212 - Summer with Monika, 1953, Sweden. Dir. Ingmar Bergman.

Monday, July 31, 2017

212 - Summer with Monika, 1953, Sweden.  Dir. Ingmar Bergman.

Seaside.

Shipping ships.

Cobbled streets.

The city.

Time for beer, boys.

Harry fixes his coffee.  Milk.  Sugar.

A girl asks for a match.  He agrees.  He strikes a few before one catches fire.

She begins a conversation.

He works at Forsberg's.  In the stockroom.  It is dull.

She works . . . somewhere cold.  We will find out later it is a grocer's.

Let's go away and never come back.  We'll see the whole wide world.  You game?

Sure, let's go.

Have you seen Song of Love?  It's showing at the Garbio.

Would you like to--?

See it with you?  That would be terrific.

She takes his hand and grins.  They plan to meet at the theater around 7:00.

It is 1953.  She has picked him up.

The old man watching tells his friend that it is Spring.  The friend curses.

Back at the porcelain factory Harry is yelled at.

That night at the theater he and Monika hold hands.

They talk about the movie afterwards.

They sit on a bench.

You have to hold me or I'll freeze.

You may kiss me now, Harry.

I guess we kind of like each other.  I'm crazy about you.

She has reeled him in.

Hold me once before we go.

He has fallen for her.

He brings her home.  They stop making out before his father catches them.

His father is sick.  He goes to the hospital.

Her father is drunk.  He beats her.

She runs away.  She goes to Harry's.

They go to his father's boat.  They spend the night.

He goes to work the next day.  He quits.  She brings her luggage.

They set off.

Out on the islands they spend the Summer.

Idyllic and ideal.  18 and 19.  Young love.

She gets pregnant.

They tire of scrounging for food.  They miss the city.  They have not been to the theater since Dream Girl.  Perhaps the 1948 Mitchell Liesen film starring Betty Hutton.

They return.

His aunt helps them marry.

She has the baby.

He looks through the glass window.

He starts studying for a better job.  He wants to take care of them.

She still wants to have fun.

She goes out while he studies.  She brings Lelle home while Harry works.

Lelle lights her cigarette with a match.  She lights Lelle's with her cigarette.

She turns and stares at us as the background recedes into darkness.  For 29 seconds.

They fight.

Harry turns and stares at us too.

He remembers the Summer.

We see it again.

Monika walking down the rocks.  Naked.  Turning back at him.  Harry watching her.

Monika lying supine on the front of the boat.  Harry driving it across the waves.

They look different now.

Older.

Unhappy.

No longer free.

It was a good Summer.

But Summer is gone.