This time on the podcast, Scott is joined by David Blakeslee, Trevor Berrett, and Arik Devens to discuss Ingmar Bergman’s Summer Interlude.
About the film:
Touching on many of the themes that would define the rest of his legendary career—isolation, performance, the inescapability of the past—Ingmar Bergman’s tenth film was a gentle drift toward true mastery. In one of the director’s great early female roles, Maj-Britt Nilsson beguiles as an accomplished ballet dancer haunted by her tragic youthful affair with a shy, handsome student (Birger Malmsten). Her memories of the sunny, rocky shores of Stockholm’s outer archipelago mingle with scenes from her gloomy present, most of them set in the dark backstage environs of the theater where she works. A film that the director considered a creative turning point, Summer Interlude (Sommarlek) is a reverie about life and death that unites Bergman’s love of theater and cinema.
About the film:
Touching on many of the themes that would define the rest of his legendary career—isolation, performance, the inescapability of the past—Ingmar Bergman’s tenth film was a gentle drift toward true mastery. In one of the director’s great early female roles, Maj-Britt Nilsson beguiles as an accomplished ballet dancer haunted by her tragic youthful affair with a shy, handsome student (Birger Malmsten). Her memories of the sunny, rocky shores of Stockholm’s outer archipelago mingle with scenes from her gloomy present, most of them set in the dark backstage environs of the theater where she works. A film that the director considered a creative turning point, Summer Interlude (Sommarlek) is a reverie about life and death that unites Bergman’s love of theater and cinema.
- 6/25/2016
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Christmas, Again (Charles Poekel)
Christmas time is a lonely time for many; a “time of giving” that reminds more than a few of us what we’ve lost. This is the feeling Christmas, Again wades in, as produced, written and directed by Charles Poekel. We follow Noel (Kentucker Audley), who’s selling Christmas trees on a Manhattan curb for the fifth winter in a row. He...
Christmas, Again (Charles Poekel)
Christmas time is a lonely time for many; a “time of giving” that reminds more than a few of us what we’ve lost. This is the feeling Christmas, Again wades in, as produced, written and directed by Charles Poekel. We follow Noel (Kentucker Audley), who’s selling Christmas trees on a Manhattan curb for the fifth winter in a row. He...
- 4/8/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Ingmar Bergman’s impact on the art of film and its ability to serve as layered metaphors for larger existential subjects is evident to say the least, and profound at the most. His films often focused on darker themes like the inevitability of death and the meaning of life (or the possible lack thereof), and one of his most creatively strident ventures into these waters was 1951’s Summer Interlude starring Maj-Britt Nilsson as a disaffected ballerina emotionally stunted after one particularly tragic summer. The film flashes between its feelings of ominous things on the horizon and carefree youth before finally succumbing to its darker side, and with it a suggestion that nothing is so harrowing as to overshadow the rest of one’s life. And while that burst of optimism at the end leaves us with a sense of hope, it quickly crashes on the rocks when we discover that...
- 6/24/2012
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
By Allen Gardner
Harold And Maude (Criterion) Hal Ashby’s masterpiece of black humor centers on a wealthy young man (Bud Cort) who’s obsessed with death and the septuagenarian (Ruth Gordon) with whom he finds true love. As unabashedly romantic as it is quirky, with Cat Stevens supplying one of the great film scores of all-time. Fine support from Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner, and Ellen Geer. Fine screenplay by Colin Higgins. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson, producer Charles Mulvehill; Illustrated audio excerpts from seminars by Ashby and Higgins; Interview with Cat Stevens. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 stereo.
In Darkness (Sony) Agnieszka Holland’s Ww II epic tells the true story of a sewer worker and petty thief in Nazi-occupied Poland who single-handedly helped hide a group of Jews in the city’s labyrinthine sewer system for the duration of the war.
Harold And Maude (Criterion) Hal Ashby’s masterpiece of black humor centers on a wealthy young man (Bud Cort) who’s obsessed with death and the septuagenarian (Ruth Gordon) with whom he finds true love. As unabashedly romantic as it is quirky, with Cat Stevens supplying one of the great film scores of all-time. Fine support from Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner, and Ellen Geer. Fine screenplay by Colin Higgins. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson, producer Charles Mulvehill; Illustrated audio excerpts from seminars by Ashby and Higgins; Interview with Cat Stevens. Widescreen. Dolby 2.0 stereo.
In Darkness (Sony) Agnieszka Holland’s Ww II epic tells the true story of a sewer worker and petty thief in Nazi-occupied Poland who single-handedly helped hide a group of Jews in the city’s labyrinthine sewer system for the duration of the war.
- 6/5/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
In a reprint of his 1958 review of Ingmar Bergman's Summer with Monika, Jean-Luc Godard wrote of the scene captured above (and previewed to the right) saying, "One must see Summer with Monika, if only for the extraordinary minutes when Harriet Andersson, about to sleep with a guy she has left once before, stares fixedly into the camera, her laughing eyes clouded with distress, and calls on the viewer to witness her self-loathing at involuntarily choosing hell over heaven. It is the saddest shot in the history of cinema." The full review is included in the 28-page booklet accompanying Criterion's new Blu-ray release of the film along with an essay by Laura Hubner (read it in full right here) whose interpretation of the shot reads as follows: The static shot of Monika's face is scandalously close up, and she looks steadfastly at us, breaking the cinematic illusion, as the screen darkens around her.
- 6/1/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
By Raymond Benson
The red carpet label Criterion Collection has continued its mining of classic foreign language films by releasing for the first time in the U.S. two pictures that first brought famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman some attention. Summer Interlude (1951) and Summer with Monika (1953) are both fairly commercial love stories but with a slightly dark flair which only Bergman can produce. Both films are highly erotic (especially Monika) for the time, and these titles contributed to the notion in America that Sweden made sexy movies.
In fact, Summer with Monika was first released in the U.S. as a sexploitation film in 1956 by the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest showman,” Kroger Babb, an exhibitor/producer who specialized in low budget sleaze thinly disguised as “educational material for adults.” Babb re-cut Summer with Monika, added a dubbed English language soundtrack that had little to do with Bergman’s original, laid on a jazzy,...
The red carpet label Criterion Collection has continued its mining of classic foreign language films by releasing for the first time in the U.S. two pictures that first brought famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman some attention. Summer Interlude (1951) and Summer with Monika (1953) are both fairly commercial love stories but with a slightly dark flair which only Bergman can produce. Both films are highly erotic (especially Monika) for the time, and these titles contributed to the notion in America that Sweden made sexy movies.
In fact, Summer with Monika was first released in the U.S. as a sexploitation film in 1956 by the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest showman,” Kroger Babb, an exhibitor/producer who specialized in low budget sleaze thinly disguised as “educational material for adults.” Babb re-cut Summer with Monika, added a dubbed English language soundtrack that had little to do with Bergman’s original, laid on a jazzy,...
- 5/30/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 29, 2012
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Criterion
Birger Malmsten gets familiar with Maj-Britt Nilsson in Bergman's Summer Interlude.
The 1951 drama-romance Summer Interlude, Swedish master Ingmar Bergman’s (Summer with Monika) tenth film, touches on many of the themes that would define the rest of his legendary career—isolation, performance and the inescapability of the past.
In one of the director’s great early female roles, Maj-Britt Nilsson (To Joy) portrays Marie, an accomplished ballet dancer haunted by her tragic youthful affair with a shy, handsome student (Birger Malmsten, Thirst). Her memories of the rocky shores of Stockholm’s outer archipelago mingle with scenes from her gloomy present, most of them set in the dark backstage environs of the theater where she works.
When interviewed years later, Bergman said that he considered this classic reverie on life and death to be a creative turning point in his career.
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Criterion
Birger Malmsten gets familiar with Maj-Britt Nilsson in Bergman's Summer Interlude.
The 1951 drama-romance Summer Interlude, Swedish master Ingmar Bergman’s (Summer with Monika) tenth film, touches on many of the themes that would define the rest of his legendary career—isolation, performance and the inescapability of the past.
In one of the director’s great early female roles, Maj-Britt Nilsson (To Joy) portrays Marie, an accomplished ballet dancer haunted by her tragic youthful affair with a shy, handsome student (Birger Malmsten, Thirst). Her memories of the rocky shores of Stockholm’s outer archipelago mingle with scenes from her gloomy present, most of them set in the dark backstage environs of the theater where she works.
When interviewed years later, Bergman said that he considered this classic reverie on life and death to be a creative turning point in his career.
- 3/16/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
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