Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 24, No. 12. 1961.
An Unsuccessful Juxtaposition
An Unsuccessful Juxtaposition
Till Gladje (To Joy) contained familiar Bergman trademarks—a snarling couple, anguish and jealousy in love, love-hate relationships—but with some attempts to inject tenderness where appropriate. This juxtaposition proved unsuccessful and the various elements were never fully integrated.
His first film in the fifties was a crime thriller called Sant Hander Into Har (High Tension, or It Can't Happen Here). This was a stereotyped "bread and butter" piece and was immediately followed by his first film of major importance, Sommarlek ( Summer Interlude), in 1951.
Marie, a young recruit at the Opera Ballet School falls in love with a student and they spend an idyllic holiday together. But tragedy strikes: her lover meets with an accident. The years pass and Marie becomes a prima ballerina. Another man comes into her life, a sympathetic journalist called David. Now torn between memories of her first love and her feelings for David, we are shown how she strives to achieve love and lasting happiness.