Sommarlek

This Ingmar Bergman's earlier essay is a dedicative recount of a young ballerina's summer holiday puppy romance with a timid college student which culminated in a tragic accident and the narrative leaps between the reminiscent past and the present (13 years later, when she is preparing her SWAN LAKE premier).

The film is slightly differentiated from Bergman's usual philosophy-heavy, mentally- straining members of his reservoir, a summer vacation in a Scandinavian island, with youth in bathing suits, is a curio to find out. But the die-hard Bergman fans will as always revel in the solemn nuances and formidable expressions from Maj-Britt Nilsson's heroine, whose god-spitting manifesto "I'll hate him till the day I die!"defies any compromise and detour, which could also be Bergman's mouthpiece speaking.

There are many aesthetically haunting shots with utterly perfect structural deployment (which cannot be a surprise since this is the sixth Bergman's film I have watched so far), a witchcraft of radiating the characters' frank and inherent emotion and sixth senses through Black & White lens, the portrait close-ups, the little cartoon on the letter, even the ballet tableaux, all sparkle with resilience of a human soul's elusive fickleness. The wild strawberry, chess playing with the clergyman and the hag with mustache, there are many anecdotes here just for perusing.

Ms. Nilsson captures all the spotlight in the film, although she and Birger Malmsten are quite awkward in pulling off mid-or-late teens in love since wrinkles and creases cannot lie, but it is almost a mission-impossible for any actress since spanning 13 years especially from teenage to adulthood is a great challenge, nevertheless, this blemish can not overthrow the film's majestic study on a psychological case of a lost love soul's selective protection and rejuvenation, although may not be Bergman's best, still a recommendable film from the maestro and furthermore attests his consistency in filmic supremacy.

Marie has re-opened a door, to a box she cast into before, a broken love heart, that's been shattered, torn apart, then fractured upon a treacherous, cruel shore.

Henrik had found his true love, without persuasion or an encouraging shove, a joyous summer together, feeling light as a feather, until drawn by the clouds up above.

Waffle ye might about the aesthetic of great cinema but it's the story that holds the roof on, ably assisted in equal part by great performances and incredibly genuine and believable dialogue - the aesthetic is the cherry on the cake, and this is an outstanding piece of storytelling.

This is a film, quite simply, I went out to buy on video. I thought it was lovely -in its proper sense- and a nice change from the big man's subsequent, more serious projects. The film recaptures youth's giddy, carefree, brief love affairs ...and its comeuppance, its consequences in future life. Anyone who's been in love around that age will know it always remains within you, like a shameful secret, a cherished hurt ("ah, if only I had...") for a long, long time, no matter what turn things take, however successful one can become (the protagonist : a ballerina). Bergman was already showing his knowledge of human nature. ...Of course, the story (the first part of the film) doesn't meet a "happy ending". What can I say : lovely, and not least for the Swedish language !

PS-Recently, in a program on the history of exploitation (i.e. naughty films) and censorship in the US, it was revealed that quite a few scenes, showing the heroine skinny-dipping in the lake with not much on, were routinely added to this movie !!

While waiting for the night rehearsal of the ballet Swan Lake, the lonely twenty-eight year-old ballerina Marie (Maj-Britt Nilsson) receives a diary through the mail. She travels by ferry to an island nearby Stockholm, where she recalls her first love Henrik (Birger Malmsten). Thirteen years ago, while traveling to spend her summer vacation with her aunt Elisabeth (Renée Björling) and her uncle Erland (Georg Funkquist), Marie meets Henrik in the ferry and sooner they fall in love for each other. They spend summer vacation together when a tragedy separates them and Marie builds a wall affecting her sentimental life.

"Sommarlek" is a simple little film of the great director Ingmar Bergman in the beginning of his successful career. The plot discloses through flashbacks a tragic and timeless love story affecting the life of the lead character that builds a wall to protect her sentiments and loses her innocence with her corrupt uncle. The cinematography, landscapes, sceneries and camera work are awesome, using magnificent locations and unusual angles to shot the movie. Maj-Britt Nilsson and Birger Malmsten have great performances in this beautiful and melancholic film. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Juventude" ("Youth")

Love story perfectly told. Life story perfectly told.

First of all I was angry watching the to lovers being enormously happy. It was so unreal and idealistic that I said to myself - you can see this only in movies. The two lovers were talking the strange language of love that makes them fool around and boost. That makes them feel the need to show off and to be something more. That naive language of their naive youth.

Suddenly this romantic cloud was blown away and this movie become more realistic, lifely realistic. Yeah, it was trivial but told in Bergman's way it was also very beautiful and true. It showed the change that we all live trough the language that is familiar but we do not speak any more, the things in life and the life caught in the walls of self preservation, senselessness and absurd where the only one escape is the ultimate love - the only reality.

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