Ingmar Bergman

Smiles of a Summer Night

Smiles of a Summer Night

After fifteen films that received mostly local acclaim, the comedy Smiles of a Summer Night at last ushered in an international audience for Ingmar Bergman. In turn-of-the-century Sweden, four men and four women attempt to navigate the laws of attraction. During a weekend in the country, the women collude to force the men’s hands in matters of the heart, exposing their pretensions and insecurities along the way. Chock-full of flirtatious propositions and sharp witticisms delivered by such Swedish screen legends as Gunnar Björnstrand and Harriet Andersson, Smiles of a Summer Night is one of cinema’s great erotic comedies.

Film Info

  • Sweden
  • 1955
  • 109 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • Swedish
  • Spine #237

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New video introduction to the film by director Ingmar Bergman
  • New video conversation between Bergman scholar Peter Cowie and writer Jörn Donner, executive producer of Fanny and Alexander
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by theater and film critic John Simon and a 1961 review by film critic Pauline Kael

New cover by Eric Skillman

Purchase Options

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema

Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema

Blu-ray Box Set

30 Discs

$239.96

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New video introduction to the film by director Ingmar Bergman
  • New video conversation between Bergman scholar Peter Cowie and writer Jörn Donner, executive producer of Fanny and Alexander
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by theater and film critic John Simon and a 1961 review by film critic Pauline Kael

New cover by Eric Skillman

Smiles of a Summer Night
Cast
Ulla Jacobsson
Anne Egerman
Eva Dahlbeck
Desirée Armfeldt
Harriet Andersson
Petra, the maid
Margit Carlqvist
Charlotte Malcolm
Gunnar Björnstrand
Fredrik Egerman
Jarl Kulle
Carl-Magnus Malcolm
Åke Fridell
Frid, the groom
Björn Bjelfvenstam
Henrik Egerman
Naima Wifstrand
Mrs. Armfeldt
Jullan Kindahl
Beata, the cook
Gull Natorp
Malla
Bibi Andersson
Actresses in play
Birgitta Valberg
Actresses in play
Credits
Director
Ingmar Bergman
Screenplay
Ingmar Bergman
Cinematography
Gunnar Fischer
Editing
Oscar Rosander
Assistant director
Lennart Olsson
Production manager
Allan Ekelund
Original music
Erik Nordgren
Conductor
Eskil Eckert-Lundin
Sound
P. O. Pettersson
Production design
P. A. Lundgren
Costume design
Mago
Makeup
Carl M. Lundh
Supervisor
Gustav Roger

Current

Smiles of a Summer Night: Midsummer Merry-Go-Round
Smiles of a Summer Night: Midsummer Merry-Go-Round

In the midst of a tumultuous period in his life and career, Ingmar Bergman made one of his most ebullient comedies.

By John Simon

A Half-Century of Friendship with Finnish Renaissance Man Jörn Donner

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A Half-Century of Friendship with Finnish Renaissance Man Jörn Donner

The prolific writer and filmmaker passed earlier this year, leaving behind an enduring legacy that has shaped Finland’s cultural scene.

By Peter Cowie

Eva Dahlbeck, a “Battleship of Femininity”

Ingmar’s Actors

Eva Dahlbeck, a “Battleship of Femininity”

This diva of the screen brought a touch of elegance and no-nonsense wit to her roles in Waiting Women, Smiles of a Summer Night, and other Bergman gems.

A Love Roundelay in Des Moines

Repertory Picks

A Love Roundelay in Des Moines
Tonight, summertime comes early to Des Moines, as the city’s Fleur Cinema presents a free screening of Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 Smiles of a Summer Night. After a succession of box-office failures, and facing romantic and financial turmoil in his per…
The Fierce Candor of Bibi Andersson

Flashbacks

The Fierce Candor of Bibi Andersson

The author recalls his encounters with the great Swedish actress.

By Peter Cowie

Through the Years With Bergman

Flashbacks

Through the Years With Bergman

The author recounts the story of his friendship with the great filmmaker.

By Peter Cowie

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Explore

Ingmar Bergman

Writer, Director

Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman

The Swedish auteur began his artistic career in the theater but eventually navigated toward film—"the great adventure," as he called it—initially as a screenwriter and then as a director. Simply put, in the fifties and sixties, the name Ingmar Bergman was synonymous with European art cinema. Yet his incredible run of successes in that era—including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and The Virgin Spring, haunting black-and-white elegies on the nature of God and death—merely paved the way for a long and continuously dazzling career that would take him from the daring “Silence of God” trilogy (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence) to the existential terrors of Cries and Whispers to the family epic Fanny and Alexander, with which he “retired” from the cinema. Bergman died in July 2007, leaving behind one of the richest bodies of work in the history of cinema.