SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT
Directed & Written by: Ingmar Bergman.
Produced by: Allan Ekelund.
Director of Photography: Gunnar Fischer.
Edited by: Oscar Rosander.
Music by: Erik Nordgren.
Released by: Criterion Collection.
Language: Swedish.
Country of Origin: Sweden. 108 min. Not Rated.
With: Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Margit Carlquist, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand & Jarl Kulle.
DVD Features: Video introduction by Ingmar Bergman. Video conversation with historian Peter Cowie and writer Jörn Donner. New high-definition digital transer. New & improved English subtitles. Booklet with a new illustrated essay by critic John Simon and an essay by critic Pauline Kael. Trailer.

Ingmar Bergman wrote and directed Smiles of a Summer Night just before he delivered his brooding masterpiece The Seventh Seal. The contrast is remarkable: only two years before Max von Sydow's knight played out his futile endgame with Death, Bergman had his ensemble cavorting about the grounds of a country house in the perpetual light of a Swedish summer evening. Yet the two films are not entirely dissimilar. Just as The Seventh Seal was leavened by doses of graveyard humor, so the comedy of Smiles is shot through with melancholy reflections on love's brevity. Revealing the diverse and ambiguous emotions of his characters, his work is far richer than his reputation for gloominess suggests. This 1955 film provides a shimmering counterpoint to its successors.

Bergman's sharp comic dialogue is a delight, but terrific acting anchors the film: Gunnar Björnstrand, noted for later performances playing figures with more existential dilemmas, delivers a nuanced portrait of the frustrated, dandyish Fredrik Egerman. He, his young wife, and his prudish son from a former marriage are invited to a country house by Desiree (Dahlbeck) - Egerman's former lover - and her mother (played magnificently by septuagenarian Naima Wifstrand). The singer's present lover and his wife are also guests. The resulting friction among these characters and the burgeoning romance between servants, played vibrantly by Harriet Andersson and Åke Fridell, propel the story to startling conclusions.

Gunnar Fischer's photography captures perfectly the dazzling light of an endless summer day, as it glimmers through trees, glistens off water, and bursts over fields. And Bergman deftly uses the constraints of place and time to focus on the absurdities and sorrows of people falling in and out of love. Every scene, from an evening at the theater to a game of Russian roulette, elicits new insight into the characters. The film is stately and unhurried, yet every shot feels essential, and the comic momentum never abates.

Extras: The extras for this film make the DVD package seem slight, particularly for a Criterion release. The introduction featuring Bergman is tantalizingly short. While the director is relaxed and forthcoming, the interview itself isn't particularly informative. (It's essentially a tease, conducted in a screening room as if Bergman is about to watch the film and comment.) The original Swedish trailer is an entertaining trifle. The conversation between film historian Peter Cowie and writer (and Fanny and Alexander executive producer) Jörn Donner provides insight into how Smiles fits into Bergman's career, and gives interesting facts about the actors. But it makes you wonder why Criterion didn't have them simply provide an audio commentary, especially since the most interesting parts of this conversation happen while it plays over scenes from the film.

Extras are somewhat beside the point here. The film is essential for any admirer of Bergman and proves that comedy can be as significant as drama, though it is regrettable that it hasn't been accorded the DVD deluxe treatment. Arthur Vaughan
June 14, 2004