Summer with Monika

Summer with Monika (Sommaren med Monika, 1953) is Ingmar Bergman's early Swedish drama that you can watch online on iFILM. Shot with Harriet Andersson and Lars Ekborg, it arrived years ahead of what European cinema was willing to show on screen.

Harry and Monika are both young and both stuck — dead-end jobs, cramped apartments, families they want to escape. One summer they steal a boat and disappear into the Stockholm archipelago, just the two of them, living off the land and each other. It feels like it could go on forever. It cannot.

What makes this film still worth watching seven decades later is Harriet Andersson's performance. Monika is selfish, impulsive and completely herself — Bergman refuses to punish her for it in the way the era expected. The result is one of the most honest portraits of youthful love curdling into something harder. Stream Summer with Monika (1953) online on iFILM.