Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

kenjha In early 19th century Sweden, a group of people gathers at a country estate and romantic entanglements ensue. A Bergman comedy? Sounds like an oxymoron. Who knew Ingmar could be funny? He shows quite a flair for comedy when he puts his mind to it. There are stretches of playful and witty dialog in this enjoyable film, but it is interspersed with dramatic scenes that are more in line with what this director is famed for. The cast, featuring a quartet of lovely actresses, is terrific, and includes such Bergman regulars as Andersson and Bjornstrand. Kulle is hilarious as a pompous count who tries to find a happy medium between his wife and his mistress.

ShootingShark Fredrik Egerman is troubled; he has a young wife whom he fears he loves as a doting father than a husband. He seeks help from an old flame, Desiree, who is having an affair with a pompous soldier, Count Malcolm. Desiree invites both men and their wives and Egerman's gloomy son Henrik to her mother's country house for the weekend ...This touching, funny and beautifully observed comedy of sexual manners is one of my favourite Bergman films, made just before he was about to become a key figure in world cinema with movies like Det Sjunde Inseglet and Smultronstället. If you only know him for his heavy-going introspective dramas like Persona and Viskningar Och Rop, check this out as a means of contrast. The story is wonderfully sweet, the characters are sharp and brilliantly played by the entire ensemble and the dialogue will make you chuckle throughout (particularly Wifstrand as the dotty mother with the short attention span). As with all his work, it's Bergman's insight into the universal frailties of human nature that makes the movie so touching; we have a man who has married for beauty not love, a femme fatale who is tired of twisting men around her finger, young lovers who careen between ecstatic joy and suicidal misery, a man who foolishly ranks his pride above all else, and a self-loathing wife who can't stop loving a cheating husband. Bergman dances these characters around each other, making his points with subtle skill and entertaining us with style and wit. The four Swedish female leads - Dahlbeck, Jacobsson, Andersson and Carlqvist - are all stunningly beautiful women. Loosely remade twice; once as a Stephen Sondheim musical (A Little Night Music) and also as a charming Woody Allen farce (A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy). English title - Smiles Of A Summer Night.

Michael_Elliott Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) **** (out of 4) Delightful romantic comedy from Ingmar Bergman about various couples whom end up at an estate where love, relationships and sex are the topics. It took about ten minutes for me to warm up to the film but once the action (ala dialogue) got started the film just flew by with plenty of nice laughs as well as some terrific dialogue. The performances by the entire cast were terrific, especially Gunnar Bjornstrand and Ulla Jacobson. It's hard to believe that Woody Allen failed to capture much of this film's humor with his semi-remake A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy.

Myshkin_Karamazov Bergman made many films, this one made him."Smiles Of A Summer Night" is a landmark in the Solemn Swede's carrier. Most recently it made the All-TIMES 100 list of best films compiled by renowned film critics Corliss and Schickel for Time Magasine. As late as in an interview recorded in 2003, Ingmar Bergman agreed to call "Smiles Of A Summer Night" a watershed in his film career. "After its success", he recalled "I had my hands free... I was able to do whatever I wanted to do." Truly enough, he went on to make, in immediate succession, such great films like "The Seventh Seal" and "Wild Strawberries". And it was only the beginning of what best can be described as Bergmansk phenomenon. "The Virgin Spring", Through A Glass Darkly", "Persona", "Cries and Whispers", "Autumn Sonata", "Fanny and Alexander". One true classic after the other was bestowed upon us by this undisputed grandmaster of the world cinema during the course of his rich, fruitful career.With superb acting, lively dialog and impeccable cinematography, "Smiles" leaves nothing to be desired. It seems to be a happy story, at least from the audience's point of view.Still, the director recalls, in his published memoirs, how depressed he was being stuck with the script, how bad he felt during production, and how embarrassed he was to find out about film's great success at Cannes, where it won the Grand Prix. All this was unprecedented for the producers, the Svensk Filmindustri as they responded "like an old lady who never knew to waltz, now suddenly being asked by a variety of cavaliers", to quote Bergman.