Bergman 6: Summer Interlude (1951)

Very skillfully constructed, and deceptively simple, with some beautifully luminous images, particularly of light on water (Though there is nothing as quite as magical as the nightime sequence in It Happened One Night, which is my touchstone for this kind of thing; but then Bergman is going for something different here - it's very much to the film's credit that it presents a kind of realistic nostalgia, a convincing evocation of the memories of somebody who is deeply moved by thoughts of their past but also determined not to over-value or distort them.) We know the film seemed a signifcant step forward to Bergman himself. Essentially the story of a first love, it manages to be about a number of other things as well, most of which sound clichéd written down - acceptance of the present, coming to terms with aging - but whose treatment is direct but never overstated, and thus rather affecting. It even verges towards the cute, not an overused word in Bergman criticism, with a surprising and charming animated sequence. The advantages of Bergman's fondness for sticking with the same actors continues to bear fruit. Here we have Maj-Britt Nilsson again, this time in partnership with Birger Malmsten, protagonist of A Ship to India and Thirst, not to mention It Rains on our Love, Music in Darkness, Eva, and Prison, early films directed by Bergman - or, in the case of Eva, only scripted by him - that I haven't seen. (I also somehow completely failed to recognise him as the dubious cellist Marcel in To Joy.) Both are well-cast (clearly Nilsson is the focus of interest, and Malmsten doesn't try to usurp the role), though it has to be said that Nilsson makes a much more convincing teenager. No sign of Bergman himself here that I could see, though.

PS to this earlier post. I'm very pleased to announce that Bristol's Watershed did far better yesterday at a screening of Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse than NYC's Angelika Film Center. Sound systems are tied, but here we had real darkness and I was much closer to the screen, making everything that much more engrossing. The film only improved on a second viewing, becoming both clearer, more brutal, and much funnier. Also interesting to see it in a sold-out screening, unlike in NYC where I was one of only a handful in the audience. The effect was to amplify everything - the jokes seemed funnier, the violence more violent. I'm often a grumpy old sod and get easily irritated by big crowds (I'm not at all convinced that cinema-going is a communal experience...), but this time it was all to the good. Which clearly says good things about the Watershed's clientele as well.