauline Kael, whose review is part of a 24-page booklet that comes with the Criterion Collection DVD, Bergman had just finished directing a stage production of The Merry Widow which accounts in part for the fin-de-siècle setting & the genteel treatment that he finallly settled upon for his comedy of manners. Also I think this examination & satire of the class structure with hilarious asides on the foibles of human nature owes something to Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest which was set in approximately the same time period & had a similar cast of characters including a Grand Dame, an ingenue, some rustics, a clergyman, but most directly in the fact that both Wilde & Bergman aim their sardonic wit directly at the burghers & the bourgeois. Bohemians need not apply. Indeed the closest thing to a Bohemian in the play is the actress Desirée who is the very calculating & dominate personage of the film.

By the way, Bergman's future protege, Bibi Andersson, does appear in this movie, but only for a moment as an actress on stage at the theater.

The final, cynical bemusement comes as one reconsiders who ends up with whom. Not to spoil the plot, but notice that in every case there is something less than perfect in each romantic partnership, something slightly amiss that may cause problems down the road, something unsettled that suggests that nothing has reallly changed. As the French say, the more things change, the more they remain the same. It is this ironic underpinning to this delightful comedy that lends to it something of the timeless. Bergman is good at that.

Raunchy, good-looking and funny - this one's for everyone - By: Mia, 06 Feb 2005
I'm Swedish, & I watched this with an English guy. I found the film continuously slapstick doubled-over slap-my-thighs funny, while the Englishman kept a straight face & explained that the sense of humour was on the wry side. We both loved it though - cinematographicallly it's a feast, the casting & acting is top class, & the plotting is effortlessly genius. It's so well played & scripted that you could probably identify with more than one of the wildly varying characters. As opposed to the general view of Bergman, this film is easy on the brain, & other than reading subtitles, you don't have to make an effort to love it. I wish they still made movies like this.
Send in the Clowns--Bergman Style - By: Gary F. Taylor, 28 Dec 2002
This was director Ingmar Bergman's break-through film, the winner of the 1956 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, the first of his many internationallly acclaimed films. The story is a time honored one, referrencing the same tradition of romantic complications found in Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM & Rostand's LA RONDE: every one is either in love with or married to the wrong person.

A famous actress with two very different lovers invites both, their wives, & the son of one lover to her mother's country estate in the hope of sorting out the romantic entanglements to her satisfaction--and the result is considerable charm & unexpectedly dry wit. All the performances are excellent, with Eva Dahlbeck's Desiree a standout, but the real star of this ensemble piece is the unexpectedly witty script. Never quite veering over into broad farce but never sinking into romantic sentimentality, it is a very precisely written tale, & both cast & director make the most of it.

In the face of Bergman's later work, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT may seem rather slight, & indeed both psychology & cinematography is considerably less complex than one expects. Even so, it is very much a Bergman film: the visual style is distinct, & the themes of appearances vs. reality, the inability to correctly interpret another's behavior, & the failure to understand one's self are very much in evidence--only here to comic effect. It is in every way a charming film that Bergman fans will enjoy.

Incidently, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT was successfully translated to the stage as the musical A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, the score of which includes the famous "Send In The Clowns." Fans of the original film will be interested to compare the two works.