Friday, 17 April 2009

Summer Interlude (1951)

Summer Interlude (aka Illicit Interlude aka Summerplay aka Sommarlek)

Another early Bergman- another young couple in love. As much as the young people in love interests Bergman I don't think in any of these movies it's very convincing or interesting (sorry, Ingmar). The story for this is a dancer (Maj-Britt Nilsson) reminisces when she was younger and had a summer romance with Henrik (Birger Malmsten). Sound familiar? The plot could have been easily interchangeable with To Joy or Port of Call, all of them equally formulaic and predictable.

Despite my major gripe there are some positives about this movie. Maj-Britt Nilsson is quite touching as the younger Marie, and the the dialogue has a nice edge of realism too it. My favourite moment was before the end when Marie and the dance-master (Stig Olin) both sit in their costume and make-up and discuss facades and the masks we wear.

Good in small moments, but otherwise uninteresting and unconvincing.

Rating- 5/10

Top 5-
1) Prison
2) To Joy
3) Music In Darkness
4) Torment
5) Summer Interlude

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