Among the works of Swedish film master Bergman, "Smile on a Summer Night" (1955) is only a medium-level work, and it is difficult to compare with "The Seventh Seal" (1957), "Wild Strawberries" (1957), "The Virgin" Fountain (1960), Married Life (1973), Autumn Sonata (1978), Fanny and Alexander (1982) and other classics. However, "Smile on a Summer Night" was a turning point in Bergman's film career. Without the great success of this work, Bergman's later creations might not have appeared. It can be said that "Summer Night Smile" is Bergman's lucky work.
One day in May 1956, Bergman was sitting on the toilet reading the morning paper when he stumbled across the news that the Swedish film had won an award at Cannes. It's a good thing, he thought, that a Swedish film won an award. He took another look, and the award-winning movie was actually "Summer Night's Smile" directed by him! It turned out that the production company Svensk Films sent the film to Cannes without telling him. At that time, Bergman was still a poor director, but his girlfriend, actress Bibi Anderson, was already a rich man, so he borrowed money from Bibi Anderson to buy a plane ticket and flew to Cannes to receive the film festival trophy. And enjoy the accolades that come with the film's huge success.
After the huge success of "Summer Night's Smile" in Cannes, the producer Svenske Films has also become a hot seller in Cannes. Bergman later recalled that Svensk Films was like an old maid, and no one invited her to dance. Suddenly surrounded by a group of young gentlemen, he was a little confused.
Bergman had directed more than a dozen films before "Smiles on a Summer Night," many of which were great, but few were commercially successful. Moreover, outside Sweden, Bergman is not well-known. It can be said that Bergman had reached a dead end at that time. If "Smile on a Summer Night" could not be a commercial success, he might never find the funds to make a movie again, and his directing career would be ruined from then on.
Bergman recalled that the shooting conditions of "Summer Night Smile" were very crude. However, this film is already the highest investment film in Sweden that year, as high as 100,000 US dollars. It's hard to imagine how "box-office poison" Bergman persuaded the studio to give him such a huge investment. Bergman had never achieved so-called "success" in the film industry at the time, but his performance in the theater world was very eye-catching. Since 1952, he has directed many plays at the Malmo Theater, all of which have achieved good results. In addition, Dim, the director of the director department of Svensk, trusted and valued Bergman. These should be important factors in Bergman's huge investment.
Unlike many of Bergman's classics, Smile on a Summer Night is a comedy, an elegant and comical comedy. The film was enjoyed by both refined and popular audiences, so the film achieved great commercial success in the entire Western world that year. Bergman also made an international statement.
Sweden is located in Scandinavia and is one of the extremely cold places where humans live. Summer days in Sweden are long and summer nights are short. And summer nights are a time for passion and a time to fall in love. It was on such a short summer night that the four lovers in the film found their hearts and their bodies one after another, which is called "Summer Night's Smile". This "smile" seems elegant and subtle, but it's not. Under the "smile", hormones have been surging. It cured the young pastor's "sex (love) incompetence" and made him dare to love. A jealous lover and a couple opened their hearts, and it made the servants boldly "unhappy".
Bergman was born into an aristocratic family and received an elite education, but his cognition of passion and lust tended to be the way of the working class—simple and direct. In a sense, "Smile on a Summer Night" actually promotes the "zeitgeist" of "bravely to love and boldly release the desire for love".
"Summer Night's Smile" is also a serious comedy. Its lines are full of wisdom, and the relationship and interaction of the four lovers leave a lot of room for the audience to think.
During Bergman's directorial career, Gunnar Fisher and Sven Nickwest were his two go-to photographers. Sven Nick West is more famous, he is the photographer of almost all of Bergman's work after the 1960s. Gunnar Fisher was the principal photographer for Bergman's early work, including The Smile on a Summer Night. Summer nights in Sweden, light and darkness, light and shadow, black and white (the film is black and white), Gannar Fisher gave a masterful performance.
In May 1956, "Smile on a Summer Night" won an award at Cannes. It won a very special award, called "Best Poetic Humor". I suspect that Smile on a Summer Night is the only film in Cannes history to win this award. In 1957, Bergman directed two classics, "The Seventh Seal" and "Wild Strawberry" in succession. Since then, Bergman has won the crown of "film master".
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