Bergman's films often centered around romance and infidelity, and this was true of his life as well. He had five wives—and rather unfaithfully, since he also quite publicly dated actresses Harriet Andersson, Bibi Andersson, and Liv Ullmann while married to other women. He was not a libertine by any means—he felt an immense amount of guilt throughout his affairs, and this guilt became a recurring theme in many of his films. Bergman wrote "Sunday’s Children" (1994), which was directed by his son Daniel, portraying how Bergman's clergyman father shaped a household where public devotion merged with private suffering. In "Private Confessions" (1996), his screenplay, he focused on the moral struggles of his mother.
It is clear that both films stem from a personal history that was directly lived by Ullmann. Bergman’s moral circle revolves around the concepts of betrayal, guilt, commitment, and marriage. In 2000, when he was 82 and considered too old to direct, he asked Ullmann to direct “Faithless,” which he called his final screenplay. They had a close friendship pre and post their romantic relationship and had a daughter, the actress Linn Ullmann. Perhaps it was the muse like quality that Ullmann exuded that inspired him, because in so many of his films, there is a need to confess guilt and seek redemption.
“Faithless” was the last chapter of his moral autobiography. It follows the life of an old man who summons a fictitious actress to aid him in piecing together the parts of his life which haunt and embarrass him in his imagination. He implores her to assist him in reconstructing the past. While doing so, he has flashbacks of her tormenting her husband with an affair involving a man named David who in her recollections is “Bergman” as a young man. Wheels within wheels. The old man wishes to perceive her infidelity from her perspective. Did he bring her to that place of sin? Did he beguile her? Did he deceive himself? Maybe the film was as autobiographical for her as it was for him.
“He loves and loses and wins, and has been a wonderful friend.” Guessing the reaction, I also remarked that he comes across as remarkably frank and that is likely because she uses the phrase ‘life long’ a bit too freely. Bluntly speaking, if watching this woman stroll gracefully among the guests at Cannes, with a laugh and blush that she has merited earlier is hard on the eyes quite simply does take on new friendships surprising fans, and new acquaintances very quickly.
"Perhaps he views this story as his life, and it's told, done. If he attempts writing again, perhaps it will be on the topic of boundless love. He simply can't forgive himself. I said to him two years ago: 'You need to forgive yourself for whatever betrayal you think you’ve made—somewhere along the line.' 'I cannot forgive myself,' he replied. This is why I created a scene where he confronts his younger self and forgives that younger self, even if he cannot forgive himself as an older man."
My attempt to study “Summer Night's Dream” was intertextual in nature— a challenging starting point. Strindberg's works had an impactful mélange of fiction and reality. This was more of a branch of the 1955 film. The film served as a hybrid for the better and the worse. He had directed films from “Torment” in 1944, with various outcomes. “Summer with Monika” (1953) saw some success in Sweden, mostly for its rated softer adult content, which it technically wasn’t. The Swedish Film Institute took a gamble on Strindberg's work, funding the film for $100,000 (rumored to be the most ever spent on a Swedish film). The film was a resounding international success, winning European Film Award and some award which called itself Best Poetic Humor at Cannes.
He says in an introduction included on the criterion DVD that after “Smiles” he never had to struggle to secure funding for his films. With “The Seventh Seal” (1957) and “Wild Strawberries” (1957), he instantly ascended to the elite tier of filmmakers.
The movie is centered on infidelity. Very much unlike Bergman, it is a comedy. It grazes screwball territory, but opts instead for the highbrow tomfoolery used by Shaw and Wilde. “I can tolerate my wife’s infidelity, but if anyone touches my mistress, I become a tiger,” is one of the most Wildean of the bunch, followed later by “I can tolerate my mistress’s infidelity, but if anyone touches my wife, I become a tiger.”
The speaker is Engage in Fredrik (Gunnar Bjornstrand) who is an attorney in his early fifties, and two years into his marriage with a 19-year old Anne (Ulla Jacobsson), who is rather more passionate than her age suggests. He lives with his son Henrik (Bjorn Bjelfvenstam), a philosophy student, and the family's flirty maid Petra (Harriet Andersson) who boldly expresses her interest in both him and his father. For some time now, Fredrik has been dating Desiree Armfeldt (Eva Dahlbeck), a well-known actress, and one of the nights takes his young wife to see Desiree perform in a play.
The dress rehearsal proved to be too much for Anne and during that, she decides to take a nap. Her husband, as expected, tries his best to keep everything organised but manages to mess up by saying her name on repeat during his sleep. He ends up sulking, cuddled up next to his bride, after the play in full realization that she is still a virgin. While the scene is quite contrary to predictably depressing, he understandably makes the decision to put the pressure on later, once she finally slips away from actual reality. From here, everything goes down the spirited path of an attempted romantic getaway while being unfashionably late to a meetup with the ever so nagging and jovial Desiree who goes off the mark from the first moment with comments about the naïve young wife and the protagonist son of said young wife.
While entering Desiree’s house, Fredrik experiences a slip and fall into a puddle while she provides him with a dressing gown belonging to her current lover, Count Malcolm (Jarl Kulle). The Count soon arrives and demands an explanation from Fredrik while mentioning a duel. Desiree, knowing she is done with the count, devises a scheme where her wealthy mother throws a dinner party with all the guests, including the Count’s wife Charlotte (Margit Carlqvist). Petra perks the Engermans and flirts with old Mrs. Armfeldt’s groom Naima Wifstrand. Old Mrs. Armfeldt did her time serving as a mistress. When asked why she does not write her memoirs, she replies: “My husband does not allow me to tell my story, so why write them?”
It is important to note that our characters are on edge throughout this extract, showing signs of strong emotions. It is one of those seemingly never ending days in the North where shadows and dusk pulls the sun with them in the sky.
What occurs throughout the duration of the long night consists of smiles and a lot more, including a well placed slapstick bed that moves from one room to another. From the description, you can see slapstick humor is present. Everyone seems to be intoxicated from the wine consumed during dinner which was shared by Desiree's mother's friends and children: "My dear children and friends. There is a myth that states the wine is extracted from grapes whose juice gushes out like tears from a pale grape. It is also believed that to each cask filled with this wine was added a drop of milk from a young mother’s breast and a drop from a stallion's seed. These lend seductive powers to the wine. Anyone who dares needs to drink behold will need to pay.”
Imagining Bergmann writing such dialogue is hard to fathom, but those that knew him claimed he had a sense of humor comparable to his dark moments filled with depression. In fact, the film does feature some dim lights and moments like the counts wife Charlotte who delivers a dreadful and dark rant about men saying “Men are terrible, vain and arrogant.”
“The are hair everywhere on their bodies,” Speech happens before the wine starts having an effect.
The diegetic photography in the film was by Bergman’s faithful accompanists two cinematographers, Sven Nykvist, with whom Gunnar Fischer worked. Both of them appreciated Bergman’s custom during winter of directing opera and theater, only to spend the summer writing scripts and filming them. Bergman drew inspiration from Nordic countries; the remarkable light of the late evenings provided the characteristic visual clarity of many of his scenes.
Having seen none of them for a good decade, Pauline Kael caught the review on one of the films, calling it “nearly perfect”. I was shocked at how appealing I found the film on the first watch after years of not seeing any. The characters are filled with passion, but unlike the reckless version, this feels alive as they reason with themselves prior to acting in a way that morally conflicts with what has been outlined. In what feels like his first attempt at a comedy, I suppose he is trying to find the answer to why.
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