Summer with Monika (1955)

Very well executed

ridiculous rating

A lot of fun.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

For years I've put off a number of other film projects because I hadn't watched Ingmar Bergman's filmography. Ingmar Bergman has always been the cinematic powerhouse I've most admired despite only seeing one of his films. I struggled with prioritizing other film projects knowing I had nearly all of Bergman's filmography to discover. After finally doing my recent deep-dive into Woody Allen's filmography, and seeing how influential Ingmar Bergman was to Woody Allen, I decided to finally schedule a retrospective of Bergman's films. I actually started this project with Summer with Monika because it was the first Bergman film that Woody Allen saw. Perhaps not the best entry point to Ingmar Bergman, Summer with Monika was a gorgeous film with a brilliant exploration of a relationship and a raw portrait of the gamut run as emotions develop.Harry Lund (Lars Ekborg) is a 19-year-old young man who works a job he is unsatisfied with, yet, committed to as a means of taking care of himself and his sickly father. One day before work, Harry goes to a cafe before work where he meets Monika Eriksson (Harriet Andersson). Monika is a 17-year-old dreamer who imagines a life where she can leave her job as a stockroom worker and spend her days lounging with a man devoted to her by her side. Monika is immature and makes reckless decisions such as leaving her job without any alternative source of income lined up. Desperate to leave her parents home where abuse and alcohol abuse are commonplace, Monika sees a stable future with Harry. Despite their juvenility, the two fall in love determined to make their relationship last. Smitten with each other, Harry and Monika spend all their time together finding it difficult to leave one another culminating in Harry finally getting fired from/quitting his job due to his constant tardiness. When Monika's home life becomes too much for her to return to, Harry becomes responsible for taking care of Monika, as she is still without a job. Due to their young age and position in life, the two run away together, using Harry's father's boat, to the countryside. At first, their departure from the rest of the world is blissful, all the two have to worry about is being carefree and spending time with each other. Real world problems begin to interrupt their idyllic adventure as their joblessness forces them to steal for food in order to survive. In hopes of getting their lives back on track, they decide to return to the city, marry, and eventually have a child together. Unfortunately for them, their relationship is in for suffering ahead that they couldn't have anticipated.I was floored by the way Bergman filmed people. One of my favorite filmmakers is Francois Truffaut, so I am definitely partial to humanist filmmakers. I was mesmerized by the tender way Bergman focused on his principles. The close-ups on the faces of Monika and Harry are integral to revealing the development of their relationship. Maybe we're not all floating aimlessly along the sea, but we've all experienced the many stages of a relationship. From the initial "love at first sight" experienced when you just can't get enough of your new partner, to the dying down of excitement in a relationship, these are all aspects of a relationship familiar to anyone that has ever been in love. The way Bergman bookended Monika lighting her cigarette act as a perfect reflection of their union. After their initial meeting in the cafe, Harry nervously attempts multiple times, to light Monika's cigarette, failing each time as his attention has shifted to the beautiful young girl too much to concentrate on anything else. In the final minutes of the film, Monika hastily lights her own cigarette, full of disdain and regret, visibly distancing herself from her now husband. The two scenes illustrate the birth and subsequent death of love in a subtle yet powerful way. The emotion-filled shots, the gorgeous cinematography, and the powerful subtlety leave me greatly looking forward to discovering more of Ingmar Bergman.

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.

The actors are great, the majority, but above all the two protagonists. The question is whether this is enough to keep the movie. I think it has several speeds and that is the worst thing I have. Many times in the summer time, it expands on descriptive planes, the exit and entrance, and then the end of the film tells the story of a couple, how he solves his life, how she is fed up and changes her life, And everything at full speed.If that marks very well as was the world at that time, although I have my doubts that the girls were like that, not even in Sweden.But I've put a five because although I do not like the film in the end but I think it's done in earnest and pretends to tell something, but it's boring me a lot.Spoiler: I think the best thing about the film after thinking a lot is the title. I thought because I would be serious and I understand that it is because after all I only spent that time with her.Although the plane when she dresses and is going to go and flirt and have fun is great. The rest of the movie, I do not like almost anything like it's shot. I do not usually like Ingmar Bergman rolling and this was not going to be less. Saving some loose plane I believe it rather because it wants to make general plans that by vision in front of the camera.

Two young people, stuck in pointless jobs, find each other. Monika is in love with love and Harry is a willing partner for her. He is simple and kind and doesn't see the pitfalls ahead. She is the aggressor at all times, and he is so smitten it makes no difference. The two quite their jobs and steal a boat to take off to who knows where. The enjoy themselves for a while. However, a young man who Harry has had trouble with before, sets the boat on fire and throws all their supplies and clothes overboard. They put out the fire but it is an event they can't overcome. It is also getting cold and Monika is pregnant. Harry is the mature one and tries his best but she is still a child with a huge streak of selfishness. She feels her life should be like in the movies (Harriet Andersson does a magnificent job. At times she is pretty. At others, very plain). When the real world hits, Harry's taking responsibility for his new family (a little girl is born) is a big bore to Monika. While he studies and trying to better himself and ultimately bring more money to the family, she is having men up to the apartment. She says she is in love and shows her disdain in every way possible. This is a slice of life thing with real human beings doing what human beings do. Sometimes that means they cut each other's hearts out. Since the entire foundation of their love was based on an empty need for affection, it stands to reason at some point it will all come tumbling down.