''Smiles of a Summer Night'' ( sv, Sommarnattens leende) is a 1955

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was shown at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. In 2005 ''TIME'' magazine ranked it one of the 100 greatest films since 1923. The film's plot—which involves some couples who switch partners on a summer night—has been adapted many times, particularly as the theatrical musical ''

A Little Night Music ''A Little Night Music'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a ...

'' by Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler and Harold Prince, which opened on Broadway in 1973, and as

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

's film ''

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy ''A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy'' is a 1982 American sex comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen, starring Allen and Mia Farrow. The plot is loosely based on Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman's 1955 comedy film ''Smiles of a Summer Night' ...

'' (1982).

Plot

The film takes place in Sweden around the turn of the twentieth century. Fredrik Egerman is a middle-aged lawyer married to a 19-year-old beauty, Anne. Their two-year marriage is still unconsummated, due to Anne's reluctance. Fredrik has a son, Henrik, from his marriage to his late first wife. Henrik is in his early twenties and is studying to be a minister but is currently tormented by his love for his step-mother, who secretly loves him in return. Henrik is distracting himself from his urges by attempting an inconclusive affair with Fredrik's lusty young servant, Petra. Between his two marriages, Fredrik had an affair with a prominent stage actress, the beautiful Desiree Armfeldt, but she broke off the relationship. Desiree now has a young son named Fredrik, born shortly after her affair with Fredrik Egerman. (It is implied, but never directly stated, that little Fredrik Armfeldt is the son of Fredrik Egerman.) Desiree is now having an affair with an army officer, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm. The Count's wife, Charlotte, is an old friend of Anne Egerman. Fredrik goes to see Desiree one night to pour out his marital troubles to her and ask for her help. Fredrik falls into a puddle outside Desiree's house, and Desiree dresses him in the Count's nightshirt. The violently jealous Count shows up and orders Fredrik to leave. After Fredrik goes, the Count and Desiree argue and subsequently decide to part amicably. When the Count returns home, he tells Charlotte about the encounter and orders her to tell Anne Egerman about Fredrik's supposed infidelity (though no infidelity actually occurred). When Charlotte visits Anne, she confesses that she loves the Count despite everything and would do anything to be loved in return. To solve these woes, Desiree has her mother invite all the characters to her country house for Midsummer Night, the shortest night of the year, a traditional observance in Sweden, when many party-goers stay awake all night until dawn. Desiree and Charlotte become temporary allies. Henrik and Anne, unexpectedly finding themselves alone together in a bedroom, consummate their relationship and elope with the assistance of Petra and her new lover Frid, another servant. Charlotte then joins Fredrik in the garden pavilion. Learning his wife is with Fredrik, the Count bursts in and challenges Fredrik to a game of Russian roulette. Fredrik loses but the Count had loaded the revolver with soot so neither party was ever in danger. The Count reunites with his wife, his feelings for her renewed by his jealousy. Desiree comforts Fredrik and he asks her not to leave him. The dilemmas of the four pairs of lovers appear to be happily resolved in the course of a night, said by Frid to have smiled three smiles upon them all.

Cast

* Ulla Jacobsson – Anne Egerman * Eva Dahlbeck – Desiree Armfeldt * Harriet Andersson – Petra * Margit Carlqvist – Countess Charlotte Malcolm *

Gunnar Björnstrand Knut Gunnar Johanson (13 November 1909 – 24 May 1986) was a Swedish actor known for his frequent work with writer and director Ingmar Bergman. Biography Björnstrand was born Knut Gunnar Johanson in Stockholm as son of actor Oscar Johanson a ...

– Fredrik Egerman *

Jarl Kulle Jarl Lage Kulle (28 February 1927 – 3 October 1997) was a Swedish film and stage actor and director, and father of Maria Kulle. Kulle was born in the village of Truedstorp, outside Ekeby, Sweden, and was the son of the merchant Nils Kulle a ...

– Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm *

Åke Fridell Åke Fridell (23 June 1919 – 26 August 1985) was a Swedish film actor. He was born in Gävle, Sweden and died in Stockholm. Selected filmography * ''The Old Clock at Ronneberga'' (1944) - Legal clerk at the mayor's party * ''Flickan och ...

– Frid *

Björn Bjelfvenstam Björn Bjelfvenstam (born 19 February 1929) is a Swedish film actor. He was born in Uppsala, Sweden. Bjelfvenstam began his acting career in the theater in Uppsala. He studied first with the Axel Witzanskys theater school from 1949-1950. Later, ...

– Henrik Egerman *

Naima Wifstrand Naima Wifstrand (; 4 September 1890 – 23 October 1968) was a Swedish film actress, operetta singer, troubadour, director and composer. In her later years, she was cast in several supporting roles in Ingmar Bergman films. Biography Born Siri ...

– Mrs. Armfeldt *

Jullan Kindahl Jullan Kindahl (12 April 1885 – 18 April 1979) was a Swedish actress. Born Julia Carolina Carlsson, she worked as an actress from 1900s until the 1960s. She appeared in Swedish theatres like the Hippodromen in Malmö, the Malmö City Theatre i ...

– Beata *

Gull Natorp Gull Natorp (10 January 1880 – 30 April 1962) was a Swedish film actress. She appeared in more than 70 films between 1913 and 1956. Selected filmography * ''Skottet'' (1914) - Maid * ''Hans hustrus förflutna'' (1915) - Countess Flemming ...

– Malla *

Birgitta Valberg Birgitta Valberg (16 December 1916 – 29 March 2014) was a Swedish actress. She was best known for her work in several Ingmar Bergman films made over a 30-year period, including the Bergman produced ''Paradise Place'' (1977). For her role in ...

– Actress * Bibi Andersson – Actress

Production

''Smiles of a Summer Night'' was filmed on location at Jordberga Castle in

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne ...

and at

Svensk Filmindustri SF Studios is a Swedish film and television production and distribution company (both Swedish and international) with headquarters in Stockholm and local offices in Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki and London. The studio is owned by Nordic media cong ...

's Filmstaden in Råsunda, Stockholm, beginning 28 June 1955 and completed 29 August 1955, as well as two days in November 1955.

Release

The film premiered at the Red Mill ( sv, Röda Kvarn) cinema in Stockholm on 26 December 1955.

Reception

''Smiles of a Summer Night'' opened to highly positive reviews and is viewed favorably today. The film ranked 6th on Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 Films of the Year List in 1956. The film won the Bodil Award for Best European Film in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

. It was nominated for a

BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...

in Best Film From Any Source category in

. It has a 100% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. In 1996, ''Smiles of a Summer Night'' was included in Movieline Magazine's "100 Greatest Foreign Films". The film was included in film critic Roger Ebert's list of "

The Great Movies ''The Great Movies'' is the name of several publications, both online and in print, from the film critic Roger Ebert. The object was, as Ebert put it, to "make a tour of the landmarks of the first century of cinema." ''The Great Movies'' was pu ...

" in 2012 who gave it four stars out of four. Film critic

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

called the film "a nearly perfect work" writing "The film is bathed in beauty, removed from the banalities of short skirts and modern-day streets and shops, and removed in time, it draws us closer." In 2012 the film was voted at number twenty on the 25 best Swedish films of all time list by a poll of 50 film critics and academics conducted by film magazine FLM. When

Stanley Cavell Stanley Louis Cavell (; September 1, 1926 – June 19, 2018) was an American philosopher. He was the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. He worked in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, an ...

saw ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', he was so affected that he returned home and wrote about it the rest of that night. The experience led him to explore the intersection between his field, philosophy, and film.Philosophy and Film Criticism
from ''Conversations with Steve Carell''. 2002. Accessed January 17, 2021.

References

External links

* * * *
''Smiles of a Summer Night''
an essay by

at the Criterion Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Smiles Of A Summer Night 1955 films Swedish comedy films 1950s Swedish-language films Swedish black-and-white films 1950s sex comedy films Adultery in films Films set in the 1890s Films set in country houses Films directed by Ingmar Bergman Films with screenplays by Ingmar Bergman Films scored by Erik Nordgren Films shot in Sweden 1955 comedy films Films set in Sweden 1950s Swedish films