Rating: 
Summary: Bergman's romantic comedy
Review: "Smiles of a Summer Night" is probably a reason why Bergman has made so few comedies. It isn't at all bad, though - I'd give it 9/10 stars for staying entertaining throughout, but had the script--or rather, SOME LINES--been adapted or dramatized a bit, this story could easily have been presented as another one of Bergman's philosophical dramas. Russian roulette, suicide, and adultery (mistresses and wives meeting under social circumstances) are a few things involved - this doesn't sound very much like 1955 comedy ingredients, does it? ...well, my laughs weren't always silent; at times I was highly amused, and I can see how he did pull off something new in cinema with this film, but Bergman certainly has more talent in making movies that can't be presented in their opening as "A romantic comedy". I doubt that this will disappoint any dedicated Bergman fan, though, or that this edition will disappoint any costumer; Criterion always does great restoration jobs.
Rating: 
Summary: LITTLE COUNTRY WEAKNESSES.......
Review: An amazing COMEDY OF MANNERS by auteur INGMAR BERGMAN.Grand Dame NAIMA WIFSTRAND's stellar turn as the 'dowager aunt' who ties everything together in the misplaced tale of mixed-up love [almost along the lines of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' - Nordic style] is well-worth this admission price. Still charming after all these years, it's chiefly a tale about husband, young wife, mistress [read famous actress], disgruntled son, lady-friend with paranoid [homicidal?] husband, throw in a few randy servants, a revolving bed [those sconces!], attempted suicide [very necessary to the plot line], mild hysteria, and there you have it! Very well adapted as "A Little Night Music" - the original still holds up rather well! It's especially noteworthy for its period perfect costumes, sets, and art direction. The performances? Always superior - but then we do have Master Bergman orchestrating it all! But Oh, that country air!
Rating:
Summary: This movie is marvelous
Review: Before I saw this movie, I was definately anti-Bergman. When I heard his name, I thought only of brooding Sweds playing chess with Death. After I saw "Smiles of a Summer Night", my whole perception of Bergman changed. It is an charming film about love and it calls into question just how well we can judge for ourselves who our best partner is. Now I know why Woody Allen loves Bergman so much.
Rating:
Summary: Bergman's brilliant comedy
Review: Despite Ingmar Bergman's reputation for darkly serious films, his breakthrough film is a lighthearted comedy about the weird human ways when it comes to love, and relationships. Every scene is delightful, with discourses and puns between men and women talking about love. As well Bergman throws in philosophy even though this film is a comedy. Fredrik is a lawyer in Sweden at the turn of the century, who lives with a very young wife, and son, as well as a house maid. After Fredrik visits his ex mistress, and has a quarrel with her lover-friend, she invites them, and their family to her mothers estate for a quirky night with quite a few surprises and revelations of everyone's true feelings. As everyone starts to feel helpless with their lovers, the film ends in a great spirit reminiscent of classical comedy. Anyone who appreciates comedies needs to see this film, as it is a masterpiece of the genre. It won the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prize for Best Comedy, and appeared on numerous Top Ten lists. Bergman masterfully directs scene after scene of humorous insight into the characters, and general humans, odd dealings in love. The characters range from young flirting girls, to serious virtuous Christians. The acting is wonderful as always, from Bergman's team of actors. I recommend this very much. If only someone would release a good DVD of this classic, we all can enjoy it. 5 stars. Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Bergman comedy?
Review: I agree that this is not a comedy.And it is not an "easy-to-watch-Bergman" movie.It's get better after a couple times,and it's rewarding like every other Bergman film.Gunnar Björnstrand (the best Bergman actor) stars on the first major international success for the Master Director.I'll give this 5 out of 5...It's Bergman! No other director have this guy's body of work.
Rating:
Summary: SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT: the lighter side of Ingmar Bergman
Review: I came to Ingmar Bergman films in the mid-sixties, as a teen, and liked them because they seemed so stark, so unlike the typical Hollywood fluff. They called 'em art films, but I liked Bergman because of the characters and the stories, not to mention the look and feel of his films. It was only when Criterion Collection released SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT this year that I finally got to see a film I had heard a lot about but never bothered to seek out. Criterion's other Bergman films were all must-haves so I ordered Smiles right away. (I have seen Sondheim's A Little Night Music on stage some three times and saw the film, so I suppose this Bergman source film seemed less unknown than his others. And, by the way, after seeing Smiles, I appreciate even more how nicely Sondheim et al adapted this film.) True to Criterion's high standards and TLC in presenting its films, Smiles looks as good as it must have when it was released almost fifty years ago. This light comedy involves several pairs of lovers who, for a variety of reasons, might be better off if the deck were shuffled and they ended up in another pairing. Aging actress, married lover; aging lawyer, too-young virgin wife; tortured soul son of lawyer, saucy maid temptress, and lawyer's too-young virgin wife; wife of military man who knows husband has mistresses, including the aging actress. Shuffle the deck a few times and a lot can happen in a movie with characters such as these. Sondheim wrote the entire score to A Little Night Music in waltz tempo, which perfectly captures the whirling intricacies of the relationships. Bergman started it all with a very entertaining and perfectly cast film, full of both comedy and the human dimension of mismatched people who may be investing too much energy in the wrong person. It all sounds confusing, but, trust me, you'll enjoy the heck out of this picture. If you think Bergman is just The Silence, Cries and Whispers and Winter Light, you're in for a real treat with SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT.
Rating:
Summary: A Little Night Music, Yes. Woody Allen, No.
Review: I concur with all of the above gentlemen's review except I take issue with one important detail: although the plot of this film DOES seem to slightly resemble Woody Allen's "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy," Allen claims that his film is NOT based on the Bergman film, and that it is an erroneous notion (set forth by a newspaper columnist) that exists to this day. To quote Allen himself in Eric Lax's fine biography, "[Smiles of a Summer Night] is one of the very, very few of Bergman's that I wasn't crazy about. . .it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. There's no resemblance between the two" (Woody Allen, Lax, pp.313-314).
This Bergman film stands on its own merits. And yes, it IS the basis for the Sondheim musical, "A Little Night Music," although I think this film, with its haunting images of rural summer peccadillos, is the better execution.
Admittedly, Allen invokes Bergman in several of films, figuratively, as in the homage to "Wild Strawberries" in the film "Crimes and Misdemeanors," when Judah returns to his family dining room and "observes" his family's behavior from over 50 years ago, and literally, in his repeated use of Bergman cinematographer Sven Nyquist.
Rating:
Summary: Raunchy, good-looking and funny
Review: I'm Swedish, and 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 and explained that the sense of humour was on the wry side. We both loved it though - cinematographically it's a feast, the casting and acting is top class, and the plotting is effortlessly genius. It's so well played and 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, and other than reading subtitles, you don't have to make an effort to love it. I wish they still made movies like this.
Rating:
Summary: Don't look back it from Bergman's "second period"....
Review: If you're a fan of Bergman's works about psychological abuse, personal disaster and disintegrating relationships, this film is definitely not for you. But it reaches a hand across to his late work, sharing a kind of sunlit-but-shadowed atmosphere that's both in the physical environment, and in the people he displays. Less stiff than Bergman's other early attempts at humor (The Devil's Stye, for example), the storyline is engaging, the characters interesting and all-too-human; and the outdoors scenes really bring some life to a director who was all too easily stagebound. There are few outright laughs in this film, but a great many smiles and a warm willingness to embrace humanity with all its flaws. Definitely a film to treasure, and one that bears repeated viewing. I'd put it fairly close to Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal for its success at creating a film with a unique tone and attitude, in which all the parts contribute magnificently to the whole.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Deceits in Terrific Bergman Comedy...
Review: Ingmar Bergman directed a romantic comedy when he filmed Smiles of a Summer Night that is as playful as Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream and is set in a small scale backdrop of Renoir's Rules of the Game (1939). Despite the similarities of other stories Bergman creates a unique comedy that is full of conspiring intrigue as it revolves around a small number of characters at the turn of the century in a small Swedish town.
Fredrik Egerman (Gunnar Björnstrand), a successful middle-aged lawyer and former widower, has remarried with Anne (Ulla Jacobsson) who is at least twenty years younger than him. Fredrik's son, Henrik (Björn Bjelfvenstam), from his previous marriage, is of the same age as Anne and has recently arrived home from completing his theological examinations. Petra, the family maid, flirts with Henrik as he expresses his liking for the opposite sex. As a consequence, Henrik is struggling with an overwhelming inner guilt originating from his incapability to live by his lofty values stemming from his Christian faith. In addition, the prominent actress Desiree Armfeldt (Eva Dahlbeck), a previous lover to Fredrik, is performing at the town theater. Fredrik makes nightly visit to Desiree which puts him in harms way as Desiree's current lover, Carl Magnus (Jarl Kulle), a military officer known for his success in duels visits at the same time. However, this is just the beginning for all the predicaments that Fredrik is about to experience. Smiles of a Summer Night is a well-written comedy with several subplots that drive the main theme, love, forward as it displays Bergman's wide range of story telling. Bergman displays a simple story which becomes complex as the characters are continually dishonest. It is the profound level of deceitfulness in the story that produces intrigue and brings about the comedy. As the final scene fades away in memory, the audience has gone through a first class cinematic experience that will lighten and enlighten those who participated.
|
