Un verano con Mónica

Ingmar Bergman's Monika (Summer with Monika) (1953) is the story of two Stockholm teenagers, stock boy Harry (Lars Ekborg) and voluptuous, impulsive Monika (Harriet Andersson), who meet and fall in love and run away for a summer on a motorboat on the Stockholm archipelago escaping from work and all responsibility. Monika becomes pregnant and they return to the city and marry – but things turn bad. This first powerful feature by the Swedish master is simple and sweet but nonetheless rich in emotional wrenching events. The film, which depicts teenage unwed sex, was shockingly sensual for its time. In 2006 the intensity of Harriet Andersson's uninhibited performance is still impressive and this story is just as heartbreaking as it was over half a century ago.

Presented as part of the Janus Films sidebar of the 2006 New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center in another gorgeous pristine-looking new print with a rich black and white tonal range that may look better than the original did.

Ingmar Bergman's 1953 "Summer with Monika" was chopped down from 92 mins to barely over an hour and shown in America as the provocatively titled "Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl", promoted with saucy posters and even nude postcards. But cool your engines because there's nothing very sexually explicit; if Monika is indeed a "bad girl" that's because she makes some very bad, selfish & inconsiderate choices. Not exactly the "bad girl" of your dreams but more like the crazy girlfriend who ruined your life.

"Monika" (Harriet Andersson) is an 18 year old girl who dreams of escaping her impoverished life but with little foresight beyond that. Enter "Harry" (Lars Ekborg) who is also dissatisfied with his lowly station, but he has a somewhat clearer head about him. In an impulsive moment, the two run off to an island believing they can live forever in a summer of blissful denial. And thus the theme is set: how long can lovers survive "living in the moment"?

Gorgeously shot and expertly acted, this film is definitely a treat to watch. However, you may find yourself disliking, or even hating, the character Monika for the way she tramples all over everyone's life to suit herself. Although she is admirable in her fearless rebellion against conventions, she is shown to be almost childishly self-absorbed. Thus she isn't quite the classy, intriguing female protagonist of "Summer Interlude" (Bergman's film 2 years prior) but she's almost like a deliberate caricature of that character--a tantrum-throwing wild child which Bergman literally illustrates in one memorable scene as she's scurrying through the woods, dirty faced and disheveled, tearing at a piece of meat she had just stolen. Watching "Summer with Monika" back to back with "Summer Interlude" is quite an experience, and I highly recommend it to those of you who are interested in this side of Bergman.

During filming, Bergman and his leading actress Harriet Andersson were having a short but passionate affair, and critics have said that this resulted in the film being a "love letter" to Andersson. Definitely the camera is very attentive to her, and there are some fabulous shots that capture not only her impish beauty but also her cruel, darker side that's not as glamorous but every bit as engaging. But as for it being a love letter to her? I don't think so; if anything it feels more like an exposé, a poetic yet brutal ode to that "bad girl" our momma always warned us about.

Sommaren med Monika, often translated as Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl, but directly it is Summer with Monika, I prefer the latter. Summer with Monika is Ingmar Bergman's early masterful classic. It's European modernism and as many of Bergman's films of that era, this film too dealt with social issues. Even that Ingmar Bergman himself was from a bourgeois family, Summer with Monika builds around the working class. It's a story about two youngsters who fall in love and start living a life of their own.

Monika is a minor girl who doesn't get along with her parents. Her only escape from the harsh family life is romantic cinema and her boyfriend, Harry. In result of the distressing life Monika and Harry escape the city to archipelago for the summer. When the summer's over and they come back, the love between them starts to fade.

I have yet not seen as strong film about young parenthood as this. It shows the truth in a very realistic light, Bergman doesn't add any glamor to its characters' lives, which he never does. This is the social theme of Summer with Monika, young parenthood and the subject is still very current, which makes the film timeless. No director of today has succeed in making as good description of the life like that.

Summer with Monika is so beautifully made that it delights you. The plot also has some points that delight the audience, but I was mostly touched by the beauty of the narrative and cinematography. Both of these are clearly European modernism in Summer with Monika. The camera goes behind the reality, it shows the true emotions of the characters. A very impressive scene of the film is when Monika watches directly to the camera. This shocking destruction of the fourth wall and the illusion of cinema, was probably the first one ever made. My information of this is not accurate or reliable, but at least Summer with Monika was one of the first ones, that did this.

A very powerful film of love, youth, parenthood, frustration and life.

Summer with Monika is a very fine, sometimes masterful showcase of what would be to come with Ingmar Bergman's more notable and personal dramas. That is, in the technical side of things; here he uses a lot of shots that are simply there for the location, the imagery of the rocks and beach and waters where the characters are at. It's much more in a sense of a documentary of these two people than a usual tale of young love. But it's a good story at the core, and in it Bergman also establishes one of the actresses that would become crucial to his career.

Harriet Andersson is remarkable as the happy, though high strung and (as one in my generation might call) 'needy' Monika, who works at a vegetable stand. She meets Harry (Ekberg) in a bar one day, and the two hit it off after later seeing a movie. Monika's home life is the pits, as is Harry's work environment. So, they act on an impulse to get away for the summer to an island. Out of that comes what is very natural in a relationship- happiness, love, despair, hunger, and the oncoming (unplanned) child. The third act goes as how one might expect, but the way it's filmed and acted is still extraordinary.

Once Bergman gets his film on the water, he just shoots and shoots. Some of this may not seem to go anywhere, some of it may just seem like shots of animals and rocks. But I have a feeling Bergman was likely inspired by either painters or the neo-realists with their documentary feel. If nothing else, everything feels very much alive and real with how the characters talk and act to each other, and that doesn't lose its ground after fifty years.

Some shots here and there (one when Monika is out one night, when Harry is not at home, is intriguing on how it just stays on her, and how it's lit) are some of the more memorable ones of the 1950's for the director. I also liked how the characters were believably stuck in the middle of a very plausible dilemma- do they keep on going on with a great, bit love affair alone and off from civilization, or do they face up to what they have to do with living? It's a tragic, somewhat obvious conclusion, but the way it's told is how it scores some points.

Basically, Summer with Monika is a fresh, dark love story that may appeal to those looking for a good alternative to a film of today loaded with cynicism or delight in the shrill conventions with the characters. One may have seen characters like Monika and Harry in other films, yet they are fitting for the style of Bergman's precise bittersweet whimsy and depth.

It is a very sensitive and solid story about love and loss. It fascinates you from the beginning, first of all because of the beauty of the images and then by the credibility of the characters. There's also plenty of small human details which together make a whole masterpiece (The moment that Monika turns and stares to the camera is one of them). Strangely enough, this movie is never mentioned among the best made by Bergman. But it is a great movie.