The Magic Lantern of Ingmar Bergman: Smiles of a Summer Night
March 4, 2025
Presented by The Swedish Club and Greg Olson Productions
The Magic Lantern of Ingmar Bergman
Wine, witty dialogue and prospects of love flow at a sumptuous weekend country house party. Can true feelings triumph over romantic misadventures and inflated egos? This delightful comic confection inspired Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. Smiles won the Cannes Film Festival Prize for Best Poetic Humor. Gunnar Bjornstrand joins Bergman’s acting troupe.
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Tuesday, March 4, 2025
As a sensitive boy listening to his Lutheran parish minister father preach a sermon, Ingmar was struck by the church’s “mysterious world of low arches, thick walls, the smell of eternity. The medieval paintings filled my imagination with angels, saints, dragons, prophets, devils, and humans.” Bergman’s art wrestles with these archetypes across a spectrum of moods, and most light-heartedly in Smiles. In the enchanted lingering twilight of the 19-century Swedish landed gentry, people of great accomplishment, glamor, and ambition have a weekend party. Smoldering desires are concealed within a flurry of good manners, social pretensions, and private illusions, but something’s got to give. Present are a scheming actress (Eva Dahlbeck), her former lover (Gunnar Bjornstrand) and his still-virginal wife (Ulla Jacobson), a theology student (Bjorn Bjelvenstam), an amorous maid (Harriet Andersson of Monika), and a dazzling array of would-be lovers. Wine, food, and witty epigrams flow with sensual delight, and the Cannes Film Festival was moved to award Bergman with a special prize for Best Poetic Humor. The film directly inspired Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical A Little Night Music. Cahiers du Cinema Top Ten Films.
—Greg Olson
- Director: Ingmar Bergman
- Principal Cast: Eva Dahlbeck, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ulla Jacobson, Harriet Andersson, Margit Carlqvist, Ake Fridell, Bjorn Bjelfvenstam, Naima Wifstrand
- Year: 1955
- Running Time: 108 min.
- Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman
- Cinematographers: Gunnar Fischer
- Editors: Oscar Rosander
- Music: Erik Nordgren
- International Sales: Svensk Filmindustri