Última Felicidade

Swedish classic with Ulla Jacobsson and Folke Sundquist

A student (Folke Sundquist as Göran) from the city comes to work in the country over the summer. He quickly finds a connection and falls in love with the enchanting farm girl Kerstin (Ulla Jacobsson). Even if Uncle Persson (Edvin Adolphson) has sympathy for the young people, not all villagers see it that way. The priest (John Elfström) preaches powerfully against the depravity of youth. But the lovers enjoy their summer of happiness with its bright nights and skinny dipping together. Until a serious accident occurs...

This Swedish film (1951) by Arne Mattson hit like a bomb. Back then, nudity on the screen was still an outrageous sensation, and it was staged so beautifully and naturally and innocently. By the way, the film was produced by the traditional Nordisk Film, which is still active as a mini-major in the film business today. HON DANSADE EN SOMMAR was awarded the Golden Bear at the 1952 Berlinale. Ulla Jacobsson (1929-1982) then also appeared in German-language films. Folke Sundquist (1925-2009) was also in the Ingmar Bergman classic SMULTRONSTÄLLET, which won the Golden Bear in 1958. Berlin has certainly brought Folke Sundquist luck.

A beautiful film that touches the heart and celebrates the Swedish summer!

This charming film should be restored and reissued. Its story line is simple, perhaps a bit trite. However, the central character Kerstin presents us with a rare glimpse of the blossoming of youth, emerging from innocence to passion to tragedy in a short season. No spectacular acting here, but one senses a freshness and spontaneity rarely grasped in low budget productions. No specific message here, other than raw warmth followed by pain and despair. Too bad Ulla was not discovered and well directed later on! We missed a great actress. (We named our first daughter after her character long before she was born!)

I saw this movie the first time yesterday. I´ve had the tape for about two years, but I was not so interested in it. But now I´m very glad about having watched it, because it is a great, old-fashioned love story containing a warm kind of romance, you cannot find in actual movies. The story is quite simple: student from the city falls in love with girl from the country. She is not allowed to love him, but nevertheless they do...

The scene, showing both naked taking a bath in a beautiful swedish lake, caused 1951 a scandal. Funny, about what harmless stuff people got annoyed in former times... 9/10

This film was upon it´s release subject to much attention, not only in Sweden, but across most of Europe. This perhaps not due to any particular cineastic greatness but rather the rather candid nude swimming scene (perhaps the first in a non-adult feature film making it past the scissors of the censors) which sparked somewhat of an outcry amongst morality watchdogs.

In short, this film acted as sort of a springbord for a new wave of filmmaking in nothern Europe.

This is a simple "boy meets girl" "parents/adults don't understand us" film, but a very well done one. Ulla Jacobsson is captivating in the lead. I like her performance here better than in "Smiles of a Summer Night", although the latter is the better film. I also found "One Summer of Happiness" interesting for what it said about post-war Sweden. Well done.