Summer with Monika (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Sumner With Monika is a very good example of a coming of age film however if you're looking for humor like the kind you'd find in a John Hughes 1980's coming of age film then you won't find it here and I didn't expect to.The story is centered around two kids in their late teens Monika a girl with a local reputation of being "a floosy" and a party girl and her boyfriend Harry who is reserved and shy. They are both dissatisfied with their personal lives. Monika with both her job and home life and Harry mainly with his job.They decide to remedy these problems by sneaking off in a boat owned by Harry's uncle to a small island where they spend the summer together. At first it's all sunshine and fun as they revel in each other's company but soon things begin to take a turn for the worse. The food and other supplies they brought with them begin to dwindle and Monika becomes pregnant. It's interesting in that you would think her becoming pregnant would bring them closer together but it's just the opposite as Monika begins to display anger and contempt towards Harry who wants to marry her and return to their town and get a job and provide for her and the baby.They eventually return home and Monika has a baby girl but really shows no true feelings for the child while Harry does.Weeks pass and Harry returns home after being out of town on a job and much to his shock finds her in bed with a man they both know(Please note you don't actually see them in bed but only the looks on Harry's face as he enters their apartment and stops dead in his tracks as to what he is seeing.) Monika eventually turns her back on the child and Harry and he is left to raise their daughter.Monika true colors are now fully revealed as being a selfish floosy who is only truly concerned about herself and her own indulgences.

Released in 1953, this is the first Bergman movie that begins to take on the appearance and themes of his later classic films. The use of a remote mostly uninabited area and limited cast for the middle part of the movie is similar in look and feel to Bergman's 1960s films made on the Island of Farö. Harriet Anderson's acting (she was not yet 20 when the film was made) is almost a rehearsal for her performance in Through A Glass Darkly... the deconstruction of a female character, in this film from willful selfishness, in TAGD due to mental illness. The final section of the film reminded me of Scenes From A Marriage... in some ways more compelling because Monika and Harry are working class and struggling to get by-- in SFAM, the characters are all upper middle class professionals, so for all of their personal trauma they still have the conforts that their income and social status confer. And, as pointed out in other reviews, the character of Harry might be Bergman's most sympathetic male character. As in all of Bergman's films up to the late 1960s, there the black and white photography is great. So, although not quite as sophisticated as his subsequent films, it's still worth a watch for any Bergman fan.As with all Criterion Collection films, the quality is excellent (digital restoration), as are the extra features-- an introduction by Bergman, an interview with Harriet Anderson, a short documentary about how Monika was re-edited for release in the US in the 1950s as an expoitation film, and a documentary about Bergman called "Scenes from the Playground."

This is the ultimate anti-romance movie. I feel it has a type of sarcasm within that is uniquely Bergman. Harriet Andersons character is wonderfully developed as the run of the mill inner city youth desperately trying to hang on to a model of youthful romance while at the same time already in the process of rapidly fading into low sector adult life.This film is darkly comedic while at the same time being super dramatic because Bergman pulls the right strings in relation to problems every young male or female goes through. This film makes the ultimate case for romantic love being material. I have always felt the Beckett play Waiting for Godot had a similar theme inside a larger framework.I remember being young and broke and desperately trying to keep a romance while always competing with older guys that had cars or more material items.I really had a bittersweet compassion for both of these characters as i feel they represent all youth growing up with additional stress factors brought on by lower sector life.As epitomized in Cries + Whispers Harriet Anderson never fails to deliver an outstanding performance.

Shew! What a steamy movie. Two young lovers escape to the countryside in a boat (Imagine that! if this movie were made in the US they would have surely used a car). But by the end of the summer, the couple must face reality since the female is now pregnant. In the end, she grows sick of family life and walks out on her boyfriend. This has to be the ONLY man, or father-friendly movie Bergman ever made! The boy takes a job, studies at night to be an engineer and make money, and in the end raises his child on his own. There are also overtones of country v. city life and Bergman comes down solidly on the city side. Good luck to that!

I bought this as Melvyn Bragg mentions it in his autobiographical novel 'A Son of War' as having made a big impression on him when he first saw it as a young student. I like films that tell us about the human condition, and I like this one, which is the sort of film that could have helped me to understand how love affairs can go painfully wrong, perhaps preparing me better for some of my real-life struggles! It's one of those films which I think should be shown in schools, as part of an education for life - others are 'The Go Between', 'She's Been Away', 'Kes', 'Waterland'. Sadly they seem to be being left behind in this age of action movies and animations, and are often hard to get and not available on streaming sites or as Blu Rays.

The first half recalls Bergman's earlier 'Summer Interlude'. But thesecond half goes further and explores the 'what if' of the summerromance between teens; moving into parenthood, marriage, anddisillusionment.The acting is excellent, and unlike 'Summer Interlude' these actorslook close to the naïve age they're playing.The film's point of view sometimes felt a bit one sided to me with 'badgirl' Monika, from a crude, poor family, less willing to extend herselfthan her upper-class boyfriend Harry. Of course, along with beingselfish she is also the more complex and fascinating character,especially as played by the young Harriet Andersson.Some critics make the argument - with merit - that the film doesn'tjudge Monika,the audience does. Indeed, it could be argued that thefilm is meant to make us question our own judgment of a poor girl whois brought up with dreams of marriage as a glamorous escape, and notjust a humdrum existence. It's not for nothing the heroine is obsessedwith Hollywood love stories.Andersson's performance may be the first of the many hyper-real andextremely 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'scomplex attitude (and very brief nudity) a throwing off of the shacklesof conventional characters and storytelling.

Another sheer beautiful Bergman film which cuts the strings of your heart. Young beautiful Monika seduces young Harry in a pub while asking for a match for her cigarette. This is the start of a relationship which lasts all summer long. They spent the entire summer on the small boat of his father and enjoy themselves. While they do they make plans for the future : Harry will combine studying and work and Monika will stay at home to take care of the baby girl June because the gets pregnant during their summer love vacation. Not long after being married she gets bored and she complaints more often because the rent is not going to be paid and she needs new clothes. SPOILER ALERT : When Harry comes home from work from Stockholm he finds out that Monika has been cheating on him and in the end she leaves him. Thus mot a happy ending however a sheer beautiful Bergman film about love and how fragile love is : it can arise before summer and dissapear afterwards. Highest possible recommendation.

I know that films like The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Sawdust & Tinsel and Fanny & Alexander are better than this film- but this was the one I saw first. Many people tend to prefer the earlier Summer Interlude, that is similar to this film; but for me this is the one.Based on the novel by Per Anders Fogelstrom, this has the themes and style that many of Bergman's subsequent works would have- a transcendental use of imagery verging on the magic, miserable relations between people and the existential nature of life and the obligatory decay that occurs with time...Harriet Andersson's Monika is not dissimilar to other 'wild women' of the screen- Jeanne Moreau's Catherine in Jules et Jim and Beatrice Dalle in Betty Blue sprung to mind. The island holiday between the couple has that idealised quality of youth that people pang for and base whole careers on attempting to recapture- the end shows that change occurs and things can never be the same again.I think this film is where Bergman came of age, and it has, for me, one of the most iconic images I have seen in cinema: Harriet Andersson running naked towards the sea. This is the most perfect image, one of innocence and beauty on a plain removed from the conventional (the beach is often seen as something like a dreamplain, if you're misreading Jung and gazing at Dali at the same time)- this is the moment that Lars Ekborg's character will try to recapture in a Proustian fashion (and fail to). A perfect moment in cinema.It is great that Summer with Monika is now available on DVD, as I believe it to be a classic work and the ideal introduction to the world of Ingmar Bergman.

Personally, I prefer 'Summer with Monika' to 'Summer Interlude'- it is a wonderfully shot, pastoral film- on a par with Charles Laughton's fantastic 'The Night of the Hunter'. It also prefigures the death of youth and doomed love- so prevalent in 'Betty Blue' or 'Jules et Jim'. I think the shot on the beach, is beyond mere 'skinnydipping' and a transcedental shot of pure innocence- the perfect summation of youth (without resorting to 'Olympia'-Riefenstahl). This is a good introduction to Bergman and a reason why European cinema is vital. Whilst not in the league of 'The Seventh Seal' or 'Wild Strawberries' it is an example of Bergman with more simple aims, refining his style and moving towards his finest work which would follow.