Smiles of a Summer Night

Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende, 1955) — Ingmar Bergman's romantic comedy, available to watch online on iFILM. Yes, that Bergman — the director of Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. Here he made his most purely enjoyable film: a sharp-tongued Swedish farce about love, jealousy and the quiet cunning of women who know exactly what they want.

Middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman (Gunnar Björnstrand) has a young wife, Anne, whom he's never touched. He's also still drawn to his old flame Désirée (Eva Dahlbeck), now a theatre actress with a volatile military lover. Fredrik's grown son, a seminary student, is quietly infatuated with his stepmother. Désirée engineers a country-house weekend that gathers all four couples together — and the summer night does the sorting.

The film earned Bergman international fame and a Special Jury mention at Cannes in 1956. Stephen Sondheim later adapted the screenplay into A Little Night Music (1973), the musical that gave the world "Send in the Clowns." Elegant, warm, and funnier than you'd expect from its director. Stream Smiles of a Summer Night online on iFILM.