It is a performances centric movie

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fantastic!

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

While not quite one of my favourites from the supreme Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, Smiles of a Summer Night is still a film that I was captivated by and would wilfully see again. Not that there is anything wrong with it, actually there is little if anything to criticise, just that there are so many good Bergman films out there and I do have slightly more of a fondness for the more moving, haunting and a little more thought-provoking if not as accessible films of his like The Seventh Seal and Cries and Whispers. Back to Smiles of a Summer Night though, I think it is well worth seeing for the title alone, which is one of those touchingly poetic ones. But that is not the only reason to see the film. It is very elegantly made with beautiful scenery and cinematography and Bergman's direction is superb. The music is sweet and lilting, the story is swift and charming and the writing is both thoughtful and funny. The leading ladies are not just sexy but they are all great actresses and prove so in their roles, in particular Eva Dahlbeck who is appealingly mischievous and Harriet Andersson who is in a different role to Through a Glass Darkly and Cries and Whispers(which called for a darker and more poignant style of acting) but her sensuality really shines through here. Overall, extremely good. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Throughout a career that has spanned six decades, Ingmar Bergman has not been known as a director of light comedies of manners. When certain landmark titles come to mind (THE SEVENTH SEAL, PERSONA), I get images of deeply meditative poetry which, through their iconic imagery, often delve much deeper into the layers of his characters' hidden and exposed feelings and bring forth subtle yet multiple meanings to his unique stories. So when coming across one of his earlier works -- SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT -- with only the knowledge of it being the movie that brought him into international acclaim on the cusp of THE SEVENTH SEAL and little else, I was prepared to view yet another of his ultra-serious tapestries of reflection that would leave me thinking and thinking and thinking.However, I was most surprised when, from the get-go, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT opened in on a high note. A farce in the tradition of the most refined English or French comedies, sharply influenced by Shakespeare, it opens in on three couples about to realize who they are in relation to one another, and to the person they are meant to be with. Frederik Egerman is married to Anne, a woman about the age of his son Henrik. He has not been able to consummate his marriage to her because he prefers she remain a virgin. However, he has a lover in Desiree, a stage actress who reveals to him her son is also named Frederik (for reasons that are clear to us, even though she never verbalizes it). She is also carrying on an affair with Count Malcolm who is married to Charlotte, though the last two probably look like they would rather be divorced as they seem to hate each other. At the same time, Petra, the maid, is brazenly offering herself to Henrik -- the woman literally oozes sex in every scene she's in.These characters converge at a dinner at Desiree's estate that she's planned because she wants to take matters into her own hand in regards to these people, also because she has an invested interest at hand. Her mother has prepared a love potion and has served it to her guests, who drink from it, bringing forth unusual consequences to them all.Deliciously wicked from start to finish, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT crackles with kinetic energy, a razor-sharp script, and strong characters. The men are all clueless of what is around them which makes for a splendid farce. The women, on the other hand, all fare much better in Bergman's movie since all are variations of female assertiveness which places them in a position ages ahead of the time-line of the story, and therefore, the ultimate controllers of destiny. Magic is a feminine science, so it's appropriate when Desiree's mother -- a woman who has a morbid sense of humor -- dictates to her hapless guests the ingredients of her potion. Even Anne, who at first shows signs of being much too sensitive for her own good, toughens up quite a bit when Charlotte comes to visit and lets her in on her husband's affair by throwing it right back and effectively silencing her into dullness.A beautiful and quite touching comedy, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT is a movie that makes for a perfect introduction into Ingmar Bergman's work even when it's the only flat-out slapstick he's directed and all of his movies following this one are much graver in nature. It features his trademark closeups of actors facing the camera, all conveying more than their faces would register initially, which has become the benchmark of Bergman's cinema.

Having seen the Musical version of this film, A Little Night Music, several times I watched the movie with one eye on how faithfully it had been adapted and the other as if I were adapting it into a musical and looking for suitable places to 'spot' numbers. On balance I found the adaptation remarkably faithful to Bergman with perhaps the character of Desiree's mother enlarged slightly and all the names and most of the situations retained. Not being so informed about Bergman and his oeuvre as I might be I had somehow formed the impression that he made this light comedy quite some time after and as something of a break from and a contrast to his early dark work like Seventh Seal so I was surprised to read here that Smiles in fact preceded Seal. It should not, of course matter where a given title occurs in a filmmakers catalogue all that should matter is how well he made the film in question. Overall in this case I'd say pretty well. After a slight irritation of the clumsy exposition in which two of the clerks employed by the chief character, lawyer Fredrik Egerman, tell each other (and us) that 1) Fredrik has two tickets for the theatre where the star of the show, Desiree Arnfeld, used to be his mistress and 2) that he will be going with his new wife, Anne, who is half his age and leaving his son, Henrik, by a previous marriage, at home, it settled down into a well observed comedy of manners owing a little to a current American film, Baby Doll, in its central story of a child bride who refuses to consummate the marriage but then spinning off another series of lovers both star-crossed and otherwise. The cast reads like a roll call of the Bergman stock company, Harriet Andersson, Ulla Jacobsson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Eva Dahlbeck etc and not unnaturally they play as an ensemble. As several other people have said here this is as good and as painless an introduction to Bergman as any.

A rare comedy from director Ingmar Bergman.It takes place at the turn of the century. Fredrik Egerman is an old, cynical man who is married to beautiful, young (20) Anne. She can't have sex with him--she's too afraid. He knows and agrees to be patient. He also has a son from a previous marriage (Henrik) who is attracted to Anne. He's also attracted to the maid Petra. Then there's Desiree, a former mistress of Fredrik who is now sleeping with Malcolm (who's also married) and still attracted to Fredrik. Got all that? They all end up spending a summer weekend at a beautiful house in the woods. Things come to a head.I've always wanted to see this--the title alone is beautiful. I did see it in a revival theatre in the 1980s--I hated it. The print was lousy and edited! During a fairly explicit (for 1955) talk about sex the subtitles disappeared! Just saw it again--unedited and in pretty good shape. While I don't think this is a masterpiece (I'm not a Bergman fan) I did like this.It is funny--but pretty subtle. The relationships are all complicated but you do have them straight by the end. What's really good about this film is how Bergman treats (and shows) his female characters. Except for Anne (but she changes) they're strong, stand up for themselves and find men and their ways amusing--some of Desirre's looks were very funny. Also, in the form of Petra, they want sex and have no problem letting men know. For 1955 audiences this must have been shocking--Petra (almost) bares her breast and the sexual talk between women is very frank.The acting is good by everybody...but the film is lacking in romance. I never believed any of these characters loved each other. Also it's slow-moving but it all ends happily. So I did like it--I give it an 8.Later musicalized by Stephen Sondheim as "A Little Night Music" and disastrously remade (sort of) in Woody Allen's "A Midsummers Night Sex Comedy". Avoid that one at all costs.