Sommaren med Monika

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.

The first half recalls Bergman's earlier 'Summer Interlude'. But the second half goes further and explores the 'what if' of the summer romance between teens; moving into parenthood, marriage, and disillusionment.

The acting is excellent, and unlike 'Summer Interlude' these actors look close to the naive age they're playing.

The film's point of view sometimes felt a bit one sided to me with 'bad girl' Monika, from a crude, poor family, less willing to extend herself than her upper-class boyfriend Harry. Of course, along with being selfish she is also the more complex and fascinating character, especially as played by the young Harriett Andersson.

Some critics make the argument – with merit – that the film doesn't judge Monika,the audience does. Indeed, it could be argued that the film is meant to make us question our own judgment of a poor girl who is brought up with dreams of marriage as a glamorous escape, and not just a humdrum existence. It's not for nothing the heroine is obsessed with Hollywood love stories.

Andersson's performance may be the first of the many hyper-real and extremely complex characters in Bergman's body of work, transcending 'type' and moral judgment.

The film was beloved by the French New wave filmmakers, who saw in it's complex attitude (and very brief nudity) a throwing off of the shackles of conventional characters and storytelling.

Nouvelle vague from Skandinavia. It is one of those films in Bergman's oeuvre which hasn't completely lost the hope for the good and love yet and from that period, Sommaren med Monika is probably his most impressive work. The film is an ode to the vitality and joie de vivre of the youth, about it's rebellion and breaking out, exploring and checking and therefore, compared to Bergman's sixties, a pretty hopeful take on life. For the first half at least, until the couple is confronted with reality after a few days of liberation and from now on, they have to suffer the loss of their courage, spirit of adventure, the faith in each other and consequently the loss of their young love. The wonderful time with Monika does not remain - the only thing everyone can bank on.

It's remarkable, now from a perspective of more than 50 years ahead, how this film is (also) a homage to Harriet Andersson. At that time, there hardly was a similarly fresh, natural and at the same time sublime appearance in Europe's auteur cinema. With every shot, Bergman and cinematographer Gunnar Fischer capture her beauty and lightness perfectly. In one of the earliest nude scenes of European cinema they underline her innocent naturalness and love for nature, a naturalism in acting which is Andersson's strength when you think of the death scene in Cries and Whispers or the madness of Karin in Through a Glass Darkly. Her face, her entire guise stands, next to Liv Ullmann's, Bibi Andersson's or Ingrid Thulin's, for more than half a decade of superb Swedish cinema history.

He wasn't always the old glum maestro. Although the young lovers in "Summer with Monika" might have fitted quite easily into a British Kitchen Sink film, this early Bergman is less grim than we later came to expect and although minor, this film has much to admire; it actually reminded me a bit of "A Kind of Loving".

A young Harriet Andersson is Monika and Lars Ekborg is Harry, the boy who loves her enough to want to spend a lot longer than just the summer with her. You might say that for Bergman this is a very simple picture filled with very simple people but Bergman treats them with a fair degree of sympathy. Monika may be just a little tart or simply a young woman trapped in an early marriage while Harry is always seen as trying to do the decent thing and the ending, if not exactly upbeat, is less of a Bergman downer than usual. No masterpiece, then, but an essential part of the canon nevertheless.

Monika feels trapped, in despair, her future is bleak and laid bare, she needs to break free, escape, run and flee, with a boy who is willing to care.

Harry is a boy that can care, spends his days wishing he was elsewhere, now he's met a nice girl, and they're off for a whirl, a summer like no other can compare.

To love, through a long hot summer, without a care or a bother, just to be in the arms of each other, to smother, enrapture and cover - what could possibly go wrong! Monika and Harry find the inevitable fork in the road, where habit and repetition branch from joy and satisfaction, and sacrifice will not recompense or suffice, at least for one.

Contains that look that says it all.