The Turning Point

By now, in 1955, Bergman was 37, with a very mixed bag of films behind him and no clear masterpiece. In this year he wrote his own script (as he did for practically all his earlier films) and directed Sommamcttens Leende (Smiles of A Summer Night). This is his first real masterpiece. Here, fantasy and irony mingle perfectly in a curious but satisfying style. In all his earlier works it were as though Bergman had been indiscriminately mixing as many styles as possible into each film.

With Smiles of A Summer Night, for the first time style, content and playing form a unity. Turning from the contemporary scene to a period comedy of manners, Bergman evoked the spirits of Schnitzler, Wilde and Strindberg in this decidedly Nordic morality play. The characters are not particularly realistic, yet through them he is able to deliver a sharply personal homily on the vagaries of love.

After some preliminary skirmishings, the main part of the story is set in a beautiful country mansion, during a traditional "symbolic" Swedish summer night. In this setting, a motley collection of husbands, wives, mistresses and lovers work out their destinies— some of the actions cause pain, others result in unexpected happiness. Everything is suffused in an atmosphere of mid-summer magic —when love seems to be the only important thing in the world.