Summer with Monika (1953)
(Sommaren med Monika)
Country: SV
Technical: bw 97m
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg
Synopsis:
Stockholm, spring: a young man living with his father strikes up a relationship with the brazen, manipulative greengrocer's assistant. Summer: they quit their jobs and live idyllically off the father's boat among the inlets of the archipelago, until supplies run low. Autumn: expectant, they return to the city and a far from roseate future.
Review:
Seen in context, at first sight Summer with Monika has nothing much new, just another unhappy love story like Port of Call, Three Strange Loves and To Joy. What distinguishes it, and brought it international attention, was the languorous eroticism (no doubt influenced by the off-screen affair between star and director) and a free use of impressionistic (i.e. non-narrative) shots, of the kind that Lean turned to kitsch in Ryan's Daughter. There are also one or two moments of sublimity, helped by ominous music, such as the long close-up of Andersson gazing ambiguously into camera. Bergman's eye for social realism is as keen as ever, with both the young man's contrasting workplace companions and the girl's need to escape the daily groping of her male superiors, or the cramped confines of a family home complete with drunken father, well captured. Years later, however, all one remembers of the film are the sundrenched shots of Monika on the island with the boat, before the relationship turns sour, which appropriately enough is also true for the hero.
(Sommaren med Monika)
Country: SV
Technical: bw 97m
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg
Synopsis:
Stockholm, spring: a young man living with his father strikes up a relationship with the brazen, manipulative greengrocer's assistant. Summer: they quit their jobs and live idyllically off the father's boat among the inlets of the archipelago, until supplies run low. Autumn: expectant, they return to the city and a far from roseate future.
Review:
Seen in context, at first sight Summer with Monika has nothing much new, just another unhappy love story like Port of Call, Three Strange Loves and To Joy. What distinguishes it, and brought it international attention, was the languorous eroticism (no doubt influenced by the off-screen affair between star and director) and a free use of impressionistic (i.e. non-narrative) shots, of the kind that Lean turned to kitsch in Ryan's Daughter. There are also one or two moments of sublimity, helped by ominous music, such as the long close-up of Andersson gazing ambiguously into camera. Bergman's eye for social realism is as keen as ever, with both the young man's contrasting workplace companions and the girl's need to escape the daily groping of her male superiors, or the cramped confines of a family home complete with drunken father, well captured. Years later, however, all one remembers of the film are the sundrenched shots of Monika on the island with the boat, before the relationship turns sour, which appropriately enough is also true for the hero.
(Sommaren med Monika)
Country: SV
Technical: bw 97m
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg
Synopsis:
Stockholm, spring: a young man living with his father strikes up a relationship with the brazen, manipulative greengrocer's assistant. Summer: they quit their jobs and live idyllically off the father's boat among the inlets of the archipelago, until supplies run low. Autumn: expectant, they return to the city and a far from roseate future.
Review:
Seen in context, at first sight Summer with Monika has nothing much new, just another unhappy love story like Port of Call, Three Strange Loves and To Joy. What distinguishes it, and brought it international attention, was the languorous eroticism (no doubt influenced by the off-screen affair between star and director) and a free use of impressionistic (i.e. non-narrative) shots, of the kind that Lean turned to kitsch in Ryan's Daughter. There are also one or two moments of sublimity, helped by ominous music, such as the long close-up of Andersson gazing ambiguously into camera. Bergman's eye for social realism is as keen as ever, with both the young man's contrasting workplace companions and the girl's need to escape the daily groping of her male superiors, or the cramped confines of a family home complete with drunken father, well captured. Years later, however, all one remembers of the film are the sundrenched shots of Monika on the island with the boat, before the relationship turns sour, which appropriately enough is also true for the hero.