It's the middle of summer. Time to leave your job and family and live on a stolen boat with a dangerous girl, as in Ingmar Bergman's 1953 breakout movie, Summer with Monika. I watched it again a couple nights ago but wasn't sure there was anything I could add to my old blog entry about the film except, searching to-day, I can't find my old blog entry, perhaps meaning I never wrote about this film. I guess I'd better.
It gained fame and infamy in the U.S. for its use of nudity--a brief scene of actress Harriet Anderson cavorting on the beach. Her character, Monika, and her sensuality are certainly the film's central problem. She's the one who inspires her boyfriend, Harry (Lars Ekborg), to reject society and follow their mutual teenage instincts. They live free for a while in that little boat, stopping just to eat, sleep, have sex, dance, or lounge around. They live like there's no to-morrow.
Another young man spots them at one point. Jealous of the two, he tries to set fire to their boat when they're distracted, leading to a fight between the boys. It feels very primal and Monika passionately kissing Harry when it's over feels like a crude portrait of a family dynamic. Do they really need all that civilisation?
Well, yes, of course, the film doesn't refrain from becoming a wet blanket. They come home to reality and the inevitable financial needs that come with their new baby, home, and place in society. Monika seems to lose her mind. There's a moment where the viewer feels compelled to contemplate just what is going on her mind, what makes her act the way she does. Bergman chooses the right moment for a contemplative close-up of her that seems to dissolve out of reality to focus entirely on her soul. And her eyes seem cold and dead. She's like a hunter who'd rather keep killing than settle down and cook the meat.
Like the films he'd made before it, Summer with Monika is more conventional than the movies he's best known for in which the heart of the material is in the dialogue, in how the characters interpret themselves and their lives. Summer of Monika is more about showing a sociological experiment of sorts. Its statement isn't exactly profound but Harriet Anderson's performance and Bergman's compositions make the film extraordinary.
Summer with Monika is available on The Criterion Channel.
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