Review: Smiles of a Summer Night

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

Written by: Ingmar Bergman

Starring: Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, Margit Carlqvist, Gunnar Björnstrand

Rating: [5/5]

Manipulation of human emotion comes at such ease for some people in the way they can play people like a fiddle. This feat gets even easier when it involves the powerful emotion of love but the even stronger one of lust. All of this gets tangled up in a right mess in the effortlessly hilarious and poignant Smiles of a Summer Night. The best comedic effort by Ingmar Bergman and one where one can bask in the brilliance of its screenplay and some hilarious performances. 

Well-known attorney Fredrik Egerman (Gunnar Björnstrand) struggles with his young wife Anne (Ulla Jacobsson) when she learns of Fredrik’s past affections for famous actor Desiree (Eva Dahlbeck), who’s currently the mistress of Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Jarl Kulle). Unsatisfied with her romantic situation, Desiree invites all parties involved to her mother’s house to try and manipulate the situation to her and everyone’s liking. 

Comedies by Ingmar Bergman have this specialty to them in the electricity found in the screenplay and how its wittiness allows for the creation of some incredible characters. Through this feature, the characters we receive all enter the story with their motives, even if some start unclear at first. We then have this collision of sexual energy sitting right on the surface with several interactions and when that’s in the air all bets are off on what will transpire in the story. We receive this spectrum in these characters in their openness to speak on their sexual desire allowing for quite the contrast in conversations. 

Of them all, Harriet Andersson’s portrayal of the maid Petra stands out amongst the rest. A Bergman regular, Andersson has always possessed this carnal physicality to her roles in the Swedish director’s films and she does it once again. Not only a woman openly horny and willing to talk about sex but also someone completely unserious about everything happening in the film as opposed to the stodginess demonstrated by all others. As a maid Petra has no need to give off an appearance like the bourgeoisie and this freedom allows Andersson to have some fun with this character and she does a splendid job in the process, which comes to no surprise. Her depiction, as well as Frid (Åke Fridell), displays Bergman’s love for the working class and how they serve as fun characters to spend time with, which he contrasts very well with the other characters and the prim and properness they must imbue at all times because of image. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have Henrik (Björn Bjelfvenstam), Fredrik’s son who seeks to be a man of the cloth but struggles with the sexual desires he possesses. His impotence with the women he attempts to seduce serves the perfect folly for someone as sexually liberated as Petra in the way she navigates this story making for some comedic scenes held between the pair towards the beginning. His constant seriousness and her consistent silliness stand as the two poles of this story with everyone else sitting in the in-between for various reasons. 

Everyone else must keep up appearances as they try to engage in scandalous relationships even if some carry a level of carelessness. At the center of it is the actor Desiree Armfeldt and how she has the attention of the two married men in the movie and how their respective wives desperately want their husbands to remain loyal to them. This provides for deals and negotiations to take place when each of these characters sit under the same roof and we just know something will go off and it does in glorious style. From wagers on who can seduce who and which pairings will prevail in the end as compared to who came together for the soiree. The drama and hijinks certainly do not reach the same manner as The Rules of the Game in the extreme consequences but certainly much funnier. 

Bergman’s script sharpness allows for a piercing of these characters and the circumstance that brings them all together in the way it calls out their blatant hypocrisy. A type of comedic writing that does not necessarily cause uproarious laughter when watching it but genuinely carries some fantastic humor in its prodding of these characters. You have the men who carry this sense of pride in them as well as a possessiveness of the women in their lives whether it be their wives or the mistress they wish to keep. Then you have the poor unassuming wives in Anne and Charlotte (Margit Carlqvist), who just desperately want the unflinching love of their husbands and find themselves in this mess of theirs along with Petra who just likes the fun this situation presents to her. 

Through the actions of these characters, we get a strong juxtaposition between concrete actions and the implication of them and how the truth of the matter becomes immaterial after a while because of the damage already done. It allows for whispers to have the ability to deal the same damage as a sword through your heart as a kernel of doubt begins to pop and occupy more space in the minds of these characters causing them to rely on drastic actions to receive the end result they feel they deserve. This selfishness shows itself through these and you can certainly see why, especially when looking at the women in this story and where they stand on a societal level. 

Thoroughly vivacious and searing through its screenplay, Smiles of a Summer Night takes us through a wild evening filled with jealousy, sexual tension, and unabashed entertainment as we delve into the personal lives of these individuals. Taking place on the shortest night of the year because of the lovely geography of Sweden, it sets everything up for plenty of debauchery to take place, alliances to build, and trust to shatter. Ingmar Bergman delivers his finest comedic film in this feature and allows his sense of humor in his love for the working class and mockery of the bourgeois stand strong in such an entertaining film.