Smiles Of A Summer Night (The Criterion Collection)
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DVD details
Actor: Eva Dahlbeck, Gunnar Björnstrand, Harriet Andersson, Margit Carlqvist, Ulla JacobssonBrand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Swedish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 108 minutes
Published: 2004-05-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-25
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
DVD Reviews of Smiles Of A Summer Night (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: A sad farce
Summary: 3 Stars
An immoral, sexually obsessed troupe: some kind of religious sect of wackos á la Sweden try to find love and live-fulfillment but they look for it in sex -changing and exchanging sex partners in order to find the combination that does the trick, and alas! it fails. A parody of the absurd "make love, not war" 60's-old sentiment.
It could well be read as I did above, however, here's another alternative.
Fathre/son dialogue (The libertine father and the soon to be cleryman son): "Man loves himself, his self-love, and his love of love itself." (Father dixit). On sex: "-Fortunately, women don't take it half as seriously as we do. Otherwise the human race would die out." (At the rate they are aborting today, for sure). -You joke about everything. -You will too when you see your own foolishness.
Father and son represent opposite world/life views. Clearly Bergman prefers the father figure over the old morals, customs and must-nots of the clery and religious minded, who are depicted as ignorant, frustrated, angry and pitiful creatures.
But then the libertine father meets his "artistic" lover. He asks her to please tell him that his 18 year-old wive Anne is either a "hopeless case or the opposite", meaning is she ever going to grow up and love him as a man-husband, instead of the father figure she sees in him, a man who rescued her from her innocent family life. The lover wants to know what he'll give her for the info. He offers hre his religious minded son as a sexual pet. She says no. Then pearls are offered, but she has enough. Whith a smile he says she'll be rewarded in heaven. And this time she reacts in anger (like he'd just mentioned a taboo word): "-I want my reward in this life!" What rings the bell to me is the violent reaction, which obviosly means something strongly for Bergman.
Why would she react like that? Because she knows there's no heaven for her? or because, literally, she wants her reward now? I'd say the fact of his mentioning heaven must have played some part in the violence of her reaction (as compared to the other 2 offers), or otherwise she would have simply rejected it likewise.
So there are very strong feelings held on religious issues as heaven. We see this "comic" confrontation of points of view on these issues and characters vrey clearly. And "comic" isn't the most appropriate word to define this film, a sad satire rather. In fact tears and sadness are all about the place.
The 4 main characters are very different. The young wive is a pure heart, sexually and mentally still a child, opposite of her husband's lover, an adult woman expert in knowing what she wants and how to barter to get it. Of course Anne, the wive, so young as she is doesn't even know she "should" want the same things the lover does. Alas, innocence. And Bergman assumes that in time she will come to want them indeed, but the husband wants her to find out by herself.
The points of view on these issues: sex, moral values, religion, are the core of the story. It's the two libertine characters who do the judging of the other two sexually deprived ones. When I say judging I mean they consider themselves the wiser ones, they know things the other two don't. The son and the wive, poor things, they don't any better, it seems to say. Is Bergman Freudian? It's pretty clear that the film depicts people who have scruples about sexual relations as considered either social inferiors, or physically undeveloped, or plain fundamentalist wackos. Immoral people seem to be the rightish kind of people for the modern world. Getting to see things as Bergman sees them is a game of engineering perversion played on the mind, devilish and with the European touch of distinction.
Wait, there's more. Bergman isn't just ridiculing Christian moral values, that would be preaching against preaching. He tosses in the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie as well. Funny how the aristocracy seems to get scot free always in this socialist films when they live as magnificently as the rich depicted here. Hypocrisy we have, yes: "-You are not ifit to have a child" says the libertine husband to his lover. And she slaps him indignantly, of course, since she also has her pride. So we find out that the unfaithful husband is not the heroe of the story. Of the two, the real dignified character seems to be the "artistic" go-getter lover. She is not a hypocrite about her profession, so that makes her a dignified prostitute.
I personally prefer Buñuel's films to Bergman's. Buñuel is a brute, an insulting, unsentimental, finger-in-the-eye sort of fellow. He'll make fun of what he despises (the hypocrisy of Catholics) so blatantly that you got to laugh with him. But Bergman is another class. More subtle. He takes the upper hand like the self-righteous leftist media does by showing first the starving black children of Africa, and then rich Wall Street brokers.
But going back to the lover, and as a way to finish, does she really do well? After all she is the loneliest character. And everyone can see she really wants to be in the young wive's shoes. Does Bergman want to make fools of ALL his chatacters? and go out scots free? Impossible. In that case he would make a fool of himself.
Description of Smiles Of A Summer Night (The Criterion Collection)
Distinguished lawyer Frederik Egerman lives with Anne, his picturesque, young wife, his son Henrik, a forlorn student of the cloth, and Petra, the flirtatious yet sensible maid. One summer evening Frederik takes Anne to see a play starring his former lover Desirée, the veteran actress with an equally seasoned reputation. With her glamorous stage entrance and one inviting smile, she sparks the lives of the parties involved into a game of love and loyalty that barely masks each player's percolating insecurities. Through witty dialogue, theatrical direction, and an ensemble cast, director Ingmar Bergman delivers a raw exhibition of human desire.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
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