Sommarnattens leende = Smiles of a summer night

At a turn-of-the-century midsummer’s night house party the eight main characters resolve themselves into four couples through a continually shifting kaleidoscope in which the changing relationships embody different attitudes to love. Stylisation of gesture, movement and composition is both gracefully balletic and atmospherically operatic, Mozartian in the balancing of sympathy and irony Stylistically the film reflects Bergman’s acknowledged discovery of Japanese director Mizoguchi’s atmospheric long shots. He was not particularly interested in psychological plausibility in providing explanation of the conditions that might make lasting love possible, a compromise between nature and social convention. Recalling Stiller’s Erotikon (1921), Bergman’s tragi-comedy has been compared with Renoir’s even more Mozartian ‘La Regle du Jeu’ and Ophuls’ bitter-sweet ‘La Ronde’. Also available on VHS.

Credits: Director, script, Ingmar Bergman ; photography, Gunnar Fischer ; music, Erik Nordgren ; editing, Oscar Roander.
Cast: Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dalhbeck, Harriet Andersson, Margit Carlquist, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Jarl Kulle, Ake Fridell, Bjorn Bjelvenstam.