July 23, 2012

10 Summer with Monika (1953)

***½
Country: Sweden
Director: Ingmar Bergman

Summer with Monika wasn't the first movie Ingmar Bergman directed—in fact, it was his twelfth—but it is the best known of the films he made before becoming recognized as a major director, and the one that first brought him serious attention from film critics and filmmakers outside Sweden. Writing about the film's reissue in France in 1958, Jean-Luc Godard called it "the cinematographic event of the year." He even modeled the final shot of Jean Seberg in Breathless on a similar shot of Harriet Andersson staring insolently right at the camera in Summer with Monika. In his own debut feature, The 400 Blows, François Truffaut paid homage to the film by having the young Antoine Doinel gaze longingly at a movie poster of actress Harriet Andersson as Monika. For years unavailable on home video in the U.S., Summer with Monika has finally been released by Criterion in a remastered Region 1 DVD/Blu-ray edition that includes a fascinating twenty-five minute long interview filmed in January 2012 with its star, 80-year old Harriet Andersson.

If you think of Bergman as a man whose films deal primarily with the problems of mature, if not middle-aged, people, Summer with Monika will come as a surprise. Of all Bergman's major films, this is the closest to what might be called a youth film. In a rising and falling arc, it follows the development and dissolution of a love affair and marriage between two young people still in their teens, eighteen-year old Monika (Harriet Andersson) and nineteen-year old Harry (Lars Ekborg). The two first meet by chance in a cafe, where Monika picks up Harry and jokingly proposes that they run away together. Half an hour into the movie, that's exactly what they do. Propelled by circumstances, dissatisfaction with their lives, and resentment of interference from adults, they take Harry's father's small boat and head off for an island-hopping summer idyll of sexual exploration and escape from the tedium of normal life. "We rebelled, Monika, against all of them," Harry says.

For a while they live in a blissfully insular world, sustained by the sun and the sea, the exhilaration of sexual novelty (at least on Harry's part), and the liberating effect of freedom from responsibility. By summer's end, though, reality comes crashing in on them. Broke, disheveled, half-starved, and expecting a baby, they have no choice but to return to Stockholm, marry, and settle down to staid middle-class lives. It is at this point that the relationship begins to come apart, its disintegration hastened by their differing temperaments and social backgrounds.

Early in the film Bergman limns the personalities of Monika and Harry in just a few scenes. In their first encounter in the cafe it is clear that Monika is bold, spirited, and spontaneous while Harry is more inhibited and reactive. A few brief scenes of the two at their jobs reinforce this initial impression. Harry works in the shipping department of a ceramics and porcelain wholesaler's. It's plain that he finds the work mundane and that he is treated by his older coworkers as a scapegoat who gets the blame for everything that goes wrong, yet he tamps down his boredom and annoyance, grudgingly bearing the situation. Monika, who works in the stockroom of a greengrocer's, is harassed by her male coworkers and treated condescendingly. Her reaction, in contrast, is to stand up for herself and meet aggression with counter-aggression.

A couple of compact sequences showing the home lives of the two suggest how different is the social milieu each comes from. Harry lives a well-ordered life with his widowed father in a comfortable middle-class flat. Monika's life, on the other hand, is far more disordered and working-class. She lives in a crowded tenement, sharing a tiny, shabby flat with her harried mother, several younger siblings, and abusive alcoholic father. Hers is an untidy, chaotic environment lacking the conventionality and consistency of Harry's.

With such different personalities and backgrounds, it's no wonder that once they return to Stockholm, set up house, and become parents, their reactions to their changed circumstances are so different. Here the film moves closer to familiar Bergman territory, as it concentrates on the relationship problems of the young couple, exacerbated by incompatible expectations of their future life together. Harry's attitude is that of a realist. As soon as he learns Monika is pregnant, he begins to think of the future practically, in terms of training for a career and establishing a settled life. As he grows more mature and responsible, Monika seems to become more willful, self-centered, and erratic. To her, Harry's equable nature begins to look like innate dullness; to Harry, Monika's spontaneity begins to resemble instability. It's easy to understand why Jean-Luc Godard wrote of Monika, "Only Bergman can film men as they are loved but hated by women, and women as they are hated but loved by men."

Just as the picture's themes are in some ways unusual in Bergman's work while in other ways they look ahead to his later films, the same is true of Bergman's style in Summer with Monika. Perhaps the most singular thing about it as a Bergman film is the large role played by nature. The film opens with a silent montage of scenes of the harbor in Stockholm and contains several other extended nature montages, especially during the long middle section where Monika and Harry camp out on an island, living an almost Edenic existence. I don't recall seeing another Bergman film that dwells this much on nature as atmosphere, almost like the pillow shots in an Ozu film. In its more purely narrative sections, Monika already shows Bergman's tendency to use fully developed, play-like scenes filmed in long, continuous takes, a strategy that requires very precise staging of scenes and meticulous planning of camera moves within a scene. It's a stylistic signature Bergman would continue to use for the rest of his filmmaking career.

Near the end is one scene that shows how Bergman, whose background was in theater, recast theater effects in purely cinematic terms, a technique he would continue to expand and refine in later films. After Monika and Harry have broken up, Harry, carrying the baby, passes by the porcelain shop where he worked at the beginning of the film when he first met Monika and pauses before a large oval mirror on the front of the shop. As he gazes into it, the light within the mirror fades to black and scenes of him and Monika from earlier in the film appear in it. Then as those scenes fade, he sees reflected in the mirror the image of his household possessions—this taking place behind him in the present—being removed in preparation for his return to his father's flat. It's the kind of imaginative, succinct imagery of the coexistence of past and present within an individual's consciousness that would reach its fullest expression in later Bergman films like 1957's Wild Strawberries.

Still, the thing that might stay in your mind most tenaciously after seeing the movie is that haunting close-up of Harriet Andersson as Monika, sitting in a cafe with the man with whom she is being unfaithful to Harry, as she gazes boldly into the camera as if daring us to judge her actions. In the filmed interview included with the Criterion release of Summer with Monika, Harriet Andersson discusses how mystifying Bergman's decision to film that shot was to her and everyone involved with the movie. Looking directly into the camera was something that just wasn't done. One explanation for Bergman's defiance of movie convention may be that although it is Harry he seems to identify with, it is plainly Monika with her almost feral sexuality who is the object of his—and the camera's—adoration. That enigmatic close-up just might be his way of expressing his fascination with the troubled character and the charismatic actress playing her. (Soon after filming was completed, Bergman and Andersson began an affair). In it Bergman suspends Andersson in time and immortalizes her.



You might also like:

10 comments:

  1. I'm enjoying your look at Bergman. I have not seen this film but your description and the famous shot -- of which I am unfamiliar with -- makes it clear that I should see it. I hope you do "Wild Strawberries" soon ... I'd like to hear your take on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Filmboy, thanks for your comment. I've waited a long time for this one to be available on home video, and I'm glad I was finally able to see it. It's not what I think of as a typical Bergman film--I hope that came through in the post--so it would likely be of interest to those put off by Bergman's gravity. "Wild Strawberries" has long been my favorite Bergman film and maybe I'll tackle it someday. But my strong feelings about it make this a daunting prospect, so I don't anticipate it happening anytime soon.

      Delete
  2. This is a terrific review. I'm usually lukewarm about Bergman, but I am really curious to see this one now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Silverscreenings, thank you. If you knew before watching it that Bergman directed this film, you might detect hints of his later work, as I did. If you watched this not knowing who directed it, you probably wouldn't think of Bergman. I don't think I would ever call a Bergman film in any way spontaneous, but this one comes as close to conveying a sense of exuberance with the medium as anything by him I've seen, which is the thing about it that probably appealed to those early French New Wave directors.

      Delete
  3. R.D.

    Another well thought out review. I saw this film back in the 90's on VHS and just bought the blu-ray the other day (50% off at Barnes and Noble) but have yet to take another look. I do think, from what I can remember, Bergman hits on a basic truth about couples, how when they marry and come from different backgrounds and lifestyles find it difficult to adjust. Both sides must be willing to work together and compromise for it to work.

    BTW, Did you know when this film first played in the U.S. back in the 1950's it was purchased by the distributor as an exploitation film emphasizing the nudity which of course at the time was verboten in American film. The title was even changed to something like "Monika: Tale of a Bad Girl" or a title close to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John, the film does seem like a forerunner of the marital/family relationship themes Bergman would return to later in his career. David Thomson suggests that Bergman's stint as head of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm in the mid-60s introduced him to a sort of repertory company of actors who became a kind of artistic family for his films. It occurs to me that his work with plays by writers like Chekhov, Ibsen, and Strindberg, whose plays often deal with family relationships and conflict, probably influenced his shift away from abstract themes and toward family themes as well.

      I am aware of the film's re-edited exploitation version released here in the 50s. There's an extra on the new Criterion release about it. There are only a couple of brief nude scenes of Harriet Andersson--one of which is quite discreet, the other a bit more explicit--which seem nothing today but must have been quite risque to American filmgoers of the 50s.

      I generally don't find it too difficult to write on Bergman--the later films, anyway--because the emphasis on characters and relationships provides a lot of material to work with. I find those things easier to write on than abstract themes and technical style.

      Delete
  4. Like John, I just purchased the blu-ray of this film and of SUMMER INTERLUDE in the 50% off Barnes & Nobel sale that ends on the 30th. I also bought 12 others including the David Lean set but let's not get into irresponsible maneuverings with the VISA. Actually I slightly prefer SUMMER INTERLUDE, as I have mentioned a number of times to Allan, but MONIKA is absolutely one of Bergman's early gems, one that looks gorgeous on HD, and showcases Gunner Fischer's ravishing monochrome. I'd go as far as to say that MONIKA looks more spectacular than any other single blu-ray I purchases in the lot, and my colleague Allan feels the same way. You have again approached a Bergman film with a deep understanding of his artistry, and there isn't much I can add in that sense. Harriet Andersson (who was intimately involved with Bergman at the time the film was made and beyond) is extraordinary as the sultry and rebellious teenager, and the film with acute insight examines the feminine mystique and a certain kind of dysfunctional love. Gunnar Fischer's cinematography is extraordinary, and Erik Nordgren's sparing music is perfectly woven into the fabric of the film. MONIKA was a showcase for "sexually liberated" Sweden at the time of it's release. The review features a fascinating new interview with Andersson by the great Bergman scholar Peter Cowie.

    Again, splendid work here R.D.!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sam, I'm not much interested in extras that come with these deluxe sets except for interviews with people involved with the film. The one with Harriet Andersson in this edition of "Monika" is one of the best of these I've seen. She not only seemed to have detailed knowledge of the film, but also detailed recollections of the filming. The photography does look spectacular, even on the DVD I watched. Gunnar Fischer's work on the earlier Bergman films and Sven Nyquist's work on the later ones contribute immeasurably to the quality of these films. I haven't heard much about "Summer Interlude," but after reading your thoughts on the film will be on the lookout for it.

      Delete
  5. R.D, I don't think I've seen this, although I did watch quite a few Bergmans many years ago so it's possible I saw it then - anyway, I will hope to do so soon after reading your fine review. (There is a different DVD release in the UK, from Tartan video, which is said to be a fine restoration although it doesn't have the extras.) I'm interested to hear that you don't feel it is typical of his work but think it does tackle themes he would explore further in his later work.

    I was reminded that British Merseybeat poet Roger McGough wrote a long narrative poem in the 1960s about a love affair which all goes wrong, called 'Summer with Monika', which I now realise must have been inspired by the film - this seems to be out of print, but I remember loving it as a teenager and did find one little section online:
    http://thegladdestthing.com/poems/summer-with-monika

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Judy, yes the film does seem to concentrate on personal relationships examined in a realistic style, the kind of thing Bergman would return to in the 70s, in films like "Scenes from a Marriage," "Autumn Sonata," "Cries and Whispers," "Fanny and Alexander." These strike me as quite different in their concerns from the meditations on life and death and spiritual crises of the films of the late 50s and 60s.

      To judge from his films, it's hard to imagine that Bergman was ever young, but this one seems a nod to the sentiments of young adulthood the way the later "Fanny and Alexander" was to childhood.

      Delete