Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

It seems be not a Bergman. but, maybe, except the language, one of social British drama from "50. it is not a question about death, meanings, relations. but a portrait of a couple. it is not provocative. only a simple story, with admirable cinematography, about people and choices and their price. a portrait of an age more than of characters. beautiful for each detail. impressive for the expected end. powerfull for splendid performance of Harriet Andersson. and for sensitive work of Lars Ekborg. a film of Stockholm. simple, realistic, touching and bitter. interesting for Ingmar Bergman art evolution but, in same measure, for the use of a strange beauty of people and places.

One of Ingmar Bergman's earlier efforts, from 1953, about a young couple who quit their jobs and run away on an impulse to spend an idyllic summer in the Stockholm archipelago. Harriet Andersson oozes youth and natural sensuality in the role of the fun-loving Monika, and Lars Ekborg smolders as Harry, the nice guy she beguiles and who always wants to do right by her. Monika is a fascinating character: she is adventurous (telling Harry "let's go away and never come back – we'll see the whole wide world" when she meets him a few minutes into the movie), romantic (crying at the movie theater as he yawns), strong (the child of a father drinks too much, and who has to fend off a guy who gropes and pinches her at her job at the grocery), and aware of her beauty (as was Bergman, her lover in real life, who along the way captures her stretching in shorts that look like a giant diaper by today's standards, frolicking in the buff down to the sea, and splayed out on the top of a motorboat). Ultimately she becomes shrewish and materialistic when the reality of their condition sets in, which makes it easy to condemn her, but in a fantastic scene, Bergman has her stare straight into the camera as brazenly as Manet's Olympia, communicating her frustration, and daring us to judge her.The film was controversial in its day for its nudity (which drew a young Woody Allen to see it), but it's got so much more than that. There is coming-of-age passion, starting with early scenes with Monika, lips parted, waiting for her lover's kiss, and building later to a wonderful moment when the couple overlook a vista and he says "We've rebelled, Monika, against all of them". There are great moments told in the eyes of Lars Ekborg, beautiful scenes utilizing reflections in the water, a romantic shot of them dancing alone on a pier (ah, youth!), and one of Monika disappearing into swaying grasses while eluding a family whose food she stole. The city of Stockholm and the natural beauty of Sweden are highlighted, and all of it makes it easy to see Bergman's talent as an emerging master filmmaker. His characters are real and nuanced, and this is far from a sentimental film, the 'summer with Monika' haunting Harry forevermore. A captivating film which certainly stands the test of time, and so good I watched it twice.

In Ingmar Bergman's 1953 film SOMMAREN MED MONIKA (The Summer with Monika), young, idealistic Harry (Lars Ekborg) meets the freespirited Monika (Harriet Andersson). Fed up with their dull stockroom jobs as midsummer approaches, they quit and and escape together to one of the myriad islands in the Stockholm archipelago. But while Harry is keen to get back to civilization and further his education in order to support the child they will soon have, Harriet thinks little of the future, pursuing her own whims of the moment. Harry is definitely the protagonist here, and receives the sympathy of the viewer as this bad girl tears his life apart.Upon its release, this film was a major contribution to Sweden's mid-century reputation as a sexually liberated place. However, that's all very much in the past. There is only one scene of (rear) nudity, and for the most part what 1950s audiences found scandalous is just some snogging that wouldn't raise eyebrows today. Still, Andersson does know how to flaunt her sex appeal, her full lips and proportioned figure, to the camera.In my opinion, this is not one of the greatest films of the auteur scene. Ingmar Bergman would go on to create a series of masterpieces that totally shook my world, but SOMMAREN MED MONIKA is a somewhat ordinary study of working class life and a morality tale much like British audiences would start getting with their kitchen sink dramas (e.g. BILLY LIAR) in the following years. There is also a totally contrived -- and rather inexplicable -- fight scene that Bergman needlessly uses to make Harry look chivalrous. Still, it is interesting to see a Sweden of severe class divisions that is now almost gone, with alcoholism-stricken families in dire poverty living alongside more fortunate Stockholm residents who keep servants. The first third of the film is almost like listening to an Allan Pettersson symphony.All in all, the film is entertaining and teaches us something about an earlier time and place, but don't think this is one of the more serious films that established Ingmar Bergman as one of the most daring and insightful filmmakers of the 20th century.

I'll say, with some reservations, that this ranks among Bergman's finest achievements. It's one of the few Bergman films in which he was not in any way involved in the writing. And the dialog is mediocre. But the story is universal to our world. Two young lovers come together, despite harsh work-place oppression and alienation, and escape to the wilderness, which for a moment, promises the transcendentally "true." When pregnancy and economic necessity rear their ugly heads, the lovers go back to urban reality. There, he becomes a drone and she becomes, well, "loose." I don't like the (I think) misogynistic tones the film takes towards the end, but I still love this work. The fact that Bergman had to work with someone else's script clearly made him dig deeper visually. The landscapes, both urban and rural, are all-important here and are unforgettable. Also, the work of the actors, and Bergman's work with them, becomes more imperative, and noticeable, in a work not written by the auteur. Scenes that could have been played, as written, as corn-ball romance become, instead, piercingly honest portrayals of awkward, inexperienced sexuality. No one is spared anything here, but that makes the film seem all the more humane... until, perhaps, the end. Whatever one makes of that ending, this remains a devastating critique of marital normativity.