Smiles of a Summer Night Film Still

Smiles of a Summer Night

Ingmar Bergman

 
Smiles of a Summer Night Criterion DVD

DVD

1 Disc

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  • Sweden
  • 1955
  • 108 minutes
  • Black and White
  • 1.33:1
  • Swedish

SYNOPSIS: After fifteen films of mostly local acclaim, the 1956 prize-winning comedy Smiles of a Summer Night at last ushered in an international audience for director Ingmar Bergman. Set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, four women and four men attempt to juggle the laws of attraction amidst their daily bourgeois life. When a weekend in the country brings them all face to face, the women ally to force the men’s hands in their matters of the heart, exposing their pretensions and insecurities along the way. Chock full of flirtatious propositions and sharp-witted wisdom delivered by such legends of the Swedish screen as Gunnar Björnstrand, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, and Ulla Jacobsson, Smiles of a Summer Night is one of film history’s great tragicomedies, a bittersweet view of the transience of human carnality.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

Anne EgermanUlla Jacobsson
Desirée ArmfeldtEva Dahlbeck
Petra, the maidHarriet Andersson
Charlotte MalcolmMargit Carlquist
Fredrik EgermanGunnar Bjornstrand
Carl-Magnus MalcolmJarl Kulle
Frid, the groomAke Fridell
Henrik EgermanBjörn Bjelvenstam
Mrs. ArmfeldtNaima Wifstrand
Beata, the cookJullan Kindahl
MallaGull Natorp
Actresses in playBibi Andersson
Actresses in playBirgitta Valberg

Credits

DirectorIngmar Bergman
ScreenplayIngmar Bergman
CinematographyGunnar Fischer
Assistant directorLennart Olsson
Production managerAllan Ekelund
Original musicErik Nordgren
ConductorEskil Eckert-Lundin
EditingOskar Rosander
SoundP.O. Pettersson
Production designP.A. Lundgren
Costume designMago
MakeupCarl M. Lundh
SupervisorGustav Roger

Disc Features

  • New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
  • Video introduction to the film by director Ingmar Bergman
  • New video conversation with historian Peter Cowie and writer Jörn Donner (producer, Fanny and Alexander)
  • Swedish theatrical trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
  • Printed booklet including a new illustrated essay by renowned theater and film critic John Simon and an essay by film critic Pauline Kael

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Smiles of a Summer Night

By Pauline KaelMay 24, 2004

Late in 1955 Ingmar Bergman made a nearly perfect work—the exquisite carnal comedy Smiles of a Summer Night. It was the distillation of elements he had worked with for Read more »