Sommarnattens leende (Smiles of a Summer Night) 1955 PG
When
3.00pm, Sat 4 Mar 2017 (108 mins)Where
Gallery of Modern Art & Cinema A
About
'Smiles of a Summer Night' explores the frightening insight that it is possible for two people to love each other even when they find it impossible to live together. It also contains a bit of nostalgia, looking back at my own life and my relationship with my daughter, full of great confusion and sorrow.
Smiles of a Summer Night will screen from an archival 35mm film print.
Given his later reputation as a master of austere religious dramas, it may be surprising for many to find that Ingmar Bergman's breakthrough film was an erotic comedy about mismatched lovers set in turn-of-the-century Sweden. Yet it was the critical and commercial triumph of Smiles of a Summer Night that would finally garner Bergman true international acclaim.
His film is a comedy of errors, filled with adultery and biting witticisms. It finds a collection of friends, lovers and enemies who must correct their wayward affections over a weekend at a country manor. Full of warmth and nostalgia, the film's lavish period dressings betray the film's enormous budget – rumoured to be the largest ever for a Swedish film at the time.
PG | Mild themes, Mild sexual references
Production Credits
- Director/Script: Ingmar Bergman
- Cinematographer: Gunnar Fischer
- Editor: Oscar Rosander
- Production Company: Svensk Filmindustri
- Print Source/Rights: National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Canberra
- Year: 1955
- Runtime: 108 minutes
- Country: Sweden
- Languages: Swedish, (with English subtitles)
- Sound: Mono
- Colour: Black & White
- Screening Format: 35mm