| Notes | Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition
After fifteen films that received mostly local acclaim, the 1955 comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) at last ushered in an international audience for Ingmar Bergman. In turn-of-the-century Sweden, four men and four women attempt to navigate the laws of attraction. During a weekend in the country, the women collude to force the men’s hands in matters of the heart, exposing their pretensions and insecurities along the way. Chock-full of flirtatious propositions and sharp witticisms delivered by such Swedish screen legends as Gunnar Björnstrand and Harriet Andersson, Smiles of a Summer Night is one of cinema’s great erotic comedies.
New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New video introduction to the film by director Ingmar Bergman
New video conversation between Bergman scholar Peter Cowie and writer Jörn Donner, executive producer of Fanny and Alexander
Original theatrical trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by theater and film critic John Simon and a 1961 review by film critic Pauline Kael
New cover by Eric Skillman |
